Budget Committee Meeting October 6, 2022

School accused of theft and extortion. School Board representative walks out of meeting.

Accusation Against the School

Tom Butkiewicz asked School Board representative Kathy Brosnan regarding a line item about a fund balance (the drama begins at 52:00 on the video), “is that money you’re not going to have to steal from the taxpayers next year?” She replied, “I’m not going to answer that, Tom.” He replied, “okay, sorry, is that money you’re not going to have to extort from the taxpayers?” 

Another committee member admonished him for asking the question this way. Tom doubled down, asserting, “that is how you accurately ask the question.” Chairman Michelle King then tried to get the meeting under control, but Tom loudly talked over her, going on to say that “the town raises its money through force. They say that if you do not pay what the school demands that they will take your house from you. That is extortion. It is a threat of violence or taking of your property to extort money.” 

Following this tirade, Kathy excused herself from the meeting. Several members of the committee said, “thank you Kathy.” 

Tom then resumed his tirade. Michele King succeeded in stopping him, saying, “Tom, Tom, before we go any further I am going to ask you to be respectful of everyone here. And if you can’t do that, then I’m going to ask you to leave, because talking over people is not being respectful…. We are all volunteers. We are all doing our best to make sure the town of Nottingham is under the fiscal watchdog eye of everybody here. Everybody is doing their best. So, moving forward I need you to respect everybody and not talk over everybody.”

Tom insisted, “I have not been talking over people Michele! I have been interrupted numerous times from people over here and I don’t immediately say ‘stop interrupting me.’ I am not interrupting people. I am asking a legitimate question about a budget item. If they don’t like that I am describing it as theft that is their problem. That is not an offensive term.” Michele pointed out that the use of that term appears to be why Kathy left. Tom said, “That is her problem. She wanted to be the Budget Committee representative.” 

School Budget

Overall, the school is spending less than was budgeted; however, several line items were substantially over budget. 

$94k over on substitute teachers, primarily driven by covid, and due to increased teacher absences, due to long quarantine requirements, and due to wages for substitute teachers being bid up due to high demand. 

Teacher salaries are over budget by 4.3%, nearly $100k. This was due to staff turnover which resulted in replacements who were at higher wages. 

Contracted regular educational services were $50k over budget, and budgeted at $0.

Non-high school special ed was budgeted at $1 but $157k was spent. This was because one or more children moved into the school district who had special needs. This was to comply with federal mandates. 

Secretarial wages were over budget by over $10k.

Telephone costs were double budget, due to the unexpected need to replace the phone system. 

Watch the video: