Status Still Uncertain

Until the state budget is finalized, some teachers in Somers won’t know if they will have a job when school opens in the fall.

Non-tenured teachers recently received pink slips though the budget in Somers has already been passed. Superintendent of Schools Maynard Suffredini doesn’t feel like they should be concerned however.

“If I were a betting man, I would say that things are going to be fine and that there won’t be any cuts to local aid and that people who received their notices will receive their contract,” he said. “However, having said that, we’re just going to err on the side of caution and hold off until the governor has finalized everything and that we’re definitely all set.”

Suffredini said that he believes that Governor Dannel P. Malloy should be getting all of his information back next week and should be finalizing the state budget then.

Until then though, Somers, and all the other towns in the state, must wait to see if they will get the local aid that is slated for them.

“Probably, most likely, we’re not going to have any issues, but we have to be careful,” Suffredini said. “Until he finalizes everything for the state, which is going to be I think next week, we’re just going to play it safe. My suspicion is that we should be okay. I don’t really think we’ll have to send out any final termination letters. My suspicion is that we’ll probably end up rehiring the people who received pink slips because of the budget concern and we’ll move on.”

Suffredini said that Malloy has a gap of about $400 million that he has to make up, but that he suspects that the governor is going to find it in other ways and that he’s not going to take it out of local aid.

“As far as our school budget is concerned, our school budget is passed, but obviously if communities and towns have already passed the budget and then local aid is cut, the finance committee could ask the boards to help out and give some money back,” he said. “We could say, ‘No we’re not going to do that, the town has voted on our budget and that’s the way it’s going to be,’ or we can say, ‘We’ll try to work with you and maybe try to work something out.’”

He added, “We just don’t know how that’s going to play out. We’re all in this together, we certainly want to work with the town, we’re not looking to play hardball with anybody, but we obviously have a school department to run. We’re trying to maintain our programs and services.”

Suffredini said that once everyone hears that everything is fine and is moving on, the department will send out notices to the teachers.

“As soon as we know, we’ll let them know,” he said. “What I would end up doing is send out a notice to the union that the contracts are going to be extended and that they’ll be forthcoming. They’re all set to go quite frankly. They’re all set to go right now. As soon as we have everything finalized, then we’ll just put them in the interoffice mail because they’re ready to go. We should be okay. Just keep our fingers crossed that nothing strange happens and we’ve gotta go to the other plan.”