The Board of Education unanimously approved its $79,201,776 budget proposal for 2020-21 at its meeting on February 4. The spending plan represents a 1.4 percent increase over the current budget.

The 2020-21 budget was first presented by Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue at a January 14 meeting. The superintendent’s $79,281,774 proposal represented a 1.51 percent increase from the current budget. Since then, as previously covered in The Newtown Bee, the school board has spent multiple meetings inspecting the budget.

The Board of Education’s approved 2020-21 budget will now move on for further review by the Board of Finance and Legislative Council ahead of the town’s April referendum.

After discussing other topics — a separate story on a presentation about elementary school schedule possibilities is available in the February 7 print edition of The Newtown Bee — board members began making motions to amend the superintendent’s original budget proposal.

Technical adjustments, all noted as based on new information or changes since the budget was first presented, were approved for a $34,065 reduction. Other suggested adjustments, including providing funding to expand the district’s Supportive Alternative Individualized Learning (SAIL) program from Newtown High School to Newtown Middle School as approved at the board’s previous meeting, presented by Dr Rodrigue then increased the original budget by $101,277.

After saying she spent time on a “ten-year reflection of the budget” and presenting some of her findings, board member Deborra Zukowski said, “From what I see, I can just say I am very impressed with the work that the superintendent and the principals have done for those schools.” She added that special education and pupil personnel services costs are driving factors in the district’s per pupil expenditure costs, and asked Director of Pupil Services Deborah Mailloux-Petersen some questions around the number of school psychologists in the district and the roles of psychologists and behavioral analysts. Later, Ms Zukowski said she would like to learn more about those aspects of the district and budget in the future.

Later board Vice Chair Dan Delia made a motion to reduce the “allowance for savings from turnover” of district staff by $97,000.

“I’ve taken the average actual for the last three years, then I’ve adjusted this number to the actual average,” Mr Delia said about his motion.

While his motion failed, another motion to reduce the amount by $50,000, following input from district Business Director Ron Bienkowski, passed unanimously. With that motion, and including other adjustments, the superintendent’s original $79,281,774 budget proposal was reduced in total by $79,998, or by .1 percent.

With no further motions presented to impact the budget, the board then voted unanimously to support its $79,201,776 budget.

Reflecting on the budget process, Board of Education Chair Michelle Embree Ku thanked everyone who participated in the process.

“These are difficult discussions that we have, and knowing what is behind the numbers is sometimes difficult,” said Ms Ku.

Mr Delia thanked Dr Rodrigue, Mr Bienkowski, and “all of you for coming in.”

“It’s important and you guys give a lot to the town and I really am thankful for that,” said Mr Delia.

Ms Zukowski said she feels the “budget is about as tight as ... it is comfortable to be.”

Board member Debbie Leidlein then thanked members of the public for sharing their ideas and thoughts in regards to the budget. All of the points shared with the board, she added, were “taken into consideration” during budget deliberations.