Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, presented a budget plan for the 2016-17 fiscal year to the Board of Education on Tuesday, January 5. The proposal reflects a 3.87 percent increase in spending.

Driving the increase, Dr Erardi later told the board, are health insurance cost hikes, personnel contractual agreements, out-of-district student placements, and operational staffing impacts from the Department of Education’s School Emergency Response to Violence (SERV) grant ending this year. All of those expenses, according to the superintendent’s presentation, added $2,622,388, or 3.66 percent, to the overall increase.

The 2015-16 school spending plan was $71,587,946, and the proposed 2016-17 budget is $74,361,623. The approved 2015-16 budget represented a 0.34 percent increase over the prior year.

The proposed 2016-17 school spending plan will be reviewed by the Board of Education during meetings before it adopts its budget at a scheduled February 4 meeting. The budget will then go before the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council for review and adoption before heading to referendum in April.

The “sunset” for the SERV grant this June, Dr Erardi explained, is part of the 2016-17 spending plan’s unusual revenue challenges. He also explained that the district will have that offset by a $250,000 “break” that will be carried over in the budget to continue some provider’s services for the upcoming school year. The Department of Justice, Dr Erardi said, has also supported the district with grants for the last two years that allowed “safety and security” measures to be taken, and Dr Erardi said the Sandy Hook School Foundation, a nonprofit organization run by the Sandy Hook Elementary School PTA, has awarded the district a grant through 2016 and 2018 for $500,000.

“You’ll see how that money has been embedded for the plan for 2016-17,” said Dr Erardi.

The calculation for the district’s per pupil expenditure is also being inflated by the grants and funding from the last few years.

“That’s all terrific, and where it comes back to hurt us just a bit is in our special education reimbursement,” said Dr Erardi, adding that he would further speak with the board about the effects on the budget during a future meeting.

Newtown, like other districts in the state, Dr Erardi said, is also facing an enrollment decline. He later told the board roughly 150 fewer students are expected to be enrolled for the 2016-17 school year than are enrolled for the current year.

Priorities listed in the Superintendent’s Requested Operational Plan, which is available on the district’s website, include: support funding for appropriate class sizes at all levels of instruction; updating instructional material for teachers and students as required through the curriculum renewal cycle for the current year; continuation of a level funding plan for expansion and sustainability of technology with access and equity for all students; support funding for the prioritized capital plan; continued pursuit of opportunities to share services when appropriate with the town; and the plan to successfully open the new Sandy Hook School for the start of the 2016-17 school year.

Dr Erardi also spoke about staffing reductions and additions for the next year. Staffing reductions proposed total $732,547, and new staff funding additions — including $315,340 to finance current grant-funded positions that will no longer be covered by grants and $63,790 for new staffing positions — total $379,130. Staffing changes overall, according to the presentation, represent a $353,417 decrease in spending from the previous year.

Following the board meeting school board Chair Keith Alexander said he feels it is important for people to understand that the board is dealing with declining enrollment with appropriate reductions, but the 2016-17 budget is also absorbing funding positions that were previously covered by grants.

At the future board budget meetings, Mr Alexander said he anticipates the school board will discuss more details about aspects of the proposed budget.

Increased property and equipment funding represents 0.18 percent of the total budget increase, according to the presentation.

Dr Erardi also spoke about “next steps” for the board.

“I think that as a team… it is our work moving forward that we do our best to inform this community. I think that when we get caught in the budget it is always about the numbers, but it is never about the numbers. It needs to be about the students,” said Dr Erardi.

The superintendent also said the goal of the district should be to be the best district in the country and to be a model for other districts.

“It’s not going to happen,” Dr Erardi said later, “unless there is a partnership. We need to partner with elected officials, we need to partner with the community, we need to partner with taxpayers, we need to partner with the electorate, and they all need to know how important it is to provide the opportunities for students as we move forward.”

Dr Erardi said he believes the proposed 2016-17 budget would provide those opportunities for students.

The Board of Education’s next budget meeting is set for Thursday, January 7, at 7:30 pm at the Newtown Municipal Center.

The school board heard from the district’s elementary school principals and Reed Intermediate School Principal Anne Uberti during its meeting on Tuesday, and is set to continue to look at school budgets along with other aspects of the proposed 2016-17 budget at future board meetings.

Mr Alexander said the board plans to release its first budget newsletter for the community by January 18. The newsletter will be e-mailed to district parents, posted on the district’s website, and shared using the school board’s Twitter account, @NewtownBOE.