Superintendent Delivers 2012-13 Recommended Budget

By Eliza Hallabeck

At its first scheduled budget workshop, Tuesday, January 17, the Board of Education heard Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson present her recommended budget for the 2012-13 year at the Newtown Municipal Center.

Dr Robinson explained her recommended budget represents a 4.64 percent budget increase over last year’s budget, and if the school board decides to implement full-day kindergarten in the school district, the expected added costs will increase the recommended budget to 5.31 percent over last year’s budget.

The 4.64 percent increase represents a $71,122,794 budget, and the 5.31 percent increase represents a $71,579,456 budget.

Last year, the school district’s budget passed referendum at roughly $67,971,000.

“Our role as a team here, meaning the Newtown Public Schools,” said Dr Robinson at the start of her presentation, “is to advocate for what we believe is in the best interest of students.”

The proposed budget, Dr Robinson said, brought together thoughtful ideas to improve education in Newtown’s public schools.

The first portion of the presentation focused on state standards, requirements to meet the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) accreditation assessment of Newtown High School scheduled for 2015, and more initiatives and standards Dr Robinson listed as needing to be met within the district. Some of the initiatives were named within a 2008 Strategic Plan for the district.

“2015 is going to be a big year for the Newtown schools,” said Dr Robinson. “2015 is the year we will have our ten-year NEASC accreditation visit. We are looking forward to having full accreditation, but it takes a lot of work. The general wisdom is we should prepare three years out for a visit.”

Aligning district practices with mandates associated with the state’s Common Core State Standards, Dr Robinson said, will also need funding resources like text books and professional development.

The driving question behind creating the budget, according to Dr Robinson was, “How do we meet these expectations in this current economic climate?”

According to the superintendent’s prepared Estimated Expenditures report, Newtown High School will take 16 percent of the 2012-13 budget, elementary schools will have 15 percent, employee benefits will have 15 percent, plant operations and maintenance will have 12 percent, 10 percent will be fixed for special education, Newtown Middle School will be allotted 8 percent of the budget, and Reed Intermediate School will get 7 percent of the budget. Other percentage breakdowns in the Estimated Expenditures report include 7 percent of the budget for transportation and 4 percent for pupil personnel services.

Dr Robinson shared budget increases from the past three years with the school board during her presentation.

The 2009-10 fiscal year saw a 0.43 percent increase in the school district budget over the previous year, 2010-11 there was a budget increase of 1.33 percent, and the 2011-12 current year saw a 1.16 percent increase over the previous year.

The result, said Dr Robinson, was a fall to the 149 spot out of 169 towns in the state in per pupil expenditure in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Additional needs listed within the recommended budget include: four positions at Reed Intermediate School — a part-time math teacher, a full-time physical education teacher, and two part-time reading teachers; and six full-time positions at Newtown High School — an assistant principal, an English teacher, a math teacher, a world language teacher, a secretary, and a library/media associate.

Other positions Dr Robinson’s requested in the budget include a kindergarten through grade 12 math/science instructional leader and the same position for literacy/language arts.

“These would be content specialists who are empowered with the ability to work on the [kindergarten through twelfth grade] vertical alignment of those areas and content,” said Dr Robinson.

Dr Robinson, later in her presentation, also said the two instructional leader positions, which represent an estimated $167,942 cost to the district, would be offset by a grant and removing two positions from the district, a district level music position and a district level health position, which would remove $170,757 from the budget.

According to Dr Robinson, implementing full-day kindergarten in the district would increase the 2012-13 school budget by roughly $456,000, after estimated costs associated with a midday bus run currently needed to transport the half-day kindergarteners would be eliminated for roughly $198,000.

Dr Robinson also shared the results of a recent online survey posted by the school district on the topic of full-day kindergarten: 525 of the 831 responders to the survey said they will have a student entering kindergarten in the next three years. Of the responders, 661 said they would be in favor of having their child attend full-day kindergarten.

Along with other additions in the budget compared to last year’s budget, Dr Robinson asked the school board to consider funding the technology budget at a level closer to previous years. In her presentation, she pointed out that the technology budget went from roughly $600,000 in the 2009-10 fiscal year to less than $100,000 in the 2010-11 fiscal year and under $200,000 in the current fiscal year.

“Some of those computers that should have been removed at age 7, are still in use,” Dr Robinson told the school board. Dr Robinson recommended the technology budget be $500,000 in the 2012-13 fiscal year.

Other areas in the recommended budget include $594,500 for building and site maintenance projects and nearly $200,000 for program and staff development.

A full video of the meeting, video highlights, and a full audio recording of the meeting are available online at www.newtownbee.com with this story.

Future school board budget workshop meetings are scheduled for Thursday, January 19, in Newtown High School’s Lecture Hall; Tuesday, January 24, at the Newtown Municipal Center; and a budget discussion and hearing is scheduled for Thursday, January 26, at the Newtown Municipal Center. The BOE is scheduled to adopt its budget on Tuesday, January 31, at the Newtown Municipal Center. All the meetings are scheduled to begin at 7:30 pm.

Once the Board of Ed inspects the 2012-13 budget, it will be presented to the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council before going to referendum for voters.

The district has also posted the full recommended budget for the 2012-13 year online at www.newtown.k12.ct.us.