Citing lack of transparency, county nixes school budget

Continued from Page 1 budget work session as the county continues to trim the excess off its $11 million structural deficit — focused largely on a “lack of transparency” that four of the commissioners felt the board had failed to address satisfactorily.

“We’ve given the board of education months to give us the information requested,” said Commissioner Caryn Abbott. “This is not against education, far from it … (This is) not to say (teachers) shouldn’t get their raises. Yes, they should. But it’s incumbent upon the board of education to do that because they have been given ample opportunity to be transparent with us and they’ve not been. And the bus drivers as well. They all deserve it and now it’s up to them to fund the teachers and the bus drivers for the raises.”

Commissioner President Chip Bertino previously criticized the lack of transparency in the board’s budget, especially as it compared to the thorough spreadsheets provided by other county departments — albeit worth noting that the school board is an independent body of elected officials and is not a county division run by county employees.

Bertino also claimed that he learned this year that not even the board of education sees a detailed budget and that it gets the same summary the commissioners get.

When asked about Bertino’s comment, Ferrante said he wasn’t sure how he arrived at that conclusion.

“I’m not so sure what detail Bertino is addressing but if we want to know any details about our

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budget, we will certainly get that answer from Mr. Tolbert. We are willing to dive in. (What is requested) might be something that’s not readily available to print out, but certainly we will provide them with information.”

The next step for the board will be making the painful decision of where to take the money out of the budget ... if it can. There was no answer at the moment, Ferrante said, but still addressing employee and contractor compensation was not necessarily off the table.

“We’ll have to discuss this with our teachers and support staff,” he said. “You have a negotiated budget. It has to be discussed back with them to see what we’re able to do. I can’t give specific details at this time but you have to look into what programs and services you can cut to support your staff and employees.”

Bertino, Abbott and Commissioners Jim Bunting and Eric Fiori presented an insurmountable obstacle, but both Mitrecic and Purnell minced no words in conveying how adamantly they opposed their colleagues’ decision.

“I think this is the wrong message to send to our educators,” Mitrecic said. “I think there’s gotta be some sort of possible meeting point and I just can’t support this. I think our youth are the future of this county and I can’t support it.”

Mitrecic acknowledged the hardship of a state school funding formula that leaves Worcester County funding its school system around 80 percent, much higher than other dis-

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