Board looks at $14 million budget

FALLS VILLAGE — The Region One Board of Education extended contracts for administrators and voted to send a $14 million budget to public hearing. The decisions were made during a special meeting Thursday, March 25, held at Housatonic Valley Regional High School.Roger Rawlings, who is chairman of the All Boards Committee of the regional board (made up of chairmen of all six towns’ boards of education) as well as the Salisbury Board of Education, had recommendations from the committee to present to the Region One board: • That all professional agreements be reviewed by the board’s attorney and that they be consistent in language and format.• That the contracts of Assistant Superintendent Diane Goncalves, Region One Business Manager Sam Herrick, Pupil Services Director Carl Gross, and Special Education Supervisor Martha Schwaikert be extended to June 30, 2014, with a 2 percent pay raise for 2011-12. • That there be a mandatory switch for the four top administrators to the high-deductible health insurance plan that the region offers as an option to its employees. Board member Phil Hart of Cornwall asked why the contracts are extended to 2014, echoing remarks made by Salisbury resident Marshall Miles during the public comment portion of the meeting.Miles had said he believed that administrative contracts should be negotiated in their final year. “It’s wrong to do it so far in advance in these economic times.”Rawlings said in response to Hart’s question (and Miles’ comment) that in the opinion of the town board of education chairs, all four administrators are “doing very good work and need to be retained.”He added that when an administrator does not get a contract extension, it “sends a message we do not want to send.”Region One board Chairman Judge Manning agreed. “Frankly, I think to not extend sends a signal that the administrator should start looking for another position.”Gale Toensing, the board member for Falls Village, made a lengthy statement, urging that the board retain the option of evaluating administrators on a yearly basis.She added that the practice of extending contracts “makes job performance evaluations a moot point.”Then, as a prelude to criticism of the decision to renew the contracts, she referred to the report by attorney Jeffrey C. Pingpank on the circumstances surrounding the August 2010 resignations of Housatonic Valley Regional High School Principal Gretchen Foster and Assistant Principal Mary Ann Buchanan, Toensing noted that the report was critical of Assistant Superintendent Goncalves’ actions in the months before the resignations.Toensing said that Region One Superintendent Patricia Chamberlain should have known about Goncalves’ behavior, and urged that both Chamberlain and Goncalves be put on probation. She said that their success in implementing the recommendations of the Pingpank report should also be a determining factor when considering a contract extension.Hart, citing the difficult economy, suggested that the administrative pay raises be voted on separately from the contracts’ duration.Manning replied that he thought “it would be difficult for this board to ignore the All Boards Committee’s recommendation.” Following a motion by Laura Freund of North Canaan to vote on the entire group of administrative contracts, the measure passed, with Freund, Manning (Sharon) and Jonathan Moore (Kent) in favor. Hart abstained. Toensing and Jill Gibbons (Salisbury) voted against the renewal and pay raises.When the new contracts go into effect on July 1, Goncalves’ salary will go from $130,240 to $132,845; Herrick’s will increase from $104,856 to $106,963; Gross’ will increase from $118,030 to $120,391; and Schwaikert will go from $89,133 to $95,702. Schwaikert also will work additional days.The Region One budget, at $14,679,097, is up 1.96 percent, or $282,793. This spending plan has three component parts: Housatonic Valley Regional High School, the Region One central administrative office, and Pupil Services, which includes special education.The proposed high school budget is $8,514,844, an increase of .46 percent ($39,920). The proposed central office budget is just about unchanged at $909,539, up $3,535 (.39 percent).The total for Pupil Services is $5,734,033, an increase of $167,592, or 3.01 percent.The public hearing on the budget is Wednesday, April 6, at 7 p.m. at Housatonic (Room 133).The district-wide referendum is Tuesday, May 3, with voting from noon to 8 p.m. at the six town halls in the towns of North Canaan, Falls Village, Sharon, Kent, Cornwall and Salisbury. The board also addressed a Freedom of Information Act complaint by teacher and Sharon resident Mary O’Reilly about a December meeting with board attorney Gary Brochu on the subject of a grievance filed by O’Reilly. Manning said he “didn’t really disagree with anything” in the complaint and said the meeting “certainly was not as clean as it could have been.”The board agreed to have Chamberlain send the complaint on to the state Freedom of Information Commission in Hartford for evaluation.

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