Facing 7 percent hike, BOE tables $80M budget vote

SHELTON — The school administration’s proposed budget — with recommended staff hires and nearly $1 million added to special education — comes with a 7 percent premium over the present year.

The Board of Education, at its meeting Thursday, tabled a vote until Feb. 9 on the 2023-24 education budget proposal, which sits at nearly $80.4 million, more than $5.3 million than the present 2022-23 school budget.

“This is the largest increase since I’ve been on the board,” said board member Amy Romano. “The ask is large. I just want time to digest this.”

Romano then motioned to table a vote on the budget, which new board member Jim Feehan seconded. The board then voted 8-1, with board member Kate Kutash opposed, to table a vote.

Board Chair Kathy Yolish agreed that to be fair, she supported allowing more time for board members to examine the superintendent’s proposed budget.

The major requests were $577,000 for hiring two elementary school teachers, three special education teachers and support staff, plus two paraprofessionals.

“These are meeting the needs of the school system,” Superintendent Ken Saranich said of the proposed hires.

Saranich said the final determination was made after listening to school principals, parents and board members.

The proposal includes $976,000 for the special education budget to cover anticipated overages. Saranich said his office took what has been the normal increase over the past few years, subtracted the anticipated excess cost sharing grant money from the state, and came to this number.

Even though the district’s total enrollment had fallen annually from 2014-15, when the district topped at at 4,927 students, until 2021-22, the special education student population has risen each year, from 623 in 2014-15 to 791 now out of a total student population of 4,494.

The special education budget for 2022-23 includes $607,000 for professional services, $1.49 million for public tuition and $2.1 million for private tuition costs. Transportation costs were budgeted at just over $1 million.

Like last year, Saranich said the special education budget was estimated at a deficit of some $3 million for the present fiscal year. He said he believes about $1.5 million of that deficit would be covered through state excess cost grant funds.

One positive in this budget process, according to Saranich, is that the district can now use the remaining pandemic relief grant money through September 2024. The deadline to use all such grant funds was to be the end of the present school year, but the state has recently agreed to extend the timeline for use of the funds.

Those grant funds will be used to maintain all staff, instructional supplies and software, and custodial costs that have already been covered by the grant money over the past two years.

Saranich said use of the grant funds for the coming school year will allow the district to keep two school counselors, two social workers and one school psychologist.

“We can keep them for at least one more year,” Saranich said.

Saranich and school Finance Director Todd Hefflefinger, at the Board of Education’s first budget workshop in January, presented what they called a “status quo” budget for 2023-24 that requires a $5 million — 6 percent — increase to maintain.

Among other increases to maintain status quo in the district are contractual increases of $1.48 million for certified staff and $218,576 for non-certified staff; $1.08 million for benefits; $588,935 for utilities (electricity and natural gas); and $399,206 for tuition costs at schools such as ACES and CES.