Derby BOE Budget Letter

8/7/2019 Derby BOE Budget Letter

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DERBY BOARD OF EDUCATIONPO Box 373

Derby, Connecticut 06418

Members

Stephanie D'Onofrio Rebecca O'Hara

Laura Harris Casey Picheco

George Kurtyka Christine Robinson

Kenneth Marcucio, Chair

Andrew Mancini, Vice Chair

Kimberly Kreiger, Secretary

Section 10-222 of the Connecticut General Statutes provides that each year "the Board of

Education shall prepare an itemized estimate of the cost of maintenance of public schools

for the ensuing year." In response to that obligation, the Derby Board of Education

proposes the attached budget for our public schools for 2011-12.

While mindful of the fmancial challenges facing our city, the Board of Education has

focused its budgeting efforts on the identification of what it believes to be the legitimate

needs of our children and their schools for the year ahead. Working from the

Superintendent's Recommended Budget, we eliminated items that we thought our

schools could do without, and we included those things that we regarded as important to

the maintenance and improvement of our schools.

For the third year in a row, the economic hardships afflicting our state and nation are

placing our public schools at risk. Rising costs for wages, benefits, energy, transportation

and special education tuition, together with reductions in federal education funding, place

us in the unenviable position of seeking increased financial support from our city, while

simultaneously reducing school services and staffing.

The budget that we propose for Fiscal Year 2011-12 calls for an appropriation of

$19,020,894 - an increase of$I,286,115 or 7.25% over current year funding.

The budget that the Board of Education is proposing is essentially a "maintenance

budget". It maintains most (but not all) of our current academic programs, including full

day kindergarten and interscholastic athletics. It does not provide for the reinstatement of

the many positions that we have eliminated over the last three years, such as our

librarians, classroom paraprofessionals or curriculum director. In fact, this budget

eliminates four additional teaching positions. At the same time, it calls for modest

increases in spending for curriculum development and staff training.


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The additional funding that the federal government has provided to public schools under

the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA ESEA Title I and IDEA)

accounted for $307,000 of our district's spending plan in the current year. These funds

will no longer be available in FY20l2.

Approximately 39% or $6.9 million of Derby's public school budget comes in the form

of the state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant. Governor Malloy has proposed that

ECS funding be maintained at the same level in 2011-12. However, until the state budget

is adopted sometime this spring, the status of the ECS grant and other important forms of

state support for education will be uncertain.

The Board of Education and the school administration have taken several steps to realize

savings and minimize the need for additional funds. These include:

Elimination of a classroom teaching position at Bradley School. This will result

in higher class sizes and may require a "split grade" class.

Elimination of a classroom teaching position at Irving School. As with Bradley

School, this will result in higher class sizes and may require a "split grade" class.

Elimination of an English teaching position and the Woods Technology Shop

program at Derby High School.

Negotiation of a new contract with the Derby Education Association which

provides for a wage freeze in 2010-11 and a 2.9% increase in 2011-12. The fact

that next year's teacher raises will be calculated off of this year's freeze means

that the school system continues to save payroll dollars.

Negotiation of modifications in insurance benefits with the DEA, resulting in

savings of more than $100,000.

Negotiation of a new agreement with the Derby Administrators Association that

includes a wage freeze for 2011-12.


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Despite the reductions and savings listed above, the Board requires additional resources

in order to continue current programs and to meet contractual and legal obligations,

including the following "non discretionary" increases:

This figure includes the cost of contracted salary increases, including those required

by the recently negotiated contract with the Derby Education Association, plus the

$108,000 required to cover personnel costs that are currently covered by federal

ARRA funds that will not be available in 2011-12. It also reflects savings resulting

from the elimination of four teaching positions and one paraprofessional position.

Please note that the staff reductions listed above are in addition to the significant

reductions that we have made over the past two years, including our district

curriculum and professional development leadership, our librarians, and several

teaching, paraprofessional, custodial, clerical and security positions.

This figure includes a projected increase in payments to Anthem Blue Cross, the

savings resulting from changes in benefit arrangements in the new DEA contract, a

"plan adjustment factor" reflecting projected upgrades from single to family coverage

and savings resulting from the elimination of five positions.

Energy calculations include a more realistic projection of the cost of operating the

new Derby Middle School facility, based on actual bills so far in 2010-11 - thebuilding's first full year of operation. Also included are projected rate increases for

electricity (transmission only) and water. Natural gas rates are projected to be

unchanged. (The district administration is working with the Building Committee to

see whether reductions in middle school energy costs may be possible, as we get

more actual operating experience with the new building.)

This increase reflects actual claims experience thus far in 2010-11, plus an increase

in claims that could result from proposed staff reductions in 2011-12.

Transportation costs reflect the 2011-12 per bus rate and fuel expenses set forth in the

Board of Education's contract with All Star Transportation, plus the cost of running a

special schedule during mid-term and final examinations at Derby High School.


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This figure reflects a projected 5% increase in tuition charges for special education

students whose disabilities require that they be placed in public or private institutions

outside of the district. The district is required by state and federal law to provide

these services. (Special education tuition costs are based on the assumption that the

state Excess Cost Grant funding formula continues to reimburse excess specialeducation costs at a rate of 65%.)

The increased allocation for substitute teachers corrects for overruns in the substitute

account that our schools have experienced over the past two years. Under this

proposal, each school will be allocated $25,000 for substitutes related to sick and

personal days, and $5,000 for substitutes required for professional development

activities.

The number of pre-school children requiring special education services will increase

significantly next year. As a result, we are required to expand our existing part time

pre-school Special Education Teacher position to full time.

Taken together, these "non-discretionary" increases account for $994,000 or more than

three quarters of the $1,286,115 in increased spending requested in this budget.

Even in tough economic times, it is incumbent on the school system to be mindful of itscommitment to continuous improvement. Thus the proposed budget includes some new

funding that would enable the district to address a few of its top priorities during the

corning year, including:

Twenty thousand dollars is allocated for the revision of the district's elementary

reading and mathematics curricula. Funding will permit us to engage a committee of

reading specialists and classroom teachers to develop a comprehensive reading

curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade and a similar team of teachers to

develop an up-to-date K-5 mathematics curriculum.

An additional $20,000 is allocated to the development of curriculum for grades 6 - 12

in two major subject areas.


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These funds would enable us to continue to provide at least a minimal set of

professional development programming for our staff, both at the school and district

level. Each school will be allotted $5,000 to support building level training efforts.

The remaining $20,000 will support district wide professional development

programming. These funds are needed because, for the most part, our staff

development efforts in FY2011 have been supported by federal funds that will nolonger be available after this year.

In an effort to reduce the number of "lagging readers" at our middle school, the

school has engaged the services of a Reading Facilitator in 2010-11. This non-

certified position supports the work of the school's only Reading Teacher. While the

middle school expanded from grades 7-8 to grades 6-7-8 this year, budget constraints

resulted in the reduction of the reading faculty from two to one. The federal funds

that are paying for the Reading Facilitator are not available beyond the current year.

This budget includes $20,000 to support the implementation of an on-line credit

recovery program for Derby High School students who have lost graduation credits

due to poor course grades, beginning this summer. State law now requires high

schools with dropout rates in excess of 8% to offer such programs.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges recently presented us with its

report on the accreditation review of Derby High School. The report includes

commendations for important progress in several areas, including the opening of the

new Derby Middle School and the improvement of school climate over the past two

years. But the report also calls for a host of improvements that it expects to see over

the next several years if the school is to retain its accreditation. This budget includes

$50,000 (an increase over the $15,000 included in the FY2011 budget) to enable the

high school to begin responding to some of the recommendations in 2011-12.

(Specific uses for these funds will be approved by the Board of Education based on

recommendations from the High School Principal and the Superintendent.)

This budget would provide $12,000 for the replacement of the aging servers thatsupport most of the district's information technology operations with newer

reconditioned equipment. Our present servers are well beyond their useful life and,

as such, degrade e-mail communications and data base operations on a daily basis.

This budget also provides funds to enable the district to replace the existing T-1 lines

with a fiber optic wide area network, further improving the reliability of our

technology infrastructure. The total cost of this installation is approximately $71,000.

This cost will be offset by $48,000 in federal e-rate support, plus the termination of

our existing T-l operation, resulting in a net annual cost of$19,000.


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The Board of Education appreciates the challenge that you face as you work to provide

adequate financial support to our schools and the other important public services that our

citizens expect in a time of continuing economic difficulty. We look forward to

discussing our budget proposal with you in the near future.

~n1C21~d:VKenneth Marcucio

Chairman

Derby Board of Education

cc: Mayor Staffieri

Board of Education

Superintendent of Schools

Business Manager

Derby BOE Budget Letter

Documents

Transcript of Derby BOE Budget Letter