Naugatuck Schools to Get Extra Funding

With the recent passage of an education reform bill, Naugatuck is among 30 communities in Connecticut that will share in $39.5 million in extra state funding in the upcoming fiscal year.

But the $635,000 in increased Education Cost Sharing funding likely won't be put toward hiring new borough teachers or reestablishing positions for the seven K-4 teachers who were handed pink slips over the past few weeks, Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson said Thursday evening.

Rather, the funding would have to be put toward specific programs that would help underperforming school districts, like Naugatuck.

The program initiatives include reform strategies, extended learning time or strengthened reading programs for elementary students, according to a list of principals authored by Stefan Pryor, the commissioner for the state Department of Education.

Tindall-Gibson said its possible a teacher could be hired to assist in that programmed content, but that's something the district would have to examine first.

Furthermore, if Naugatuck wants to get access to this extra funding, the Naugatuck school district has to submit a plan to the state education department for its approval, the principal list said.

Naugatuck's ECS funding for the upcoming year would total roughly $29.8 million.

Every town and city across the state will see its share of increased ECS funding, although Naugatuck is in the same category as Bloomfield, Ansonia, Bridgeport, Bristol, New Haven, Hartford and a number of other underperforming school systems that make up the "Alliance Districts."

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy held a press conference last month promoting the fact that these underperforming districts would get an increase in funding under his legislation. Mayor Robert Mezzo was at the press conference, .

Recently the school district handed out pink slips to seven Naugatuck teachers, meaning their one-year contracts would not be renewed for the 2012-13 school year. Charlie Marenghey, a spokesman for the Naugatuck Teachers Association, noted that while there are still layoffs, Naugatuck is still proposing a 3.5-percent spending increase to the school district's budget - a spending hike that's due mostly to an increase in teachers' salaries.

"Imagine how many teachers we'd lose if there wasn't a proposed increase," Marenghey said.

Board Chairman David Heller said the layoffs come primarily from the fact that Naugatuck is closing a school this year and eliminating positions. He said it's not as easy to relocate teachers because the district would have to find an open position.

Even if a teacher at the middle school or high school level retired, leaving that job open, it didn't mean an elementary-level teacher could take that job, Heller said.

Here are some more provisions of the bill:

• Create 1,000 new seats in preschool programs designated for "high need, low performing communities." 
• Provide "intensive supports and interventions" for 25 designated "chronically low-performing" schools throughout the state, including plans to establish turnaround committees and pilot programs within those districts to advance the reforms. 
• Expand funding and access to charter schools in the lowest performing districts, and additional funding for magnet schools, technical high schools and agricultural science schools. 
• Implement changes to the teacher tenure and evaluation programs that ties tenure to "effectiveness" and evaluations and provides for the dismissal of "ineffective" teachers. 
• Adds $50 million to the Education Cost Sharing grant to Connecticut public schools, with $39.5 million designated to the 30 lowest performing districts. 
• Increases funding to state charter schools from $9,400 to $10,500 per pupil, with an increase of $500 in each of the next two fiscal years.