MONROE, Conn. — During a budget workshop Thursday night, Board of Finance members expressed a consensus to support First Selectman Terry Rooney’s recommendation to restore $1.2 million to the Board of Education budget proposal, and Vice Chair Katherine Stauffer asked Superintendent Joseph Kobza if there is anything else the school district needs.
Parents led an organized effort to push town officials to fully fund Monroe’s schools after the Board of Education cut $250,000 along party lines and the first selectman cut $1.6 million more. Though there would have been a $2 million increase in education spending, rising costs would mean the elimination of positions and programs to make ends meet.
Near the end of Thursday’s budget workshop at Monroe Town Hall, Steve Kirsch, a finance board member, noted how motions and votes are not taken until the end of the budget process. However, he expressed his support for adding the $1.2 million back into the Board of Education’s budget and asked for a discussion.
“I am not opposed to it either,” Stauffer said. Then she told Kobza she wanted to revisit her question to him at the March 31 budget hearing, when she asked if there was anything else the district needs.
“Yeah, you stumped me the other night,” Kobza said. “I wasn’t expecting that. I should have thought about some of the things that we’d like to especially get back.”
He went on to tell the board about the pre-K program, which used to be a full day program, five days a week, but is now a half day program held four days a week. “Right now, quite frankly, it’s constrained by space,” Kobza said. “That was kind of done out of space issues.”
“We’ve identified math as an area of struggle for the district,” he continued. “It’s not just our district. It’s around the country, probably around the world too. We have a math specialist that we hired to try to work at three different elementary schools right now.”
Kobza said it is great having the position, now in its first year, but ideally a math specialist would be in all three of the elementary school buildings, he added of Monroe, Fawn Hollow and Stepney. This would require two full time positions, according to Kobza.
Another request is to have a certified library media specialist in all three elementary schools. “We don’t have a full time person at Stepney,” Kobza said.
The superintendent also wants to restore the instructional leader structure across the district, which he said has eroded over the years, especially at Jockey Hollow Middle and Masuk High schools. “We had a world language instructional leader that was removed years ago,” Kobza said of one position.
“The last thing I’ll say is other intervention support at the secondary level, with a literacy lab and a math lab that, in a perfect world, would be staffed by certified personnel,” Kobza said.
He also mentioned that Masuk is looking for more security at night.
Kirsch asked Kobza to prioritize and price the requests and come back to the finance board. Finance Board Chair Rebecca O’Donnell told board members to send any questions they may have to her, so she could forward it to the superintendent before their next meeting.
O’Donnell had joined Kirsch and Stauffer in expressing support to add $1.2 million back into the budget, along with the rest of the board, including Samantha Spino, Nicholas Sentementes and Deirdre Stelmak.
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I’m thrilled with this result!!! However, I’m also puzzled by the line:
“Board of Finance members expressed a consensus to support First Selectman Terry Rooney’s recommendation to restore $1.2 million”
I’m glad Mr. Rooney changed his mind, but please don’t forget he was the person who shot down the budget to begin with and proposed massive cuts.
I truly respect and appreciate Mr. Rooney’s change of heart, but let’s call it like it is. I know it was the relentless effort of many invested townspeople who repeatedly educated and spoke to hundreds of people to generate awareness.
They should get credit for their vigilance and knowledge.