Hartford — In the wake of a contentious, drawn-out battle over a teacher contract and a painful workforce reduction, the Hartford School Board has offered an unusual olive branch to the district’s teachers — a seat on the board itself.

The teacher representative would have the same role as the board’s student representative, who may participate in discussions but has no voting rights or access to the closed-door executive sessions that address issues such as disciplinary actions against employees and students.

The School Board approved the measure on a 4-1 vote, with Paula Nulty opposed, according to CATV video of the School Board’s April 27 meeting. Nulty called it an “extreme” and “drastic” measure to address the problem of a worsened relationship between teachers and the board, and expressed concern that the idea had not been vetted by taxpayers. She also said having a teacher at the table could complicate the board’s efforts to do its duty to voters.

“When a voter comes to speak to us, to the board, to address an issue, they have to follow the rules and regulations for bringing a subject before us for discussion,” Nulty said. “I don’t know that it’s appropriate to have a teacher representative who does not have to take the same steps and follow the same procedure.”

But School Board member Peter Merrill said the contract negotiations, which led to a 3 percent increase in the amount paid for staff and are scheduled to begin again in November, can’t continue with the current level of acrimony.

“What happened took away from our ability to get things done for a long time. We can’t afford that. We need a partnership,” he said.

Merrill said the district is facing too many other concerns to get bogged down in more contentious negotiations.

“There are issues associated with our test scores and other things,” he said. “There are real problems our district faces in terms of poverty. … We cannot continue to do business as usual.”

Cherrie Torrey, lead negotiator for the Hartford Education Association, said she wasn’t sure whether the union would want to accept the offer.

“We’ll discuss this … at our HEA meeting,” scheduled for this week, she said on Wednesday.

During the board’s April 27 meeting, she expressed concern that having a seat on the School Board might muddy the role of that individual, and said union leaders would talk with members and the state association to figure out “whether it’s something we want to dip our toes into or whether we want to stay on this side of the aisle.”

Nicole Mace, executive director of the Vermont School Boards Association, said staff were aware of the idea being floated in Hartford, and wanted to do further research before offering public comment.

High School Staff Trimmed

During the April 27 meeting, incoming high school Principal Nelson Fogg and Superintendent Tom DeBalsi offered the board new details about what cuts they decided on to make up a $1.1 million gap in the budget for the 2016-2017 school year. More than $400,000 of that was trimmed from the high school, which saw an enrollment decline of 54 students that was responsible for about $850,000 in reduced state funding.

“We determined early on that would not be able to come from retirements, as had been reported,” Fogg said.

In January, when DeBalsi first presented a budget that included the cuts, he said he expected the budget gap could be closed largely through attrition, rather than layoffs. Come March, however, he announced that the hoped-for retirements had not materialized, and that five employees, including Athletic Director Joe James, would not be offered a contract for the next school year.

Fogg said that, without retirements, cutting staff was the only way to get there.

“There were simply not enough paperclips and pencils in the school to get us anywhere near $400,000,” he said. Fogg said he evaluated 12 different staff positions to see which ones might be cut to save the most money while having the least impact on students.  

In addition to James, the administration ultimately decided to cut a student support professional and three teachers, one of whom was part-time.

Middle, Elementary Schools Affected

DeBalsi said the rest of the cuts were achieved at the lower grade levels without any layoffs, though some positions were eliminated.

At the Hartford Memorial Middle School two classroom teachers and a study skills teaching position were eliminated. DeBalsi said the school could handle the loss of staff, because a large class entering the high school is being replaced by a small class entering the middle school from sixth grade.

At the elementary school level, a kindergarten teaching position was eliminated at Dothan Brook School, while a librarian position was reduced from a full-time position to 75 percent.

After DeBalsi gave his presentation, School Board Chairwoman Lori Dickerson said the board needs to be prepared to make more difficult decisions in coming years.

“This problem isn’t going to go away as far as the reduction in students,” she said to DeBalsi. “As we look at the numbers, we know that this is going to happen again in the next two years. Correct?”

DeBalsi replied that it was a possibility, though robust enrollment numbers at the elementary school levels provided some hope.

“So we’re not done yet,” Dickerson said, “unless we come up with a new way of funding this process.”

Matt Hongoltz-Hetling can be reached at mhonghet@vnews.com or 603-727-3211.