The Board of Education continued inspecting individual areas of the Superintendent’s Proposed Operational Budget Plan 2020-21 at its January 16 and January 21 meetings.

Since Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue presented her spending plan proposal at a January 14 meeting, the board has heard from representatives of different areas of the budget. A story on the individual school budgets proposed for 2020-21 is available here.

The $79,281,774 spending proposal represents a 1.51 percent increase from the current budget. As previously reported in The Newtown Bee, the Board of Education is expected to review the superintendent’s proposed budget before approving its budget proposal for further review by the Board of Finance and Legislative Council, ahead of the town’s April referendum.

Special Education, Pupil Personnel, And Health

Director of Pupil Services Deborah Mailloux-Petersen spoke about the special education budget and the pupil personnel services budget at the January 16 meeting. To start, she reiterated information shared at a November 19 Board of Education meeting that outlined steps the special education department has taken since a self-study and action plan was created last year. Those steps include a new language training program called Fundations for kindergarten and first grade students, and offering training and certification for a number of educators for Wilson Reading System Level 1 and Orton-Gillingham Approach training.

“Although I know there have been lengthy conversations about a decrease in enrollment for our [general education] population, special education continues to rise,” Ms Mailloux-Petersen said, later adding there were 612 special education students enrolled in Newtown as of October 1, 2019. As of January 13, she said there are 621 special education students enrolled.

As outlined in the Superintendent’s Operational Plan 2020-21, the special education budget for the next fiscal year is $11,740,923, a 3.24 percent increase from the current year.

Later she noted that staff “additions” in the proposed budget are staff that have been working for the district for years, but their salaries were previously covered by grants.

When speaking about the pupil personnel services budget, Ms Mailloux-Petersen said the largest change for next year is that in an effort to align services at Newtown Middle School and Reed Intermediate School the number of school psychologists in the buildings is being shifted.

According to the Superintendent’s Proposed Operational Budget Plan 2020-21, the pupil personnel services budget for 2020-21 is $4,091,783, a 6.25 percent increase from the current year.

Nursing Supervisor Anne Dalton spoke about the health portion of the budget, saying the district’s nursing services “remain very busy across the district.” The operational plan shows the health budget as $928,071 for 2020-21, a $24,929 increase from the current year. Ms Dalton said the budget reflects supporting staff with professional development to in turn support “medically complex students,” which have been increasing.

Curriculum

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti later shared an overview of the curriculum budget at the January 16 meeting, saying it was developed with input from stakeholders to be “meaningful and directly related to our areas in need.”

As outlined in the operational budget plan, the $1,132,732 curriculum budget reflects a 2.19 percent increase from the current year.

Ms Uberti explained that the upcoming year has roughly 40 curricula updates planned and staff development and training will continue, along with continuing district committee work. Staff training in math and science are part of the upcoming plans. Ms Uberti also noted areas of the curriculum budget that are planned to meet state standards or mandates.

Resources are being explored to choose a new math instruction model to align kindergarten to sixth grade math curricula, according to Ms Uberti. One-year renewals are proposed for the upcoming year to allow for time to research potential math resources.

Other changes in the curriculum budget include director salaries, two days of training for paraeducators, an increase in the substitute line to partially support teacher professional development, and staff travel, which was reported differently in this year’s budget proposal, according to Ms Uberti.

Technology And Continuing Education

Director of Technology Carmella Amodeo spoke at the January 21 meeting on the technology budget.

According to the operational budget plan, the overall 2020-21 $1,652,139 technology budget represents a .51 percent decrease from the current year’s spending plan. Within the 2020-21 technology budget is an 8.7 percent increase in spending to cover software and a 7.32 percent increase for contracted services.

Included in the technology budget, according to Ms Amodeo, are plans to further support one-to-one ratios of students to Chromebooks for most grades in the district. At the lower levels, which already have Chromebooks, that means having devices for students to use in school, and, as outlined in a separate Newtown High School budget presentation, unrolling a one-to-one plan for ninth graders for next school year that includes ironing out loaning practices for students to bring the devices home.

“The big item in our tech budget going in to next year... is really going to be a one-to-one deploy of Chromebooks at the high school level,” said Ms Amodeo. According to later discussion, the current plan is to further the one-to-one Chromebook deployment at the high school yearly to support other grade levels.

Plant/Maintenance And Transportation

The proposed 2020-21 plant operations and maintenance budget is $8,021,750, or a 2.96 decrease from the current year.

Facilities Director Bob Gerbert, Jr, spoke about the budget at the January 21 meeting, saying his long-term goal is to “utilize in-house forces” more than has been done in the past to complete small scale projects, like a recent plumbing project at NHS that was overseen by district maintenance staff.

Mr Gerbert said “key movers” of the plant budget are salaries, energy, contracted services, professional services, and supplies. Recent projects, like boiler projects and changing to LED lights, decreased energy costs.

“We’ll be routinely looking at all service contracts for any improvements for efficiencies or cost savings,” said Mr Gerbert.

District financial analyst Tanja Vadas discussed the transportation budget with the board. The $4,697,252 proposed transportation budget for 2020-21 represents a 3.44 percent increase from the current year, according to the operational plan.

Ms Vadas explained the district has contracts with All-Star Transportation for its in-district, private school, agricultural science, and magnet school transportation, while EdAdvance provides transportation for out of district and special education needs.

“This budget is based on our current needs, and we add or subtract changes that are known for next year, but that is somewhat hard to anticipate who will be coming and going,” said Ms Vadas.

She added that fuel for vehicles is up 1.29 percent due to use of a special education van.

Benefits And General Services

District Business Director Ron Bienkowski offered overviews of both the benefits and general services budgets.

Employee benefits, Mr Bienkowski shared, represents 14.4 percent of the total operating budget “and these are all required expenses based on what has been negotiated with all of our various unions.”

According to the operational budget plan, the $11,451,283 proposed employee benefits budget is $325,943 more than the current budget.

The general services budget, as outlined in the superintendent’s proposed budget plan for 2020-21, is $3,177,224, a 5.94 percent decrease from the current year. It includes salaries for district administrators, budget and business services, Board of Education expenses, district security services, and more. Mr Bienkowski said the projected decrease is largely based on a drop in professional services spending. Within the general services budget, the proposed security budget is $762,313, a $12,679 increase from the current year.

One significant increase in the security budget, Mr Bienkowski said, is replacing “welcome desks” at the schools.

Board of Education members asked a range of questions — from descriptions in the budget to reasons behind budget decisions — after each representative spoke.

A public hearing on the 2020-21 budget is scheduled for Tuesday, January 28, at the Newtown Municipal Center, 3 Primrose Street. The school board is expected to adopt its proposed budget at the following meeting, set for Tuesday, February 4.

The Superintendent’s Proposed Operational Budget Plan 2020-21 and the superintendent’s presentation to the school board from January 14 are both available on the school district’s website, newtown.k12.ct.us.