This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
04/09/2024 01:52 PMThe North Haven Board of Education’s (BOE) proposed budget for the 2024-‘25 fiscal year is calling for a 5.4% increase in expenditures with a focus on fulfilling unfunded state mandates and special education.
The proposed budget calls for a total of $64,972,728 in spending for the upcoming fiscal year, marking an increase of $3,328,774 compared to the current year’s budget of $61,643,954. The BOE budget makes up approximately half of the overall town budget, which is proposing $130,425,151 in total municipal expenditures.
Part of the budget consists of spending $300,000 to cover two unfunded mandates from the state. One of these mandates includes $200,000 to complete studies of the HVAC systems at all six public schools in North Haven. This increase is specified in the budget with a $216,900 increase, or a 67.54% increase, under “Other Repairs” in the facilities portion of the budget.
The other unfunded mandate which is being budgeted is an initial $100,000 to cover the Science of Reading initiative as part of the state’s Right to Read legislation. North Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Superintendent Patrick Stirk said the initiative will be expanded in the district to serve students in kindergarten through 5th grade “because we do not want to have our [kindergarten through 3rd-grade] students and teachers in one program and then [4th- and 5th-graders] in a different program,” he said.
Stirk said the individual programs which make up the initiative will be investigated by district staff, including teachers, in order to determine the most appropriate course of action for the district. Prices for individual programs range from $400,000 to $500,000.
Until then, Stirk said that, “The $100,000 is really just to get us going.”
“It’s less of a hit in next year’s budget,” he said.
The superintendent added that a “positive” element added to the required funding of the initiative is that the district’s assistant superintendent was able to secure a $180,000 state grant to offset more than half of the anticipated cost for a full-scale program. The district would then walk into the 2024-’25 academic year with a total of $280,000 to fund the first part of the initiative.
One of the budget highlights relates to the addition of two new staff members at two of North Haven’s elementary schools. The budget proposes the addition of a school psychologist at Montowese Elementary School “to serve the growing student service hour needs within our Therapeutic Learning Service Program,” according to the fiscal document.
Stirk said there is currently one school psychologist to serve all K-12 students. With the addition of another psychologist, the current one would be working permanently at the middle school and high school, while the new member of the program would be based at Montowese.
The budget also proposes the addition of “one special education teacher at Ridge Road Elementary to support required special education hours more effectively,” at the most highly populated K-5 school in the district.
“Our current special ed teachers, they have high caseload hours,” said Stirk. “This will alleviate some of that to provide more direct support instruction for our kids.”
The proposed hiring of the two new teachers at the elementary schools is reflected in the salaries portion of the budget, which is calling for a 4.94% increase.
Stirk stated that “families...move to us who have students that are identified in special education because the services we provide them are pretty excellent.” He feels that the addition of new staff members should support the growing needs identified in both of those cases.
An increase in faculty salaries is also represented in a proposed $20,000 increase for the district’s business manager position. According to Christian Strickland, the chief operating officer of NHPS, the increase in that line item is to attract a qualified individual with a certified endorsement from the Connecticut Department of Education.
“It’s a difficult area, quite frankly, to attract,” Strickland said.
Strickland added that a rise in salary for the position should make it more attractive to “good talent” with a state endorsement to meet the needs of a “desirable district for students and people to work in.”
The district will continue to adequately budget for its self-funded health insurance program as insurance costs for employees rise within the district and the town overall. The municipal budget accounts for an increase in employee healthcare costs, a move that the BOE is replicating with a 10.77% increase for medical insurance in its proposed budget. This would bring monies for that portion of the budget up from the current year’s cost of $8,025,000 to $8,889,012. Employee benefits overall are seeing a 10.56% increase.
The referendum on the budget will take place at the North Haven Recreation Center on Tuesday, May 21.