NAUGATUCK — After making some adjustments, the Board of Education Monday night backed a $63 million budget proposal for 2018-19 to send to a public hearing, though final figures are still a moving target.
The proposal, as of Monday, would increase school spending by $1,325,186, or 2.15 percent, over the current school budget. School officials will hold a public hearing on the plan Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m. at the board’s offices, 497 Rubber Ave.
“I think it’s a good budget, but I don’t know if it’s going to fly,” said board member James Scully as officials went through the budget looking for areas to reduce the spending increase.
The school board kept spending flat the past two years, but members said that isn’t possible next year without sacrificing the quality of education.
The bulk of the increase stems from 2.5 percent contractual salary raises, which will increase salaries overall by roughly $785,000, according to budget documents.
The budget proposal includes several new positions. Officials want to hire the equivalent of 2.5 full-time special education teachers and three full-time paraeducators to help with programing for special education students. The cost for these positions is $213,668.
The budget also calls for another full-time guidance counselor for $62,000. The new position would allow Salem and Western elementary schools, which spilt a guidance counselor now, to each have their own full-time counselor, Superintendent of Schools Sharon Locke said. She said every elementary school would then have its own counselor.
The board is also seeking to hire a new “maintainer,” a person who is licensed in a specific trade or as a general contractor, to help make repairs and improvements around the district. The district has three maintainers now. The new position would cost $65,000, according to budget documents.
Rising special education costs, which are estimated to increase $418,000, are also a major factor in the budget increase.
Locke said Maple Hill Elementary School serves students with higher needs. Those students are growing up, she said, so programs need to be built to help keep those students in the district, rather than being placed out of district.
Locke said the costs for special education students that attend schools outside of the district or are placed in schools out of the district due to their needs are going up.
“The fact is we’re required to provide these services,” board Chair Dorothy Neth-Kunin said.
Along with increases in salaries and special education, the amount officials want to spend on capital projects is set to go up about $413,500, according to budget documents.
The board received an Alliance Grant for capital improvements that past two years, including a little more than a $1 million this school year. Locke said the district isn’t getting the grant in 2018-19, and the increase accounts for the loss of the grant.
The major increases were offset by savings in some areas, including a roughly $200,000 reduction in healthcare costs. Locke said the district’s health insurance rate increased, but less people are taking the district’s insurance since it switched to a high deductible plan and there is an option available through the state.
The $63 million proposal is about $353,000 less than the spending plan Locke first presented to the board.
To reduce the increase, the board cut $99,000 for capital projects that officials felt could wait a year, $30,000 proposed to start boys and girls lacrosse teams at Naugatuck High School, and $44,827 for four bathroom monitor positions, among other adjustments.
While the board cut the money to start lacrosse teams, members opted to keep $13,500 in the budget for intramural teams at City Hill Middle School and the high school.
Board member Ethel Grant said she’d rather see the money go to intramurals. She said having intramurals at the middle school could help get students excited about going to the high school.
Neth-Kunin added intramurals would give students who may not make the school teams the opportunity to play sports.
The board will vote to officially adopt a budget proposal the day after the public hearing and present its request to the Board of Finance on Feb. 26.
Correction: The story published in the Feb. 16 edition of the Citizen’s News incorrectly reported the public hearing is Feb. 15. This story has been updated to reflect the public hearing is Feb. 21.
