Winch recommends operations referendum

Stratford School District administrator Scott Winch on Monday told school board members he recommends the board schedule an operations referendum in April 2022 to deal with a $1 million dollar budget shortfall in the 2023-24 school year.

Winch said the school district will run the large deficit after it exhausts ESSER money it is receiving from the federal government.

In response, school board members agreed to schedule a special meeting before the Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2022, deadline for having a referendum question on the spring election ballot. The next regular monthly school board meeting is at 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 11, in the Stratford High School band room.

Winch said a $350,000 non-recurring operations referendum for three years would help push the budget shortfall a few years down the road. Winch said he would prefer a $400,000 recurring operations referendum so the school district would receive a steady amount Stratford referendum

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of money from taxpayers every year to help balance the budget.

He said an operations referendum is needed so the school district isn’t forced to cut staff and student programs in the future. School board member Dustin Skaya agreed with Winch that this spring is the optimal time to hold a school district operations referendum on the election ballot.

In other news:

■ The school board will vote at its Jan. 11 meeting whether or not to go ahead with improvements to the football field and track at Tigers Stadium so construction can begin this spring and be finished by next fall.

Dustin Skaya on Monday presented a plan to the school board for a Spartan Sandcap football field drainage system and hydro seeded grass playing surface, along with a new polyurethane track costing a total of $750,000 for both projects. The center of the football field needs to be recrowned to allow surface water to escape and the track was last resealed with blacktop seven to eight years ago.

The school district has $515,000 left in Fund 46, which can be used for capital improvement projects like the football field project but can’t be used for district operations. The football and track clubs will be left to find the remaining $235,000 needed to fund the football field and track renovations.

Dustin Skaya will come to the Jan. 11 school board meeting with a finalized plan for renovating the football field and track, along with a total amount in secured donations from private individuals and businesses to help fund the total cost of the projects. The school board will then vote on whether or not to pursue the Tigers Stadium projects. There is a “consensus” among the school board members that improvements need to be made to both the football field and track in the future.

School board president Chris Dickinson suggested a business or person could pay for the football field naming rights. Examples of Stratford athletic facilities with the namesake of their generous donors include the Fanetti Wrestling Center, Hilgemann Field and Knoll Fitness Center.

■ School board member Kitty Guyer has filed papers to run for re-election in the spring general election. School district residents who want to run for election against Guyer need to file their declaration for candidacy papers with either school board clerk Dustin Skaya or in the school district office before Monday, Jan. 4,2022.