BOE to Discuss “Savings Account” Resolution

The New Britain Board of Education will hold a special meeting on Saturday, May 16, 2020, with the city’s “savings account” resolution” and other items on the agenda.

With Republican Mayor Erin Stewart’s budget plan freezing city operating funding for schools, the City Council approved a resolution on May 13th, that had been proposed by four Council Republicans, for a “Savings Fund” for city schools.

The move has been considered controversial, with some suggesting that it is an attempt to paint narrative of a school system that overspends, as a diversion from Republican Mayor Erin Stewart’s proposal that the city operating allocation to New Britain schools should receive $0 of new funding in the city budget year that starts July 1, 2020 and ends on June 30, 2021.

Stewart also appears to be proposing a $3 million increase in the City Hall budget.

The resolution directs,

the Finance Department of the City of New Britain to create and maintain a “Savings Fund” for the Consolidated School District of New Britain to offset future operational expenses, liabilities, and capital projects for budget FY 2020-2021 and budget years moving forward.”

The “Savings Fund” resolution anticipates that, “as a result of Governor Lamont’s executive orders regarding school class cancellations, the Consolidated School District of New Britain has the potential to see an operational budget surplus for FY 2019-2020.”

The specific source of the potential “budget surplus” is not referred to in the resolution, but on the agenda of the April 22, 2020 Council meeting, Ald. Sharon Beloin-Saavedra (R-AL), one of the sponsors of the “Savings Fund” resolution, had proposed a Council petition that, among other inquiries, had asked the Board of Education if it has, “realized savings in the transportation line due to the lack of need for busing students to school?”

The school district has apparently did have a $1,602,409 savings from the cost it would have incurred in bus transportation, but those funds had already been transferred to aid students without computers or internet access in online learning. Online learning has been the main route left to the school district to continue students’ education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On May 4, 2020, the Board of Education reportedly approved a proposal on its agenda to transfer $1,525,970 of the available transportation funding to instructional equipment.

The idea, itself, of a non-lapsing account for surplus monies from the city’s allocation to the school system has apparently been considered in the past by the Board of Education.

The agenda for the May 16, 2020 Board meeting includes information about a proposal considered by the Board of Education on March 6, 2017, apparently to recommend that the city create an “Unexpended Education Funds Account” under state statutes, which allow the City Council to,

deposit into a nonlapsing account any unexpended funds from the prior fiscal year from the budgeted appropriation for education for the town, provided such amount does not exceed one per cent of the total budgeted appropriation for education for such prior fiscal year.

Another document appears to show the Chief Financial Officer for the school system, Kevin Kane, telling Board members, on February 28, 2017, that,

Please see attached resolution as drafted by our legal counsel, Shipman & Goodwin. This was reviewed by BOE Finance Committee at their February 27th meeting.

I am recommending for the Board to approve. Once approved it will be forwarded to the Mayor for review and Common Council for approval.

The account apparently considered by the Board of Education would have been restricted to use, “by the Board of Education, in its sole discretion.”

But the March 6, 2017 Board minutes, rather than saying that resolution was approved, says, “Ms. Beloin-Saavedra motioned to postpone this discussion indefinitely, seconded by Ms. Aponte. Motion carried unanimously.” Beloin-Saavedra was Board of Education member at that time.

A motion to “indefinitely postpone” is a little known meeting procedure that, contrary to it saying “postpone”, actually has the effect of permanently defeating a proposal.

The level of city education funding, the amount of money that the city allocates from local taxes to fund the regular annual budget of the city’s schools, has become a significant issue for New Britain.

The New Britain Progressive reported in 2019 that, despite New Britain receiving, “the fifth highest state Education Cost Sharing grant funding of all of the cities and towns in the state,”

New Britain’s own local commitment to education, on the other hand, is among the lowest municipal school districts in the state. Only Bridgeport allocated less local funding per student than New Britain in the 2015-2016 state data.

While New Britain residents have less money than the state average to fund local services, the New Britain Progressive reported that, even looking at a percent of the city’s ability to pay, the city of New Britain still appeared to allocate to its schools, “the second lowest among municipal school districts in the state.”

The New Britain Progressive also reported that,

Comparing the amount of local support for education, using the 2015-2016 data, to the most recent academic test scores appears to show a general correlation between how much a city or town provides in local funding for their schools and the test scores of the students in their schools. The comparison appears to show New Britain’s place near the bottom of both local education funding and test scores as part of a larger pattern, with New Britain near the low end of the scale.

The New Britain Progressive reported in 2019 that it would appear that it would have, at that time, taken a $14 million per year increase from the city to get the city up to the average amount cities and towns spent as a portion of their local ability to pay four years ago, apparently leaving New Britain’s city commitment to annual school operating budgets far behind the benchmarks that appear correlated with higher educational outcomes.

The meeting is to be held at 9:00am on Saturday, May 16th. It is to be held online, and information about how to view the meeting is on the school system’s website.