Hartford Courant

West Hartford School Board Returning $500,000 To Town

By VANESSA DE LA TORRE

Courant Staff Writer

June 4, 2008

The school board voted Tuesday night to give $500,000 of projected surplus money from its current $117.8 million budget back to the town.

The town council expected the gesture and has already factored the money into the $215.9 million adopted municipal budget that goes before voters in the June 17 referendum. The money will be returned to the town's general fund June 30, said Chip Ward, the district's director of finance and planning.

The school board had proposed returning the anticipated surplus in April when it adopted its $125.4 million budget for 2008-09. Town officials say the move is a first for the board, which in past years has spent leftover money before the fiscal year ended to pre-fund expenditures, such as textbooks, anticipated in the next year. That means the following fiscal year budget is reduced by the amount that was previously spent.

Board member Bruce Putterman said Tuesday that ending the practice of pre-funding will allow the district to "document more clearly what we're spending in any given year, on any given line item. ... We're in essence trying to clean up the accounting."

Mayor Scott Slifka said he viewed the board's action as a symbol that "shows they are very much concerned about tax impact." The $500,000 will be dedicated to the town's reserve accounts to help maintain West Hartford's prized triple-A bond rating, which is touted as an indicator of sound financial management and makes borrowing less costly for the town. The town usually feeds its reserves each year with tax revenue, Slifka said.

Ward told the board that the bulk of the surplus came from personnel savings. As a result of turnover, the district had 55 new certified employees who earned an average $5,500 less than the staff they replaced, Ward said.

Also on Tuesday, the district presented its annual discipline report showing a slight decline in the percentage of students who were suspended from the town's high schools and middle schools this academic year for incidents ranging from bullying to sexual harassment.

Districtwide, 21 students were expelled — 10 at the high schools, 10 at the middle schools and one at the elementary level, said Timothy Dunn, assistant superintendent for administration. Last academic year, there were 13 expulsions, an improvement from the 30 expulsions reported in 2005-06. Town schools have about 10,000 students.

Dunn told the board that the "vast majority of our youngsters come to school motivated, committed and go through the day in a rigorous environment and behave and treat each other well."

The percentage of Conard High School students who served suspensions dropped from 17 percent in 2006-07 to 12 percent in 2007-08, while Hall High School remained at 12 percent for the two years, the report shows. Sedgwick Middle School, however, increased from 8 percent last academic year to 11 percent this year. The majority of the Sedgwick suspensions were served in school, Dunn said.

Among the 83 "serious offenses" at Sedgwick this academic year that led to student suspensions, 10 were classified as bullying incidents, according to the district's data. Districtwide, 17 cases of bullying have been documented this year, including three at Bristow Middle School, two at Hall High School and two at the elementary level. Dunn said "a small number" of the cases involved cyber-bullying, which means a student has used the Internet as a way to persistently harass and intimidate a schoolmate.

"It's a serious, serious issue, one that I think troubles us deeply," Dunn said.