Taxpayers get a closer look at Norwich budget

NORWICH – Shedding light on the new contract for excellence, city school board members and administrators detailed the plans for the district for the coming year.

Deputy Superintendent Margaret Boice said in the 22 years she has been doing the budget, this is the oddest yet. The Norwich City School District is one of nearly 50 schools in the state and one of two in the county to receive additional school funding for the 2008-09 school year. Parents, teachers and community residents gathered for the public hearing Tuesday night to find out more about this year’s budget increase. The adopted budget totals $32,305,709, which reflects an increase of 8.04 percent or $2,678,572 in expenditures. The tax levy is expected to raise 3.94 percent or $383,406. Using recent tax information, administrators explain this means for a property assessed at $50,000, the total tax increase as it reflects the school budget would total $43.

Superintendent Gerard O’Sullivan laid out what caused the expenditures to increase and other aspects of the budget. The administration fees are expected to rise 21.77 percent next year and he explains a lot of the cost relates to the construction happening at DCMO BOCES.

“We are one of the 14 component districts of BOCES and every school pays a portion of the construction fees,” he said. He explains the budget will see a 145 percent increase over last year for the BOCES administrative charge.

The contract for excellence is a portion of state aid that allows the district to have access to $560,000 in additional funding. However, the board has strict specifications mandated by the state regarding how it is spent. The state mandates the areas where the money can be spent and as school board President Christopher Frank pointed out, the state took local control out of their hands.