Budget Update: 2017-2018
Stronger Every Day
Budget Update
On April 5th at 8:00 p.m. a Public Hearing will be held in the auditorium at Coginchaug Regional High School. At the Board of Education meeting immediately following the Public Hearing, the District Meeting and Referendum dates will officially be set. They are scheduled for May 1st and May 2nd respectively. At the Public Hearing, members of the public are able to share their thoughts about the budget with the Board of Education.
As noted in previous newsletters, the theme for next year’s budget is “Stronger Every Day”. We have made significant strides as a district with improvements in our curriculum, greater instructional alignment, consistent professional learning community practice across all schools, consistent focus on student achievement data, increased student engagement in learning and clear identification of district learning targets which all contribute to greater coherence across the district. As we move into the future we will work towards maintaining consistency in best practice in all that we do. We are committed to growing stronger every day.
Next year our growth and development across the district will continue with our focus on strengthening our curriculum, enhancing our instruction and strategically using assessment data to inform instruction. We are consistently improving our skills and practices to better meet the educational needs of our students from pre-school through graduation. Our commitment to exploring how best to maximize our school building space and provide up-to-date programming that effectively and efficiently maximizes staff and resources given declining enrollment continues. Our student enrollment continues to decline with a projected decrease going into next year of close to 70 students and a continued decline in the next 5 years of 200 students with the greatest impact seen in middle and high school. In the course of the past three years we have made staff reductions totaling 21.5 FTEs. Our focused attention to this will continue this Spring and into next year as we examine the option of a 6-8 middle school and two elementary schools: Pre-School-5 and K-5.
Some of the defining characteristics of next year’s budget include:
Class sizes within BOE guidelines
Full-time Math Interventionists at Lyman and at Brewster
Expanded STEAM-themed pre-school programming for 3 and 4 year old students
Tuition for typical peers in the expanded pre-school program
CRHS Career Center
Pay to Participate fee for middle and high school interscholastic sports
Key changes from the Superintendent’s original budget which was proposed on March 8, 2017:
Maintenance of Strong Middle School’s interscholastic sports program
Maintenance of existing intramural programming at Strong Middle School
Elimination of .5 Tech Support position
The total budget has been reduced from the initial proposal resulting in a 1.82% net increase from the current year’s operating budget. (The 1.82% increase includes expenditures and receipts while the public votes on the gross amount or expenditures only.) The gross budget increase is 1.18% for a total budget of $37,137,901.This represents an increase of $432,300 from our current operating budget.
Athletic Field House
At a Public Hearing that was held on March 30, 2017, the Board of Education voted to move to a vote to authorize funding for the completion of the Field House on the Wally Camp Athletic Complex. The referendum vote will be held on May 2, 2017. The question the public will consider is, “Shall Regional School District Number 13 appropriate $800,000 and authorize bonds and temporary notes in the same amount for design, construction and equipping of an athletic field house at Coginchaug Regional High School in Durham?” If this vote is successful the budget impact will be after the 2017-2018 school year.
Kathryn Y. Veronesi, Ed.D.
Email: kveronesi@rsd13.org
Website: http://www.rsd13ct.org
Phone: (860) 349-7200