The Board of Education heard its monthly financial report along with an English language learner update at its December 20 meeting.

“We still have a pretty healthy balance of just over $375,000, which decreased slightly over the prior month by about $35,000,” Director of Business & Finance Tanja Vadas said near the start of sharing the Monthly Financial Report for the month ending November 30.

Vadas said the district’s special education contingency account is “still intact at this time.”

As shared in the report, it marked the fifth financial report of the year.

“Many of the accounts within our major objects have been forecasted as ‘full budget spend’ in order to more accurately project an estimated year-end balance,” the report reads. “These balances are monitored closely and adjusted each month in order to capture any changes and fluctuations that occur throughout the year.”

The report also noted the new year-end projection over $375,000 was decreased from the previous report by $35,723, with the largest area of change in “other purchases services.”

“Transportation services have decreased slightly,” Vadas told the board, adding that the majority of the change is from out of district transportation costs, which incurred unforeseen costs.

The report also offered an update on the state’s Excess Cost Grant.

“The Excess Cost Grant has now been calculated and submitted to the state for review,” the report reads. “This grant provides a portion of the funding for high cost learning facilities where our special education students have been outplaced based on their [Individuals Education Plan (IEP)]. Historically, the state has reimbursed us with anywhere between 70-80 percent of the costs that exceed $90,158 (aka basic contribution or threshold). This year, the state has implemented a new formula, basing the reimbursement rate on the town’s wealth calculation. Based on this calculation, Newtown falls within the 70 percent reimbursement category for costs that are above the threshold.”

Later, regarding the Excess Cost Grant, the report read, “We typically experience a variety of changes subsequent to the approval of our budget; therefore, it’s typical to see a variance between our budgeted number and the estimate. It’s not out of the ordinary for this difference to be several hundred thousand dollars. Some of the changes that have occurred include four additional outplacements, three students that have come back into the district, one student has left the district, along with a myriad of changes in tuition costs and services. Despite the lower percentage of state funding, our submitted estimate is showing an additional $190,659.”

After Vadas shared the report with the school board, it was unanimously approved by the board.

During a later portion of the meeting, Newtown Director of Teaching and Learning Kara DiBartolo and English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Nomiki Theodosiou, one of the three ESL teachers in Newtown, shared an update of the state’s English language learner population along with Newtown’s programs and assessments.

According to a slide from the presentation, the state’s definition of English learners is “students who lack sufficient mastery of English to ‘assure equal educational opportunity in the regular school program.’” The state also defines the method for identifying bilingual mandated districts, describes English learners to either bilingual education or English as a Second Language (ESL) services, and provides grant money for these programs.

“It’s important to recognize that all our English language learners are defined in a variety of ways,” DiBartolo said, adding that supports are determined based on those definitions.

A slide shared that 20 percent of English learners in Newtown Public Schools are “newcomers,” defined in a slide as foreign-born students and their families who have recently arrived in the United States.

DiBartolo said most of Newtown’s newcomers come from South America. Newtown’s newcomers mainly speak Spanish or Portuguese.

“These students speak little to no English when they enter our classrooms,” DiBartolo said.

Newtown’s newcomers have daily supports.

According to a slide from the presentation, the state’s “education landscape” is 51 percent non-white, 40.6 percent eligible for free and reduced lunch, 16.7 percent students with disabilities, 8.8 percent English learners, and more than 180 languages are spoken among the state’s student population.

Growth among the state’s English learners or multilingual students grew by 14 percent between 2019 and 2022. And the number of students who are English learners or multilingual learners who are immigrants has grown by 30 percent.

In Newtown, DiBartolo spoke about case loads jumping in recent years.

“We currently have 62 between all schools,” said DiBartolo.

After sharing a slide showing the languages spoken by Newtown’s multilingual learners, DiBartolo said the slide only includes the languages parents identified during the registration process for their child. Languages spoken by Newtown’s multilingual learners include Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Russian, Albanian, and Ukrainian.

According to the presentation, strategies for working with English language learners include building positive relationships, explicitly teaching oral academic language vocabulary and structures, building on the student’s background knowledge to support academic learning, starting strength-based conversations with families, consistent collaboration between English language teachers and colleagues, expanding access to grade level literacy instruction, ensuring a language rich environment, and drawing upon the student’s home language as a resource.

The presentation also highlighted professional development for teachers, ways families are engaged, recent events, and more.

Education Editor Eliza Van can be reached at eliza@thebee.com.