Bethel’s school board needs to cut $400K from its 2021-22 budget
“Our main priority is to make sure that our students are being accelerated to the grade level standards — that we’re providing the supports that they need to ensure that we can get them back to where they were.” Bethel Superintendent Christine Carver
BETHEL — The Board of Education met virtually last week to discuss what could be accomplished next school year, but did not decide where $400,000 in cuts will be made in its proposed 2021-22 budget.
The Board of Finance called for a $400,000 cut to the proposed education budget last month in an effort to reduce the town’s year-over-year mill rate increase to 1.9 percent — leaving the schools with a $49 million budget for 2021-22.
The school board wasn’t alone. The finance board also slashed $260,000 from the Board of Selectmen’s proposed budget, leaving nearly $5.8 million in debt service, about $26.7 million for municipal operating expenses and $350,000 for school building maintenance.
Superintendent Christine Carver said the purpose of Thursday’s special Board of Education meeting was to explore where $400,000 in cuts could be made, and also give the board a “full picture” of how the district can meet students’ needs and address COVID recovery with a $49 million budget and grant funding.
The school district is expecting several millions of dollars in federal grants, but there are limitations on how the funds can be spent.
As Carver summarized earlier this year, the grants are “for anything that could have impacted our students as a result of the pandemic.”
In a recent memo to the school board, she noted that the latest federal funds from a stimulus package have more requirements than the previous package when it comes to the percentage of funds needed to be set aside for learning loss.
“Our main priority is to make sure that our students are being accelerated to the grade level standards — that we’re providing the supports that they need to ensure that we can get them back to where they were,” Carver said.
She said continuing to enhance mitigation strategies and COVID-19 needs, as well as focusing on items that do not create recurring costs but have been impacted as a result of the pandemic, are also priorities.
The school district expects to receive nearly $1.2 million in federal stimulus funds from a December package, but has not yet received its final allocation for the most recent stimulus.
The school board has talked about using some of the grant money to hire new staff members, invest in technology and improve the high school’s HVAC system — but nothing has been finalized.
With information on stimulus funds changing on a day-to-day basis,” Carver said she expects some adjustments will have to be made in the future.
“It’s all fluid right now, and so the decisions that we make now are not final because we don’t know what’s going to happen over the next four to five months,” she said.
When it comes to the $400,000 budget cut, Carver recommended reducing the central office budget by $300,000, high school spending by $30,000, the middle school budget by $25,000 and cutting $15,000 from each of the three elementary school budgets.
The school board did not act on the recommendations Thursday night, and Carver said Friday that she doesn’t expect any decisions to be made until after the budget referendum later this month.
“Until they have a final budget after the referendum, the board wouldn’t do something at this point because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said. “It’s a long process and until you know what the final budget is, making cuts at this point doesn’t make much sense.”
An in-person annual town meeting will take place in the new track and field training center at Bethel High School on Monday, followed by a referendum on April 20. Voters will vote on the referendum at their designated polling places.