District looks to Black & Latino Caucus for support
In the wake of recent state budget cuts that will effect school districts across the state, Superintendent Dr. Sal Pascarella will testify tomorrow before the General Assembly’s Black and Latino Caucus.
Pascarella serves as co-chair with Dr. Mark Benigni, Superintendent of Meriden Public Schools of the Connecticut Association of Urban Superintendents (CAUS), an association that includes the leaders of 21 urban school districts in the state. It is a subset of a broader coalition of superintendents in Connecticut.
The testimony is in response to an announcement on made Dec. 27 by the state’s Office of Policy and Management to effect mid-year cuts to school districts across the state, including Danbury.
Pascarella will testify that these cuts will have catastrophic results, compounded further by the fact they are made in the middle of the school year.
“We are concerned that this action could be indicative of additional similar cuts to come that would hurt kids across the state, especially those most needy students,” said Pascarella. “A large portion of our students come to us with greater learning needs than their suburban peers, and it takes additional funds to ensure that we can meet these needs.”
“We have a serious concern that the state will fail to provide the appropriate resources for urban school districts,” said Pascarella. “In fact, we have already seen the cuts begin.”
In 2015, Pascarella testified on behalf of the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Fudning (CCJEF) after the state slashed funding to the Danbury schools. The court ruled, in part, that the state did not fulfill its duty with respect to struggling school schools and in distributing education aid.