Superintendent’s proposed $96M budget covers later start times
The $96-million operating school 2021-22 budget proposed by Superintendent Bryan Luizzi includes $463,337, to make changes so New Canaan High School students can sleep later.
The plan calls for adding staff and buses at the beginning in January 2022 so high schoolers can sleep until 8:30 a.m.
The operating budget of $95,701,417, is up 5.27 percent from the 2020-21 budget of 90,880,629.
The New England School Development Council’s projects 4,095 children will attend New Canaan schools by October, as opposed to the 4,176 in October 2020, 81 fewer, a 2 percent decrease.
Employee expenses, including benefits, of $77.9 million make up 81 percent of the proposed budget, which is $4.1 million, or 5.5 percent more than the $73.8 million in the 2020-21 budget.
Salary expenses alone make up 65 percent of budget, with $63.6 million proposed in the 2021-22 superintendent’s budget, up $4.5 million from $59 million in 2020-21. Also, it is up $3.2 from the $60.4 million this year’s actual projected expenses.
The superintendents proposed budget includes 753.67 employees, which is
Since spring of 2017, the district has discussed moving to later start times, after citing a plethora of studies that say more sleep improves student health.
up 1.5 from this year’s projected spending, which had included $714,924 over the 2020-21 original budget. The additional funds were used to hire help with COVID-19 related mitigation.
“This year, COVID-19 has added increased complexity to managing class sizes and given the uncertainty of the current environment,” the budget document states.
For 2020-21, the district spent $472,283 for permanent substitute teachers, which has been cited as a reason the New Canaan schools were able to stay open more days than other districts in the state.
The 2021-22 budget “is impacted by COVID-19 staffing needs, which are budgeted for 50 percent of the 2021-2022 school year,” the budget document reads.
“We continue to actively pursue cost containment measures to best manage the insurance costs for the approximately 660 staff members in the plans,” the document reads.
Start times
Since spring of 2017, the district has discussed moving to later start times, after citing a plethora of studies that say more sleep improves student health. Prior to lock downs students and parents regularly urged the school board to make the change.
The Board of Education was
disappointed in April 2020 when Town Council lopped off $1.1 million from the 2020-21 budget, indirectly removing money the board had expected to use for later start times.
Luizzi expects COVID-19 to impact the first half of the 2021-22 school year and plans not to make the schedule change until early 2022. “We made the decision of midyear implementation knowing with all the questions we wanted to answer, we’d have more time.”
Under the proposed plan, the three elementary schools would start at 7:45 a.m. and end at 2:15 p.m.; New Canaan High School would begin at 8:30 a.m., instead of the present 7:20 a.m., and let out at 3:00 p.m.; Saxe Middle School’s upper division of seventh and eighth graders would commence at 8:35 a.m. going to 3:05 p.m;. and Saxe’s lower division with fifth and sixth graders would hear the first first bell at 9:15 a.m and the last bell at 3:45 p.m.
A bulk of the additional expenses for later start times is the $378,668 needed to pay for seven new buses, since the children from three elementary schools would be bused at the same time.
“This estimate does not account for any adjustments that might need to be made to address COVID concerns,” the document reads under transportation.
The 1.5 staff is needed when “aligning the schedules in the elementary schools means a reduction in our ability to share
staff between the three elementary schools,” the document says.
In recent years, South School started earlier than East School and West School so “we could have teachers going back and forth a little bit. But, now we will not be able to do that, so we built in a 1.5 for that,” the report says.
Aside from individual schools,
one of the largest proposed budget items district-wide includes $12,802,751 for special education, which is up $16,046 from $12,818,797 of the 2020-21 budget.
The budget includes $1,847,345 for curriculum improvement and instruction, which is $82,607, or 11 percent more than the $1,740,975 in the 2020-21 budget.
The budget will weave its way through the town boards,starting with the Board of Selectmen on Jan. 26, then the Board of Finance and Town Council, with a final public hearing planned for March 15 and the final vote March 31.
The process includes “numerous feedback opportunities for all stakeholders,” the document said.