The Board of Education unanimously passed a package of amendments to the 2025-26 education budget, as well as listened to a celebration of excellence presentation about Unified Sports, at its Tuesday, May 6, meeting.

This comes after the school budget passed 2,432 to 1,838 for $91,744,644 during referendum on April 22. The Board of Finance had previously cut $900,000 from the proposed education budget at its final budget meeting of the year on March 5.

As stated in her report, Superintendent of Schools Anne Uberti said this meant the BOE was now tasked to come up with an additional budget reduction of $900,000. She added that this was challenging because they have already "reduced in places that, for the most part, will be absorbed so as to limit the impact on either the educational experience or the educational quality for our students."

She added, "From here on out ... it is going to become increasingly difficult to make reductions that aren't felt by one group or another."

Uberti also noted these will not be easy decisions, but the recommended reductions will continue to be in areas that minimize the impact on student's educational experience.

Her recommended reductions to meet the $900,000 include technical adjustments, reductions to staffing and staff training and supplies, and other reductions.

Technical adjustments, totaling $120,804, include oil budgeting and worker's compensation policy, which both came in cheaper than expected, additional Newtown Community Partnership tuition income, Danbury Magnet tuition income, natural gas, and more.

Director of Business and Finance Tanja Gouveia said that technical adjustments come up every year, as they look at contracts and make adjustments to the budget starting in October and November. As an example, Gouveia noted that the oil budget doesn't come in until February. Some, such as the additional NCP tuition, she said came in last month.

"So these are just things that come in later," Gouveia explained.

What BOE Chair Alison Plante said are the "meat" of the reductions are staffing and staff training and supplies, totaling around $569,000. This includes the reduction of two full-time equivalent positions at Newtown High School due to decreased enrollment, two 7-hour unarmed guards positions at the elementary level, as well as general reductions to staff training, supplies, technology, and athletics supplies.

The other reductions total around $206,500, and include the high school alarm and an increase to the Play to Pay program.

The Director of Fine Arts position, which is held by Michelle Hiscavitch, will be reduced as she is retiring this year. In its place will be a Fine Arts Department Chair — a $10,000 addition to the budget.

Also being reduced is the Assistant Director of Facilities position, held by Paul Devine, who only recently announced his retirement on May 1. Uberti said Devine's retirement was unexpected, but noted she moved to eliminate the position and that it somewhat changed the overall picture of the reductions.

Concerns About Spanish Program

The cuts also impact the K-6 Spanish Program; one Spanish teacher from the program will be reduced and Spanish will instead be introduced in Grade 2.

This was a contentious reduction, as Board of Education members Shannon Tomai, John Vouros, and Deborra Zukowski each raised their own amendments over the course of the budget discussion trying to offset the cuts to the program. However, all of these amendments failed.

Zukowski wondered if it would be possible, just for this year, to take the $100,000 contingency the district has for special education, get it out of the budget, and put it towards recovering the Spanish teacher. This would, Zukowski said, put $72,943 towards the Spanish teacher and to the remaining amount they still have to find in the budget.

Uberti said the budget is built from the ground up, and said that there is no reason to believe in this medical environment that the cost of medical expenses will come down. Health insurance is one of the major drivers of budgetary pressures for the education budget this year, as it was around a 24 percent increase compared to how much it cost in last year's budget.

Uberti, as well as Gouveia, cautioned against taking out contingency money from special education for what Uberti said is "the simple reason for why it's there."

She added, "It has nothing to do with the state, and has everything to do with the volatility experienced in special education."

Uberti said that none of them can predict what the financial landscape is gonna look like a year from now.

"Our job is to be fiscally responsible now while making sure that we're offering our students an excellent education, and I think that we can do that with these reductions," Uberti explained.

Regarding additional concerns from Tomai, Vouros, and Zukowski on concerns about the cuts to the K-6 Spanish Program, Uberti said if they don't cut any of these things — including the Spanish teacher — then the next thing she recommends is they cut a classroom teacher from elementary or another position from the high school.

"I don't have anything left to cut. We've cut central office drastically. We've cut clerical. We have cut so many paraeducators we're to the bone. We've cut special education teachers. We have cut, at this point, a net of over 30 teachers in every ancillary role we could think of," Uberti said.

Celebration of Excellence

Newtown Middle School and NHS Unified Sports representatives also delivered a special presentation on their program during the BOE meeting. NHS Athletic Director Matt Memoli was joined by NMS Unified Coach Anna Malkin and NHS Unified Head Coach Kimya Knecht, as well as many student athletes and partners involved in the program.

All of them spoke on the positives of the program, and how it has positively impacted them and the community.

"I really do wish that all of our coaches, our paraprofessionals, our nurses, our partners, everyone could be here to be recognized, because what they do on a daily basis ... is nothing short of extraordinary," Memoli said.

Malkin and Knecht each highlighted what they do at their respective school's for Unified Sports, covering sports and other activities such as friendly competitive tournaments and scavenger hunts at the middle school to the polar plunge and playing halftime at CIAC Conference games at Mohegan Sun Arena.

=====

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.