Montville schools head proposes 3.47% school budget increase
Staffing, technology, special ed drive hike
Montville — Superintendent Laurie Pallin is recommending a 3.47% increase to the town’s education budget.
She presented her budget proposal to the Board of Education and the public at a recent meeting, recommending to increase spending to $40,034,736 from the current year’s $38,691,433. The proposal was formally submitted to the board on Tuesday.
Pallin’s projections include $290,000 worth of additions. The remainder of the 3.47% increase is for items, such as salaries, health insurance, special education and transportation costs, that automatically go up each year. These fixed costs include a $600,240 increase in salaries and a $143,207 increase in benefits, among other expenses.
Reasons for increase
Staffing, technology and enrollment are the main factors driving the proposed increase in spending. Pallin noted, for example, that the district has seen a surge in special education students: during the last year, 33 have entered Montville schools.
“This places a significant stress on our staff,” Pallin said. “What we’ve done is increase paraprofessional support. We’ve drastically increased the number of paras this past year, and we’ll need to maintain these paras this year.”
She also has recommended an
increase in certified staff to maintain class sizes at Tyl Middle School, Oakdale Elementary School and Murphy Elementary School. For Tyl, Pallin is unsure of what effect closing The Dual Language & Arts Magnet Middle School in Waterford will have on the district, but said up to 12 seventhor eighth-graders may be returning to Montville.
First grade in Oakdale and second grade in Murphy may have to absorb new students, which would make class sizes too large. Furthermore, according to Pallin’s presentation, the special needs classrooms at Mohegan and Tyl are above capacity and “Any additional students would require a new classroom.”
Pallin recommended adding two full-time teachers and a social worker at a cost of $210,000, although she said she may push for one more full-time teacher at the next meeting on Tuesday, March 3, during which a formal vote on the budget is possible. She also recommended hiring four full-time paraeducators to replace eight part-timers, at a cost of $50,000.
“I believe strongly that I need more (teachers), and I held back on that, but at the next meeting I may ask to put four positions in,” she said. “It’s hard to strike a balance between understanding the town has to a find a way to pay and what our students’ needs are.”
According to Pallin, recommended additions to the budget are “needs, not wants.” The addition of a third social worker — right now, the district has two social workers to serve 2,000 students — is a major part of Pallin’s plan.
School board Chairwoman Sarah Berardy agrees with Pallin that the current ratio is not sustainable. “The idea of having another social worker is really important to us,” Berardy said. While she acknowledged the recommended budget “seems a little high,” past boards have kept increases low.
“We knew that sooner or later, as a board, there’s going to be a year where we need to level out; we can’t cut anymore,” she added.
Earlier in the meeting, Montville High School Principal Heather Sangermano ran through a survey of 351 students in the ninth through 12th grades; 143 said they were lonely; 114 said they were sad most of the time; 133 felt if they had a problem, they’d keep it to themselves; 100 students had thoughts of hurting themselves, and slightly more than 60 seriously considered attempting suicide. Pallin said she felt Sangermano’s remarks illustrated what she called a “critical need” for a third social worker.
At the moment, the two social workers spend time at certain schools on specified days, but, Pallin said, “Students in crisis don’t wait for a day that the social worker is at their school.”
Board members and Pallin also identified a need for updated technology. The desktops and laptops at Tyl and in the high school are outdated — the majority are between seven and 12 years old.
Pallin has offered three replacement options. One, costing $279,942 over four years, is to purchase new desktops and laptops. Another, costing $287,568 over four years, is to lease new desktops and laptops. But her favorite option is to lease Chromebooks, costing $227,972 over four years.
“Our technology definitely needs to be updated,” Berardy said, adding the board will discuss how to do so “at length” at the next meeting.
Open process
Since Jan. 3, Pallin has sought budget input from the public at seven different meetings. Part of her presentation on Tuesday highlighted a goal to “engage the greater community, town officials, parents and students through a communications strategy.” She hopes to make sure there’s public support for the education budget.
This goal meant listening to what community members had to say at budget forums. Common topics included maintaining small class sizes, improving technology, increased social work services and school safety.
“The thing that’s most important to me is that we get as much input as possible from the community, and that the community understands our budget,” Pallin said Wednesday. “I’m really hopeful people will turn out for meetings. PTOs, staff members — I need people to understand the budget, and what we’re asking for and why.”
So far, the school board seems pleased with Pallin’s work.
Member Robert Mitchell applauded the straightforward presentation. “She has done an outstanding job of presenting to the board what is needed,” he said Wednesday. “It was a great presentation ... one of the best we had. There wasn’t any flowery language.”