Groton — The Town Council has cut $400,000 from the Board of Education's proposed $77.13 million budget for the coming fiscal year, and Superintendent Michael Graner said it undermines his effort to improve the competitiveness of the district.

"Cutting this budget is sending the exact wrong message to this community," he told the council last week.

School Board Chairwoman Kim Watson said she has not spoken to Graner about the cut since then, but expects to in the near future. The Representative Town Meeting takes up the budget next; its education committee meets at 6:30 p.m. on May 5 in the Groton Senior Center.

The school board had requested a 2.7 percent overall spending increase, most of which was needed to cover special education costs, Graner said. Groton spent $5.6 million on special education last year but had $4.8 million in the budget, he said.

Graner said he'd been "hell bent" on trying to make Groton a competitive magnet school district, seeking to make Robert E. Fitch High School an international baccalaureate magnet school and create a comparable program in the middle schools.

More than 400 students have left the district to attend magnet programs elsewhere, mainly in New London. Tuition for those students will cost Groton an estimated $2.4 million.

"We're trying to put a program together here," Graner said, citing his request for more technology as an example. "Every single magnet school in Southeastern Connecticut at the high school level gives the kid a laptop the moment he walks in the door."

"It is no coincidence that I recommended that. I am trying to be competitive, and you're cutting the legs out from under the school system by cutting it," he said.

The council voted 5-4 to cut $400,000 from the school budget, a lesser cut than first proposed. Councilors Rich Moravsik, Joe de la Cruz, Genevieve Cerf and Harry Watson opposed the cut.

Cerf said it wasn't enough. Taxpayers and business can't afford the tax increases and they're leaving, she said.

"It's too much for the taxpayers, it's too much for our industrial base, it's too much for our struggling small businesses," she said. "We know the economy is not good."

But de la Cruz said the town would only hurt itself by taking from the schools. People move to communities because of the quality of education, and 75-year-old school buildings are not attractive to employers, he said.

"Ultimately, we're looking at our home property values," de la Cruz said.

It only takes a couple of years to damage a school district, he added.

"If we don't keep up with the times, I think we're going to be remiss," de la Cruz said. "It only takes a few years to get a really bad reputation."

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim