Resignations announced at District 13 meeting

District 13’s assistant superintendant of business, Meredith Brosnan, will resign her position as of Dec. 31, the Board of Education announced on Sept. 16.

“Her record is exemplary, and we’re very sorry to see her go,” said President Toni Pomerantz.

Brosnan has held the position for 18 years. She will be replaced by Alan Groveman, who has been acting in an interim capacity since last November. He will stay in the position until June, by which time the board plans to find a permanent replacement.

Board member Denise Diodato, who unseated Jeanne Greco Jacobs in May, also announced her resignation on Sept. 16, effective immediately. The board received her letter the morning of its meeting. Diodato stated that she received a promotion and would be moving to Florida. “I enjoyed my time as a trustee,” she said. “I wish the Board of Education and the superintendant much success in the future.”

Pomerantz said that the board is discussing its options for filling the seat.

Groveman, who was at the meeting, laid out a proposal for the district to bond for its capital projects, which will be reviewed at a public meeting on Sept. 30 at 7:15 p.m. at the James A. Dever School, where the board will accept community input and vote on a referendum that would be put before voters on Dec. 8.

Groveman explained that bonding is being considered because of changes in the way capital projects are funded. The district used to spend its own money to fix its facilities and get approximately 55 percent of that money returned in the form of state aid, meaning that it would not tax residents to pay for the fixes. That was in comparison to bonding, or borrowing, the necessary funds, and getting back in state aid 55 percent of what it paid back each year over the course of 15 years.

Things changed about 12 years ago, Groveman said, when the state decided to treat money taken out of districts’ own budgets as bonds, and reimburse 1/15th of the spent funds each year for 15 years, which would require that districts raise taxes.

Groveman said that interest rates are at a historic low, which makes bonding the more viable option. “A very common question is, why shouldn’t you pay as you go,” he said. “ The answer is it’s more cost effective…[The interest rate] is so cheap compared to what it could be that it really makes a lot of sense to borrow at this time.”

He said the district would pay well under 2 percent in interest, and compared that to the 3 to 7 percent that most people pay on their mortgage.

Groveman added that capital projects are so expensive — a roof costs $2 million to replace — that taking money out of the annual budget would be difficult to do without raising taxes so much so that they would endanger the school budget’s passage in May.

“The options are bond or not doing the projects, and letting the district fall apart,” Groveman said, adding that putting the projects off would only raise their costs.

He said that most of the proposed bond is devoted to projects that address health and safety issues, like the roof, replacing a 50-year-old fire alarm system and adding additional security features like locks, cameras and an alarm system that connects to a monitoring station. Groveman said that the district’s goal is to keep the tax increase at $10 per month per household.

“There’s a lot of work that needs to get done and we’d be happy to share that with people,” he said. “I recommend that any interested people should attend meeting.”