In a last ditch effort to get the City Council to give more money to New Britain schools, parents and teachers made their voices heard. They got in front of the Council to urge members to give back the $3 million that was cut in the Mayor’s budget. Parents and teachers say that gap will lead to big cuts.
"It means my child is going to suffer as far as her education. When you lose teachers, you lose the faith and the children won’t be able to grow," said Scott Clark, a New Britain parent.
The Board of Education says as of now, the district will have to cut 107 positions. The teachers union on Monday voted for $1.5 million in concessions, which will come from each teacher taking one unpaid week. That may help the bottom line, but the Board of Ed still needs more funding.
That’s where the City Council Democrats came in. They adopted their own budget which gives back $3 million to the Board of Ed and $1 million back to taxpayers.
"Without a doubt, this is one, this is the most difficult year I’ve faced in budgeting," said City Council President Michael Trueworthy.
The Mayor says the Council waited until the last minute to make changes, and he doesn’t support them.
"There has to be a reasonable request here. We go through this ritual of ask and beg for double digit increases and when they get flat funded, it always seems to work in September," said Mayor Timothy Stewart.
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Stewart has up to ten days to veto the new budget. The City Council would have to have a two-thirds majority to override his veto.
