Shelton school board asks mayor for 6% budget hike
SHELTON — The fate of the alternative education center — and the rest of the nearly $5 million in requests over last year’s budget number — is now in the hands of Mayor Mark Lauretti.
The Board of Education at its meeting last week voted unanimously to submit an $82.2 million school budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year to the mayor’s office. The spending plan calls for a 6.41 percent increase from the present $77 million budget.
“Ia m very thankful for the hard work and collaboration between the board of education and the administration in putting together a budget on the realistic needs for our school system coupled with investments for financial returns,” Superintendent Ken Saranich said.
“We knew the financial cliff was upon us and the board of education created a fiscally responsible budget,” Saranich added. “I look forward to our discussions with city officials.”
The budget must be submitted to Lauretti’s office by Feb. 15. The mayor is presently preparing the 2024-25 fiscal year budget, which is expected to be unveiled next month.
Lauretti has been notoriously tight with the education budget, offering little to no increases in years past. Last year, however, Lauretti did provide a budget with more than $2 million in new money for the 2022-23 fiscal year.
The budget increases come from about $1.8 million for required contractual increases for staff and utilities and just more than $1 million for specific staff, instructional materials and building and equipment services — areas that had been covered by the COVID-19 relief funds for the past three years.
The proposed school budget also features some $1.3 million for special education, with $2.2 million for tuition and $1 million for transportation offset, in part, by the excess cost grant and 2 percent cost share from the state.
Saranich has also asked the city for $211,000 for the pre-K program, which has just been accredited after years of problems, and $354,900 for creation of an alternative education center to be housed in the presently vacant modular on the Perry Hill School campus.
Saranich said the money for the alternative education center and pre-K program are “investments in education,” that will both save money in the long run and could be revenue generators down the road.
Board Chair Amy Romano said that Special Education Director Tracy Hussey has put forth “a great proposal for new programming to better serve our students and families.
“While the initial special education program costs will increase the budget, over the long term it will save money for the district,” Romano said.
The new programs, she said, would eliminate some of the current fees associated with som e of Shelton children who are sent to other districts that currently have the proposed Shelton programs.
“Once we have initially set up the programs, Shelton could offer the program to surrounding towns and students for a fee to offset the rising special education costs,” Romano said. “Overall, the proposed programming is a win-win for Shelton students and families as well as those in surrounding towns.”
The budget as proposed includes hiring 11 new full time staff — five who would be in the alternative education center — along with a full time special education pre-K teacher and two pre-K paraprofessionals, a full time special education teacher and two high school hires — a business teacher and a security guard.
In all, new staff hires would cost about $778,000.
Saranich said the status quo budget keeps the employee benefits line — specifically health insurance — special education tuition and transportation identical to the present 2023-24 budget.
Saranich has stated that city officials have requested the health insurance remain unchanged at this point as they investigate ways to improve cost savings in both the city and school health insurance budgets.
Health insurance overages drove what ended up being a more than $4.5 million deficit in the city’s 2022-23 fiscal year budget.
The Board of Aldermen, at its meeting last month, voted to use money from the general fund surplus to cover the deficit. Most of the shortfall, about $4.1 million between the school system and city, was due to health insurance costs. Of the remainder, about $300,000 was due to special education costs from the school system.