Southwick School Superintendent Dr. John Barry, center left, gathered with various town officials from Granville, Tolland and Southwick, during a preliminary school budget meeting last night. (Photo by Frederick Gore)
SOUTHWICK – A preliminary Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional school budget discussion took place yesterday with Superintendent John Barry, Executive Administrative Assistant Kathy Lynch, Business Manager Steve Presnal, and members of the Southwick, Tolland and Granville governing bodies.
Barry told the group he plans to have a mostly level service budget, with the addition of at least one position that could be a part-time job.
“We are one of the only districts in the (Lower Pioneer Educational) Collaborative that doesn’t have an information management person,” said Barry.
Lynch has taken on many of the tasks associated with data and information management but Barry said it really needs to have its own manager because the state keeps adding to its data requirements.
Barry also said he plans to take the necessary steps to help improve test scores related to Common Core, particularly in the middle school grades.
“When the standards changed, we were a little late to get there and we have some catching up to do,” he said. “So I don’t want to short-change our classrooms.”
Barry said last year the district experienced some layoffs and he hoped to avoid that this year.
“I don’t want to do that again,” he said.
Barry said the district is already beginning the budget process.
“We’re going to start meetings with principals and getting cost centers going,” said Barry. “We will pass out budgets later this month and the school committee should have a first draft in January.”
Barry said he expects a somewhat smaller budget for Woodland Elementary School for the FY16 budget and Powder Mill, which will become an intermediate school, should be about the same as the current budget. The newly combined 7-12 high school is where Barry said there would be the most change.
“That will be 20-30-percent larger,” he said.
Barry said the committee is leaning toward putting off the next phase of borrowing debt on the taxpayers until FY2017. He said Tolland residents want to tackle it now and Southwick residents have expressed a desire to put it off, while Granville residents did not have strong feelings either way.
Barry briefly touched upon the fate of Granville Village School and said he would announce his recommendation for the seventh and eighth grades at the upcoming school committee meeting Tuesday. Beyond that, he felt obligated to Granville residents to consider options for keeping the school open for Granville and Tolland students.
Southwick Board of Selectmen Chairman Russell Fox asked Barry to study a reasonable approach to shutting down Granville Village School “so the taxpayer’s can see some savings.”
Barry said there would be a one-year savings if the school was closed but he believed there could be merit to keeping it open and he wanted to give Granville its “due diligence.” He told Fox he would bring it up to the school committee.
Fox said for Southwick residents, the tax burden of the school project was still looming, as well as the unfunded mandate of the sewer project and the potential need for a new fire engine in the next few years. He urged Barry to consider studying the closing of the school.
“I’m looking at the bigger picture,” said Fox. “If the state gave us money because we have a campus, I don’t think we’ll realize that benefit until we’re all on the campus.”
Barry stressed that his thoughts on how to possibly utilize Granville Village School were only ideas being tossed around for consideration at this time and there was no plan in place.
