Council Calls Special Meeting for School Funding Forum

Ald. Eva Magnuszewski (D-AL), the City Council President, has called a special meeting of the Council to participate in a school funding forum.

The May 10, 2019 special meeting of the Council is for a Bi-Partisan Education Funding Roundtable that was organized by activist Alicia Strong and Board of Education member James Sanders, Jr. (R).

“Looking forward to discussing the closing of the funding gap in education,” said Magnuszewski. “Only by providing the necessary resources can we help ensure quality education for all students.”

The meeting will be held at New Britain High School, and will begin at 7:00pm.

Republican Mayor Erin Stewart has come under criticism for repeatedly flat-funding city schools. Her budget plan for the upcoming year would reportedly transfer a state education grant of perhaps $3.1 million to the school system. While that amount would appear to represent her largest single year increase for city schools, her previous years of flat-funding would appear to leave Stewart’s support for local schools with less than a one percent per year increase over the six years of her administration.

“Currently New Britain Schools rank 168th of 169 in per pupil spending,” the forum’s organizers say.

The Council has a June 9th deadline to consider action on the city budget presented by Stewart. While the Council is technically able to approve a budget different than the mayor’s plan, the mayor can veto it. Unless that Council can overturn the mayor’s veto by the deadline in the City Charter, the mayor’s budget takes effect without the Council’s approval.

Since “overriding” a veto takes the support of ten of the fifteen Council members, and there are nine Democrats and six Republicans, Stewart and the Council Republicans can block the Democrats from approving their own budget plan if Stewart disagrees with it. That is effectively what happened last year, when city funding New Britain schools was frozen.

Under the City Charter, the Council President, along with the Mayor have the authority to call special meetings of the City Council.