The foundation budget is the level of expenditure needed to operate the organization in the next fiscal year at the same level of programming as the previous year, and it includes all salary and benefits costs, including the cost of substitutes, pension contributions, as well as Social Security and Medicare contributions.  In addition, the foundation budget includes the cost of transportation and building maintenance.

Two areas impacting my recommendation for the 2008-09 budget include significant increases to energy and medical benefits costs, which represent an added 2.4 percent increase, and District-wide program improvement recommendations, accounting for $719,600.

For two years, the Region 15 school budgets have been very conservative reflecting no program improvements or additional personnel, which have resulted in over-extended personnel resources and programming in need of improvement.  With the infusion of new State aid funding focused specifically on education and totaling $1.4 million from the towns’ fiscal year 2007 entitlements, it made sense to use a portion of this money to support instructional improvement while the balance could be used for taxpayer relief.  This was the intent of the Governor Rell’s new budget.  It must be noted that a board of education has absolutely no control over how a town uses the Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) funds. 

For the purposes of illustrating the net impact of this budget, let’s assume the total ECS entitlement of $3,000,000 were to be used to offset next year’s Superintendent’s proposed budget of $60,450,159 yielding a net budget increase of $57,450,159 or a 2.34 percent increase.  Although this illustration demonstrates the impact that ECS funding has on towns and Connecticut public schools, we must keep in mind that, by law, the Board of Education must recommend a gross budget number preventing the use of net indices.  

My recommended program improvements are organized by topic as follows:

1.       Effective on the 1^st of July, 2008, the State Department of Education is mandating that all school have in place an In-School Suspension program, which will house students for disciplinary infractions.  In the past, these disciplinary infractions were handled by imposing out-of-school suspensions.  The cost of this mandate for Region 15 is $30,000, which will be used to hire a classified staff member who will supervise suspended students.  In addition, we have two groups of students at the middle level who have not made adequately yearly progress (AYP) as defined by the No Child Left Behind legislation.  This necessitates hiring a full-time teacher to be assigned to each middle school to address AYP issues.

2.       I recommended to the Board of Education the implementation of the Intervention Continuum.  This proposal is a systems-based program designed to assist students from kindergarten through grade twelve who may be struggling with academics.  Under this program, a Reading Consultant, School Improvement Project tutor, and, if more focused instruction is needed, the Intervention Continuum Specialist will work with students who are in need of more assistance.  The Intervention Continuum specialist is a certified teacher skilled at focused interventions.  In 2008-09, the Intervention Continuum programming will be phased in starting at the elementary and middle school levels, deferring the implementation at the high school level for one year.

3.       I recommended three part-time staff as follows:

·        Assistant to the Information Technologies Director

·        Building Maintenance assistance

·        Traffic management police officer for MES

4.       I recommended a new part-time Assistant Principal and a new full-time special education teacher to work with our Early Childhood students at LMES.  This program now supports over 60 children and has become a school within a school. The impact on the general academic program has resulted in converted spaces, thus placing a strain on the general academic program.

5.       I recommended part-time positions to support the teaching of Latin and Mandarin at the high school level.  I also asked for a part-time person to teach a Core English class designed to help those students not at goal. Two coaches, one for baseball and the other for softball, were included because the increased participation rate.

6.       I recommend 1.6 teachers be added to address class size concerns at the high school and at MES.  I also recommend adding a .4 Guidance person, a .2 English Language Learner Teacher, and a .4 special education teacher at MES to meet the need of children serviced via Individualized Education Plans.

This budget recommendation represents my most conservative effort to address the increasing needs of Region 15 and provide the necessary program that will prepare our students for the global community.

The Board of Education will review my proposal and make revisions to the budget before the Board presents its budget proposal at the Public Hearing on Monday, the 7th of April, 2008.

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Schedule of Board of Education Meeting Dates