Finance officials on Tuesday restored $60,000 to New Canaan Public Schools’ proposed spending plan in information technology.
Saying that the funds, $15,000 per year under a four-year equipment lease—the equivalent of 90 computers—“sounds like an awful lot” to ask the district to do without, Board of Finance member Jim Kucharczyk at the group’s regular meeting urged the group to restore the money.
“I think it is $15,000 well spent and I think the implications of pulling 90 systems out of the schools would have a negative impact on the program that we offer our kids,” Kucharczyk said at the meeting, held in the Sturgess Room at New Canaan Nature Center.
The finance board voted 9-0 in favor of restoring the funds as the group approved a proposed municipal budget for fiscal year 2016. The overall spending plan now is in the hands of the Town Council, which is scheduled to set a final budget at its April 1 meeting.
The Board of Finance-approved spending plan should be available Thursday morning on the municipal website, officials say. Groups that appeared to receive finance board approval for their original budget requests include the New Canaan Library, Recreation, Health & Human Services and Human Services Agencies.
Finance board Secretary Mary Davis Cody said she favored adding the money back in for the district’s IT budget and said she wanted to “hold their [district officials’] feet to the fire in future years” as proposed IT spending is expected to go down significantly.
“I would hate to kick this can down the road,” Davis Cody said.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi said the Board of Education identified the $60,000 in savings while talking to finance officials who had requested a reduction in proposed spending of about $100,000, adding that losing the $60,000 would “have an impact.”
“Any [reduction to proposed spending] hurts as we do our planning,” Luizzi said.
Meanwhile, after the group signed off on the town budget, Board of Finance member John “Buzz” Kanter asked for school board members next year to be more careful in how they worded messages relating the budget process to New Canaan taxpayers.
In particular, Kanter said, many local people may not understand that when bodies such as the Board of Finance “reduce” what town departments are requesting for the following year, the overall figure approved still represents a year-over-year increase.
“I am little disturbed and a little concerned about people on the Board of Ed sending emails to our taxpayers and parents referring to ‘continued cuts’ to the Board of Ed’s budget,” Kanter said.
“And I understand the meaning of it but I’m not sure everybody else does. And internally and externally, we are calling it the ‘proposed budget,’ which includes the increase of nearly $4 million over last year. I think some people out there who receive these emails don’t understand that and I don’t think you are doing us or yourselves a service. So I would politely request, when these emails go out next year, we at least include word ‘proposed’ after the ‘Board of Ed budget’ because some people reading this might read it to say we are cutting your budget to less than the prior year, but in fact what we are talking about is making cuts to the increase.”