The Board of Education is scheduled to adopt its budget on Thursday, February 4, ahead of a budget presentation before the Board of Finance on Monday, February 8.

As originally presented by Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, the proposed budget plan is $74,361,623, or a 3.87 percent increase in spending over the current year.

The proposal was first presented to the school board on January 5, and has been reviewed by the board at budget workshop meetings ahead of the scheduled February 4 meeting. Once the school board adopts its budget, it will go before the Board of Finance and the Legislative Council for review and adoption before heading to referendum in April.

There was public comment on the budget plan during the public hearing portion of the school board's Tuesday, February 2, meeting.

Resident Karyn Holden said the proposed 2016-17 budget both addresses declining enrollment and maintains class sizes within the school board's guidelines. She also pointed out necessary costs the school board is mandated to provide, before highlighting some costs she said she hopes the school board "discusses further," such as a $40,000 estimate to remove snow from the new Sandy Hook Elementary School building, $16,000 for a new scoreboard for Newtown High School's pool, and revenue for pay to play sports at NHS "that is given to the town."

"This money could be much better used by the school district to defray rising costs for special education or the cost to provide the mental health services for another eight to ten years," said Ms Holden, about the pay to play revenue she referred to in the proposed budget.

The $140,000 from the three items she mentioned, Ms Holden said, could pay for behavioral analysts or expand the lower grade level world language program.

Resident Laura Terry recommended also spoke about the pay to play program, along with other areas of the budget she believes could be altered. She recommended discontinuing the fee system for playing sports and ticket sales at NHS sporting events.

"The result will be an additional expense of $34,573," Ms Terry said, sharing her estimate of additional expenses and offsets to the budget along with its impact to the town budget.

Ms Terry also addressed a Parks & Recreation Commission surcharge fund that she said supports all of the athletic facilities for capital projects, repairs, and improvements. She recommended the school board work with the Parks & Recreation Department to use money from the surcharge to cover the NHS scoreboard cost and more.

Ms Terry also said she is concerned the school district's budget is "inflated due to the expenses being incurred by the various programs being held in our school buildings that are not related toNewtownpublic education."

The revenue from events is collected by the Parks & Recreation Department, Ms Terry said before recommending the school board decrease its budget by "$223,090 through an interdepartment charge to the town."

Ms Terry also asked the school board to identify an appropriate space within school buildings to house the school district's central office instead of paying $70,500 for the use of space at theNewtownMunicipalCenter.

Her recommendations, Ms Terry said, overall are "really putting expenses in the right place, and making sure our budget reflectsNewtownpublic school education."

Resident Julia Conlon also spoke before the school board.

Ms Conlon said she wanted to hear more about how the district is addressing declining enrollment and the opportunities that may be available from the situation, and she said she had a hard time understanding why behavior supports in the district would not be met in the proposed budget.

Before discussing the proposed 2016-17 budget, school board members approved a proposed video game design course for NHS.

Board members asked for more information from district administration before the final budget workshop on Thursday, after this edition of the paper went to press. Members requested more information on a range of budget topics, including projected staffing and reductions made from the principals' requested budgets, before the proposed budget was finalized, as well as further information on a new funding method for district technology and information about staff shared between district schools.