Town budget supporters prevail at annual meeting


 

WINSTED — Dozens of students from The Gilbert School showed their support of the proposed town budget at one of the most well-attended annual budget meetings in recent history.

Students encouraging residents to "save our schools" held yellow "SOS" signs and cheered for teachers, members of the town’s boards of education and school administrators, who pleaded with townspeople to support the 2008-09 proposal of $32,650,067, which represents a 2.09-percent increase over the current budget of $31,982,334. The amount required from property taxes jumped from $19,801,276 to $21,211,372, equaling 1.78 mills or $1,410,096.

Citing concerns about the budget, including the elimination of the town’s parking control officer, former selectman Alan DiCara made an unusual motion to table the budget in order to give selectmen more time to rework line items. That motion was declared out of order by Town Attorney Kevin Nelligan and the meeting proceeded as scheduled.

Another former selectman, Russell Dutton Buckner, proposed cutting the budget 3 percent across the board, with exceptions for contractual obligations and other line items the town is required to fully fund. The motion was defeated by a vote of 196 to 51.

Winchester Board of Education Chairman Rose Molinelli addressed the crowd by thanking Winsted teachers, students and school supporters for being at the meeting.

"It is extremely difficult and may be impossible to effect any kind of growth with this budget, but we can sustain what we have begun the last two years if the budget is not cut any further," she said. "That is why I’m urging everyone here this evening to support the budget as it stands."

Steve Sedlack, chairman of the W. L. Gilbert Corporation, also spoke to support the budget, noting that Gilbert and the town’s school board remain in negotiations regarding how to handle their share of budget reductions.

"We are facing a process of continuing negotiations with the Winchester Board of Education and there is a chance the budget could be further reduced," Sedlack said. "I urge you to support the town’s budget and, in particular, the Board of Education budget so that no further damage will be done."

An unusual turn came when Gilbert valedictorian Jordy Smith addressed the crowd, backed by a small crowd of fellow Gilbert students.

"I come before you tonight because any reduction in the budget of this town will detrimentally affect the education system in this town, especially here at The Gilbert School, as we’re looking to more cuts if the town budget is not passed in the next couple of weeks," he said.

Smith noted that he and his brother, Jake, will attend Holy Cross in the fall and credited his Gilbert education with offering students the chance to succeed in music, the arts and sports.

"The foundation that Gilbert has given us has been superb," he said, urging residents to support the budget.

Smith and the group of students with him received several rounds of applause from the predominantly pro-education crowd.

Though there were numerous pro-budget speeches, several residents came out to say "enough is enough" with tax increases, including Winchester Taxpayers Association members David LaPointe and Richard Pozzo, along with former Board of Education member Ray Pavlak and former Selectman Buchner.

"The budget, I believe, is off-kilter," Buchner said. "I was at the Gilbert finance meeting when [Superintendent] Dr. [David] Cressy had a $900,000 list of proposed cuts if Gilbert lost money. In his list he had athltics, the band, etc. I consider this a very sorry scare tactic to get everybody excited about something that simply wouldn’t happen."

Buchner said he originally intended to propose a cut of $500,000 to the school budget line item, but said he believed Gilbert would not pay its share of the cut.

"We cannot afford $14,000 per high school student when similar schools with better outcomes are paying less than $12,500," he said. The former selectman then asked for a 3-percent cut across the board, excluding contractual items.

Numerous residents, including former Board of Education Chairman Kathy O’Brien, theater program coordinator Penny Owen, former Selectman Jay Case and current school board member Christine Royer, rose in opposition to the cut, all receiving rounds of applause.

After a machine vote defeated Buchner’s motion, townspeople voted overwhelmingly to send the budget to a May 27 referendum, which will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Pearson Middle School.

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