BRISTOL SCHOOLS District loses more pupils

The district closed its elementary school building last year to save money.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
BRISTOLVILLE -- The district has lost about 50 pupils this year compared with the previous school year.
"It's not through open enrollment; they just aren't going" to school, said Dr. Martin Santillo, superintendent, at an oversight commission meeting Tuesday. The district has been in state-declared fiscal emergency for about a year.
The district gets about $5,200 per pupil from the state, which means a loss of about $260,000. The exact number of pupils lost isn't known.
"The savings by closing Farmington Elementary was not a true savings because students that were attending here decided not to return here," Santillo said.
He said many of those who didn't return were Amish.
The district closed the elementary school at the end of the last school year as a cost-saving measure.
"It's a savings," said Peg Betts, commission chairwoman. "The fact that students choose to come or go is the nature of open enrollment in other districts and the sizes of the graduating class."
The commission won't know the financial impact of pupils' choosing not to return to the district until the state releases final numbers, she said.
Levy on ballot
Voters will decide next week whether to approve a 5.5-mill levy that would raise $400,000 annually.
Fred Smith, a district resident, told commission members that the district doesn't need the levy if it implements cuts and recommendations in a state performance audit by the state auditor's office.
Among those recommendations were closing Farmington Elementary and changes in the district's health insurance during the next contract negotiations so employees pay a portion of the monthly premium based on the number of hours worked.
The audit also said that the financial condition could be improved if the district negotiates cost-of-living increases for employees of less than 3 percent in future years.
Tracy Najera, commission member, pointed out that the commission implemented some of those changes before the audit even came out.
"The problem is the plan can't be implemented overnight," she said.
In the meantime, the district needs the levy, Najera said.
The state auditor's office has forecast a $718,000 deficit by the end of the fiscal year.
Commission members voted to request up to that amount from the state solvency assistance fund. That money would have to be repaid.
The district received a $785,000 loan from the solvency assistance fund last year that it's in the process of repaying.