REGION 16 — A little more than a week after voters discarded Region 16’s proposed budget, school officials sent the same spending plan to another vote saying they can’t legally cut the proposal any further.
While overall spending is staying the same, the impact on the towns’ net education costs are projected to go down significantly based on new Education Cost Sharing grant estimates under a revised state budget approved last week.
The roughly $40.73 million proposal for the 2018-19 fiscal year decreases spending by $205,880, or 0.5 percent, over the current budget for the region, which is comprised of Beacon Falls and Prospect.
Voters rejected this proposal already by 43 votes, 161 to 118, at a district meeting earlier this month. Now, the Board of Education is sending the budget to a referendum on May 22.
Superintendent of Schools Michael Yamin told the Board of Education last week the budget can’t be cut anymore without potentially violating state law.
State law allows for school budgets to be cut only under certain conditions, including declining enrollment and cuts to the Education Cost Sharing grant. Alliance districts, the lowest performing school districts, still can’t cut their budgets.
Yamin said school officials reached the conclusion that the budget can’t be cut anymore after speaking with the district’s legal counsel and state officials.
Municipalities that cut their budgets beyond the minimum budget requirement could face penalties from the state. School officials said last week they couldn’t get an exact answer from the state on how far the budget could be cut but felt comfortable with the proposal presented.
As the board moves forward with the same spending plan that failed once already, Chair Robert Hiscox said it concerned him that the budget was voted down the first time with nearly no one speaking against the budget during workshops and a public hearing.
“I find that to be very discouraging and quite frankly disrespectful to the board and the work that we’ve done,” Hiscox said.
The budget’s impact on the towns’ net education costs could have played a role in its failure at the district meeting, but projections for the net costs have changed.
The net education cost is the share of the school budget funded through local taxes collected in Beacon Falls and Prospect. Heading into the district meeting, Beacon Falls’ net cost was projected to go up $243,839, or 2.17 percent, while Prospect’s net cost was estimated to increase $981 under the proposal.
On Tuesday, Yamin released new estimated net costs based on the revised state budget.
Under the new estimates, Beacon Falls’ net cost is projected to go down $221,636, or 1.97 percent, while Prospect’s net cost is estimated to drop $516,231, or 2.7 percent.
Beacon Falls voters outnumbered Prospect voters nearly three to one at the district meeting and overwhelmingly voted down the budget, 155 to 55. Prospect voters approved the budget, 63 to 6. School officials are hopeful that by sending the budget to a referendum more people will turn out to vote.
The referendum is set for May 22 with voting open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Prospect Volunteer Fire Department and Laurel Ledge Elementary School in Beacon Falls.
As for the contents of the budget proposal, the plan adds several new positions, including four part-time and one full-time security guard positions. The positions are on top of three full-time unarmed security guard positions in place at Woodland Regional High School and would allow for an armed guard at each school — a proposal the board has supported.
The budget proposal also adds a full-time elementary science teacher, a full-time math interventionist, two full-time instructional aides for kindergarten, a full-time cafeteria aide and a part-time guidance counselor.
The budget proposal eliminates a part-time French teacher position and reduces the assistant director of special education position from a 12-month position to a 10-month one.
