RTM Approves Zero Increase For Groton Public Schools

Representative Town Meeting voted Wednesday night to provide a zero dollar increase for education, which could force Groton to close one of its middle schools or eliminate programs like all-day kindergarten, the superintendent said.

The RTM approved a $72.6 million budget for the public schools, which is $2.2 million less than the school board asked for and $1.6 million less than the Groton Town Council approved.

“I am really devastated,” said School Board member Rita Volkmann. “I can’t imagine what’s going to happen. I can’t.”

The school board is expected to meet on Monday.

Parents who attended the meeting said they were surprised Representative Town Meeting cut the request as much as it did.

“I’m very disappointed, because this isn’t a long-term solution.,” said Lisa Tess, who has two children attending Cutler Middle School.  “We’re going to shove kids into another building that we’ve already been told should be shut down itself.”

The RTM voted four times on motions for higher budget figures. All failed.

Members who supported the zero increase said they believed it was necessary.

“We are not a town that can afford these taxes constantly going up,” said Rep. Rosanne Kotowski, who proposed the $72.6 million figure.

Rep. Richard J. Pasqualini, Jr., said he does not see schools delivering a return on the additional money invested. He said children used to be able to arrive early and find teachers on the playground.

“I now get notes that your kids cannot be there earlier than 10 minutes because there’s no staff,” he said.

Rep. Archie Swindell, who opposed the level funding, said that if such a cut passed, the school department should consider turning to the employee unions.

“I think the option of going to the unions and asking them to voluntarily accept a pay freeze this year. . is still something that should be considered,” he said.

Contractual wage increases for unions representing teachers, paraprofessionals, secretaries and administrators total about $1.3 million.

Another option that has been discussed is closing one of Groton's three middle schools.  Cutler and West Side middle schools are too small to accommodate 12 teams of students together. Fitch Middle School is big enough to accommodate students, but is old and should be closed itself, school officials have said.

“If you consolidate a middle school you can get that savings . . . the bad part is you’re talking about consolidating a school with just a few weeks left in the school year. That can’t go smoothly,” Superintendent Kadri said.

Groton’s temporary portable classrooms are 30 years old.

The district is also facing the issue of racial imbalance. Groton was called before the State Board of Education in January because Catherine Kolnaski Magnet School has a minority population of 60.3 percent.  School officials have until the end of this month to submit a plan to correct the imbalance.

One of the draws the magnet school uses to attract families from other parts of town is all-day kindergarten. The board of education will have to decide whether this program survives.

Pasqualini said he believes the schools take the most extreme scenario and present it to taxpayers to cause an uproar. He said he expected “they would use the redistricting to upset taxpayers as much as possible."

Rep. Syma Ebbin had a different view. She said other budgets were not cut as severely as the schools, and it disturbs her that Groton supports building a new dog pound, for example, but not a new school.

“I’m really appalled,” she said.