Somers Board of Education to Level Fund Budget

In a turn for the better in these tough economic times, the Somers Board of Education learned that the estimated 20 to 25 percent increase in its health insurance costs would not happen.

Superintendent of Schools Maynard Suffredini said that the board learned of this change about a week and a half ago.

Because of this, the has been able to adjust its budget from a increase to being level funded. The draft that the board adopted on Monday will represent an $8,200 increase – from $19,326,177 to $19,334,377 – which is .04 percent.

“It’s not that we’ve cut things out, we’ve basically level funded from this year to next year,” Suffredini said.

Suffredini said that while there were some other requests for money reflected in the previous draft of the budget, those requests have been denied for the most part and have been moved back to level funding.

“We’re going to get by with what we have this year,” he said. 

The board had been asked previously by the Board of Finance to submit a level funded budget, but that had not been possible before.

“We just couldn’t do that before because of the anticipated increase in health costs that we were told that was going to impact our budget,” Suffredini said. “We just couldn’t do that without some drastic cuts in other areas of the budget.”

The budget will next have to go to the Board of Finance – which is still waiting to see what figures Gov. Dannel P. Malloy comes back for local aid.

“If he cuts local aid, they may come back and say, ‘We appreciate you coming with a level, but you’ve got to cut your budget,’” Suffredini said. “We’ve tried to work with the finance committee. They had asked us before to come in with a level funded budget but it was really difficult, particularly with the huge cost of health insurance that was being projected out.”

Suffredini feels that if local aid, including the ECS funding, is not cut, Somers has dodged a bullet there.

“I think that would put us in a better position than if we have to take money out of that area as well,” he said.

He understands that the climate is difficult right now and that everyone must work together.

“It’s tough,” Suffredini said. “It’s a tough time economically and everyone’s feeling the pain. We’re trying to work with the local government they’re doing their share to keep costs down.”