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Board questions whether new teacher perfect-attendance stipend is producing substitute-cost savings
Summary
Board members asked for a cost–benefit check of a new perfect-attendance stipend after finding the Board of Education's related line item showed roughly $126,000 paid year-to-date and substitute-teacher lines appearing heavily expended.
Torrington’s Board of Finance on Tuesday approved Board of Education budget performance reports but several members pressed the superintendent’s office to demonstrate whether a recently negotiated perfect-attendance stipend is producing the substitute-teacher savings it was intended to achieve.
Members said the new stipend — described in the meeting as $250 per teacher per quarter — produced about $90,000 in the first quarter and approximately $126,000 year-to-date in the account created to record the payouts. Board members asked which salary line the stipend had been charged to before the separate account was created and requested a quick cost–benefit analysis showing whether substitute-teacher expenditures have fallen as a result.
Officials noted first-quarter payouts covered summer months administratively recorded against the first quarter, creating some timing questions the board asked staff to clarify. Board of Finance members said if the stipend is contractual the board cannot change the policy until bargaining yields a new contract but urged clearer bookkeeping so taxpayers can see whether the program reduces substitute costs. The motion to accept the Board of Education budget performance reports carried on a voice vote.
Budget Manager Erica Johnson agreed to request a cost–benefit analysis from the superintendent’s office and to confirm which lines had been used to record the stipend prior to creating the new account.
