School Board Knocks Down Proposal to Keep Some New Faculty in Budget

The Windham School Board voted 3-2 on March 19 against a proposal made by Superintendent Dr. Henry LaBranche that would have kept some new faculty positions in the budget.

The board will now have a special meeting, scheduled to take place on March 28, to decide what direction to take with the default budget.

Windham voters knocked down the proposed operating budget last week by a margin of 306 votes. That proposed budget was $445,372 higher than the default budget.

New board member Dennis Senibaldi, who was elected over incumbent Dr. Bruce Anderson, was the most vocal against the proposal put forth by LaBranche.

Senibaldi said that adding back in the four teaching positions is contrary to what the message the voters sent at the polls.

"It just flies in the face of why voters keep saying 'no,'" said Senibaldi. "You either want them to have confidence in what you do or you don't. I'm hoping this board sees that logic and that reasoning."

According to LaBranche, the proposed operating budget included 12 new full- and part-time teaching positions. The four positions that LaBranche proposed to maintain were a Kindergarten Intervention Program (KIP) teacher at Golden Brook, a sixth grade language arts teacher, a high school business teacher and a high school science teacher.

The cost of the positions retained would have been $265,434 on this year's budget.

LaBranche said that a few things would have helped to close the gap to reach the $45,133,742 default budget dollar amount, which is adjusted for certain contractual obligations such as retirement.

Savings from adjusted employee salaries and health insurance changes totaled $149,415. Also, besides his exclusion of the other new teaching positions, LaBranche opted not to include a $68,616 additional bus.

LaBranche outlined specific reasons why the new teachers were needed, from a large fifth grade class transitioning to Windham Middle School next year to a total of 240 students needing science instruction at the high school.

Board member Stephanie Wimmer spoke against Senibaldi's position, saying that while 54 percent of voters said 'no' to the operating budget, she also has a responsibility to 2,766 children, up four kids in the last month.

"I'm not suggesting 54 percent are irrelevant, I'm suggesting 46 percent are not irrelevant," she said.

Wimmer added that the board has been directed to spend the default budget amount to provide quality education to the students in the district, and that she believes it is the responsible thing to do.

"I appreciate that I answer to the voters, but I also answer to these children," said Wimmer.

In support of LaBranche's proposal, Vice Chairman Michelle Farrell said that the four teachers are "critical to the success" of the students.

Board member Jerome Rekart said that while he understands LaBranche's proposal, he would be voting against it because the board came out and said that the teachers were being added if the operating budget passed.

"Even with my respect for you (Dr. Henry LaBranche), all of your years of experience, your expertise, I can't move forward and endorse these four teachers and that's killing me, and that's been killing me for days," said Rekart.

LaBranche acknowledged prior to the vote that a 'no' decision from the board on his proposal would mean that the default budget would go into "things, not people."

With about $150,000 originally cut by the board for technology needs, one possibility could be sending some money that direction. LaBranche's proposal would have seen $22,401 assigned to other areas in the budget such as that need.

Newly appointed Chairman Mike Joanis also voted against the proposal.