NAUGATUCK — The union that represents the borough’s 338 public school teachers is not yet taking a firm stance for or against next year’s proposed school budget.
The proposed budget calls for a $1.6 million, or 2.62 percent, increase in the allocation given to the Board of Education from the borough, bringing the spending request to $62.5 million. The total operating budget under the proposal would be $69.2 million, which includes grant and supplemental revenues.
The plan would eliminate 21.5 full-time equivalent positions. Those include one administrator, 6.6 teachers, five paraprofessionals, 1.5 instructional aids, 0.1 psychologists, 3.5 secretaries, one social worker assistant, 0.5 custodians, 1.5 security personnel and 0.5 information technology personnel.
The Naugatuck Teachers’ League has concerns about how classroom cuts could affect the quality of education. The union also believes parents should listen closely to the budget proposal and see how it affects education.
“It is the opinion of the NTL and all teachers in the district that this community has to have a philosophical discussion about what way they want to go with education,” said Charley Marenghi, the union’s vice president and spokesman. “Money wise, they are always in a pinch and a discussion needs to be had about what programs we want to keep and what needs to be eliminated.”
He said he hopes the teaching positions could be eliminated through attrition but he’s not sure that is will happen. Last year, the school board offered an early retirement incentive package that 28 teachers accepted. Marenghi said he does not know of six or seven teachers who are of retirement age this year. The school board will not offer the incentive package this year.
He also said the reduction of paraprofessionals, many of whom work with students who have special needs, will hurt the district.
The net effect of cuts will mean higher classroom sizes in some areas, he said. He noted that class sizes in some areas, especially at the intermediate schools — grades five and six — is believed to be too high by educators. The average class size in those grades this year is 27; the school system would like to see no more than 25 in those classes.
Superintendent of Schools Sharon Locke said class sizes at the intermediate schools will actually go down. She said classes in some grade levels, particularly at the high school, are lower than they can be. The high school classes average 22 this year, lower than they had been. At the high school, it is not uncommon to put 25 students in a classroom, she said.
“The teacher reduction will increase high school class sizes to 24 or 25, which is not huge,” she said.
Locke said everything in the budget is done with the needs of students in mind.
“It’s sort of like creating a school system from nothing and then pricing it out,” she said. “Once we did that, we were at a 5 percent increase and didn’t want that level. So we strategically reduced in areas where we thought we wouldn’t impact the quality of education.”
Locke said some secretarial positions are eliminated in the budget because some schools had one secretary for 300 to 400 students, whereas at Naugatuck High School, there is currently one secretary for every 114 students.
Jim Healy, president of the union that represents support staff such as secretaries, paraprofessionals, custodians and cafeteria workers, said he believes at this point all of the reduction in staff will come through attrition.
“Nobody wants to see someone lose their position or jobs eliminated, but we understand the economic situation of the community,” he said.
Locke said the budget will go to the full school board on Feb. 12 for a vote. From there, it will be sent to the borough’s Board of Finance for review.
