New Board of Education Meets for the First Time

The new Naugatuck Board of Education met for the first time Thursday night at Western School and launched immediately into business, voting new officers for the board and receiving information about the new Naugatuck Education Foundation (NEF).

David Heller, a holdover member from the previous board who was reelected during , was selected as the board’s chairperson over Dorothy Neth-Kunin by a vote of six to three. Kunin was later selected as vice-chair by unanimous vote, and Debra Brackett was selected as secretary by unanimous vote.

“I want to thank the whole board for what has been a very interesting election process, but I believe all nine of us are going to work very hard and do a great job,” said Heller following his election as the board’s chairman.

Of course, the new board wasted no time in getting acquainted with the myriad issues that face Naugatuck’s public school system, including the Board of Education budget, an aging high school and a five-year progress report from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

At its meeting April 14, the previous school board voted to request a budget of $57.8 million from the borough’s Board of Finance — an increase of approximately 2.6 percent or $1.4 million. The Board of Finance, however, — or $545,311 — over the 2010-11 budget at its meeting on May 10. This means that the Board of Education will likely have to make further cuts to resolve any potential deficit.

This issue was not lost on Heller or the new board members.

“We’ll have to sit down as a board and make some decisions,” said Business Manager Wayne McAllister.

To help bridge any potential budget gaps, the board is once again offering incentives for early retirement. In 2009-10, more than 30 members of Naugatuck’s educational staff took advantage of an early retirement package offered by the board.

“Last year it was a very successful program,” said Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson. “We realized a significant amount of money from doing that.”

Several months ago, the board agreed to offer the incentive again — but only if 12 staff members decided to retire early. As of Thursday’s meeting, only seven employees had expressed interest in the program.

Tindall-Gibson floated the idea of offering the incentive anyway, and McAllister estimated that the borough would still save approximately $85,000.

Neth-Kunin wasn’t so sure: “I think we should wait and see where the budget’s going to go before we make a decision,” she said.

Meanwhile, the borough is conducting a $30,000 study to look into the possibility of renovating Naugatuck High School. Funds for the study came from a previous bond project that came in under budget, according to Mayor Robert A. Mezzo.

Instead of tearing down the high school completely or making repairs, a “renovate-to-new” project would mean modernizing the building to last several more decades. Similar projects have been successfully undertaken in surrounding communities, including Watertown, and the borough could receive reimbursement from the state under current guidelines.

“The ‘renovate-to-new’ process is an interesting process because it gets a 74 percent reimbursement rate from the state,” Mezzo explained.

The high school is also undergoing its five-year progress report from NEASC. When Naugatuck High School received its full evaluation in 2006 — a process that takes place every 10 years — NEASC noted 44 areas of improvement that the school should make. As a result, administrators at the high school had to re-evaluate everything from the school’s mission to the curriculum to exams and more. NEASC checks back on the school’s progress two years and five years after the evaluation.

At Thursday’s meeting, Naugatuck High School Principal Francis Serratore was proud to report that out of the 44 recommendations, only one is still “in process” — meaning that it has not yet been completed and approved by NEASC. That final recommendation is rewriting learner expectations for students.

Another bright spot in the evening was a brief introduction to the Naugatuck Education Foundation, a new entity that will potentially have a “pot of cash to offer back to our teachers and educators” for projects that cannot be funded through the board of education, according to NEF Chairwoman Joan Doback.

Once NEF gets off the ground, it will have the potential to fund a wide variety of extracurricular activities for students. Doback cited projects funded by education foundations in other communities that include debate and robotics clubs, geography and spelling bees, and science classrooms.

“We were recently accepted at the state level to be a corporation,” Doback said. “Over the summer, we will be working on becoming a 501(c) non-profit.”

The Naugatuck Parent School Council donated seed money to get NEF started, and board members seemed optimistic about the potential it has to offer Naugatuck’s schools and students.

“It’s fabulous work, and we hope to bring it to Naugatuck,” Doback said.