By Patrick Adrian
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
CLAREMONT — Claremont voters, in a resounding message of support for the district’s career-technical education center, restored more than $149,000 in funding on Wednesday to the school board’s proposed budget for the 2022-2023 school year, with a stated purpose to fully fund the center’s director and guidance counselor positions.
Supporters of the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center (SRVRTC) were vocal at Claremont’s budget deliberation this week, criticizing the district’s proposed cuts to the vocational school.
The district’s proposal – an operating budget of $37,243,825, with $16,305,917 to be raised by taxes – initially reduced operating expenses next school year by $541,581. The reductions included a decrease of $312,272 in district-wide position contracts and a nearly 17 percent reduction totaling $181,236 to SRVRTC budget.
The vocation school cuts included the elimination of the school’s guidance counselor position and the reduction of the director position to a part-time role and merged with the adult education coordinator position, which would also be reduced to part-time.
Residents in large numbers criticized the district’s decision, contending that not having a full-time director will hamper the ability to build programs, continue outreach and collaborate with community partners.
“We are concerned with the fundamental questions of how many programs we should have and who is going to do the work,” said Sullivan County Manager Derek Ferland, a Claremont resident. “That’s not going to happen magically and to cut back the current state to what we think will be less than what the future state says it should be, there’s going to be a lot of work that will not get done.”
Board members and administrators reiterated that they support career and technical education but do not see the fiscal logic of fully funding a building administrator when there are currently only four programs.
The underutilization of the career-technical education center has been a major topic in recent years, which has often resulted in a range of beliefs over the reasons. Administrators past and present point to conflicts from the Stevens High School schedule and the distance between campuses. Yet some programs were closed for reasons not related to underuse. In 2015 the district closed the Early Child Education program because the district needed a large space to house the district’s pre-k program for children with special needs. The administration and board had planned to integrate a teacher-prep program into the pre-k school, though that program has yet to come to fruition.
For many residents, the continual whittling down of Claremont’s career-technical education center is even more frustrating when watching the growth of programs in neighboring Newport, which currently houses 10 programs is proposing a $15.4 million renovation of its facility, with the state committed to fund 75 percent of the construction.
“I think this is about Claremont’s image,” said resident Kyle Messier. “If the word goes out that we are going to cut the head of the technical center, or however you want to call it, that just makes it sound, internally and externally, that we’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
Claremont resident Allen Damren, who raised both motions to restore funding, called the board’s approach “counterproductive.”
“It seems we are sending a contrary message by reducing the administrative head who should be responsible for community outreach and [program] proposals,” Damren said.
In one motion, Claremont residents voted 53-6 to add $61,973 to the district’s budget proposal, for the stated purpose to restore the career-technical education director position to full time.
In a second motion, Claremont residents voted 48-9 to add $87,290 to the budget proposal, with the stated purpose to restore funding for the career-technical education center’s guidance counselor, which is a currently funded but unfilled position.
At a board meeting on Wednesday, Feb. 3, Superintendent Michael Tempesta acknowledged that the career-technical education center’s enrollment had improved when it had a guidance counselor on staff. However, Tempesta said he believes that Stevens’s existing guidance counselors could potentially achieve that same success.
Despite the funding restoration, it is uncertain whether the administration or school board will abide by the wishes of the voters.
Tempesta, when asked if he would restore the director position to full-time, said, “I will have to look at it.”
Matt Upton, attorney for the school district, said he will need to research the law regarding earmarking voter-directed appropriations and that he will discuss his findings with the school board.
The new proposed operating budget is $37,393,088, with $16,455,180 to be raised by taxes. If the budget fails to pass, next year’s operating budget will be the default budget of $37,243,825.
School voting day is scheduled for Tuesday, March 8.
reporter @eagletimes.com
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