NORWALK, Conn. – Finance Director Bob Barron is clueless, Board of Education Chairman Mike Barbis said Tuesday.
Barbis was answering questions sent by NancyOnNorwalk late Monday after the Board of Estimate and Taxation (BET) declined to seek more funding for the Norwalk Public Schools 2018-19 operating budget than was allowed for by the Common Council.
The BoE on Monday requested a total $7 million increase over its 2017-18 budget, although the Common Council authorized a spending cap that allowed a $5.5 million increase. Mayor Harry Rilling said he felt he had a deal with Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Steven Adamowski, to bridge that $1.5 million gap by withdrawing $950,000 from the “Rainy Day Fund” contingent on the BoE using its $550,000 health insurance fund reserve.
Barbis and NPS Chief Financial Officer Thomas Hamilton sat in on the BET meeting, saying nothing while the BET deliberated the operating budget.
Rilling noted during the meeting that school employees have switched to a state insurance plan so the $550,000 appears to be available for another use.
NoN asked Barbis why the BoE doesn’t want to spend the $550,000.
“We have answered this question a million times – we have very sizeable contractual increases in 19/20 (this includes employment contracts, health insurance costs, transportation contracts, equipment servicing contracts) as well as 2 key parts of our SOP {strategic operating plan} – the final implementation of the new State high school graduation requirements … as well as the costs of implementing the second set of a ‘longer’ elementary school day (we will go from the shortest number of elementary hours per year in the State to average),” Barbis wrote. “All of this costs money.”
The Board seeks to use its reserve in 2019-20 to soften the blow of those contractual increases and the expense of the strategic operating plan goals, which includes lengthening the school day at the remaining elementary schools and expanding the high school program, he said.
“The BOE has been explaining this repeatedly. Everyone in the budget process needs to be listening to this – we cannot avoid any of these costs next year so we are planning forward (a characteristic we think is very important and reflects all of our work),” Barbis wrote.
“Next year is an election year,” he wrote, and, “What elected politician wants to be raising taxes in an election year?”
“I am going to call for discussions of our 19/20 budget year to start now – and not in December. Next year will be very important to all of us and funds will be tight,” Barbis wrote.
At Monday’s BET meeting, Barron was asked what other school districts are receiving for increases.
“For the most part they are all around 2 percent,” Barron said.
The BET authorized a 3 percent increase for the BoE. The mill rate will go up an average 3.7 percent with the tentative operating budget.
The Ridgefield school board requested a 4.23 percent increase, the Ridgefield Press reported. The Westport School Board on Monday cut its proposed budget to make its request 3.36 percent higher than last year, according to Westport Now. Darien Schools were requesting a 2.34 percent budget increase and Wilton schools were looking for 2.24 percent, the New Canaan Advertiser reported on March 6.
The Norwalk Board of Education requested a 5 percent increase.
Barron on Monday went on to mention that, “in many other discussions the superintendent has compared us to our District Reference Group,” but recently has been comparing Norwalk’s spending per pupil to neighboring communities.
Norwalk is spending more per pupil than any other city in its DRG than Stamford, Barron said, continuing, “So we are spending a great deal of money on our students.”
Barbis on Tuesday called it “interesting” that Barron and the BET members didn’t ask him or Hamilton any questions during Monday’s meeting, he said.
Barbis spoke up during an earlier part of the meeting, when Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Tim Sheehan was discussing the number of school children coming from new apartments.
Barbis wrote:
“Why they were asking Bob Barron about the BOE when Tom and I were there perplexed me.
“And it was clear Bob Barron is clueless when you consider his answers including:
- “Comparing what we spend per pupil versus our DRGs??? I would note that the State Department of Education (SDE) created the concept of DRGs {District Reference Groups} originally but is now doing away with them …. But our cost structure for labor costs, land costs, utility costs is nothing like East Hartford, Norwich and Derby … so why is comparing us to them relevant?? The teachers, administrators, etc. we are competing for live in Fairfield County … thus the relevant comparison is with our neighbors, not with towns in remote corners of the State.
- “His discussion of ‘look at what we gave them one year and look at their results the next year’ suggests there is an immediate consequence of funding and results … anyone involved in education knows that this is so far from the truth and a ridiculous connection to even try to make.
“Bob Barron has twice applied for a job to the Board of Ed and was rejected both times. He has not taken the rejection well. He clearly does not know what he is talking about when it comes to education. Why the Mayor and the BET would listen to him on the BOE is sketchy to say the least.”
Rilling in an email responded to Barbis’ comments:
“I am very disappointed that Mr. Barbis would make any such overture. Mr. Barron is a true professional who is paid to put together a fair and responsible budget. These kinds of backdoor tactics only cause more divisiveness. The City side of this issue has always been willing to negotiate in order to accomplish funding levels with which we can live.”
Barron did not respond to an email.
Adamowski on Tuesday explained the selection of neighboring towns to compare spending to as the communities that border Norwalk and “one district over.”
“Those are the districts that we have to compete with for families,” he said.
NPS is preparing a chart to compare the performance of Norwalk high needs students with its neighboring communities, and, “that would put us in fourth place in the area, ahead of Stamford, Easton and I think Redding,” he said.
“As a city that has a very diverse population, I don’t think anyone is expecting us to achieve at the level of a homogeneous town that has no high needs student or very few high need students, but we are getting into a range now where we are going to compete with a number of our immediate neighbors, and not only our DRG,” Adamowski said.
The DRGs are communities that are similar in terms of socio economic structure but the cost structure of the cities in Norwalk’s DRG are different, except for Stamford, as the other cities are not in Fairfield County, he said, concluding, “I think our progress has really served to shift the focus of our competition, to be able to try to compete within Fairfield County and that’s the only way we think we can compete for families and maintain the diversity of our city.”
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