School Board Looks to Increase Per Pupil Expenditure
By Chris Seymour | Correspondent at February 19, 2024 | 6:15 pm | Print
New Britain Public Schools officials are hoping to see their per pupil expenditure (PPE) rise by about $1,300 per student from 2014-15—which equates to an additional $13,042,393 in spending next school year—for each of its 10,500 students in 2015-16.
New Britain has a fairly low 2013-14 PPE of $12,842. Sharon Beloin-Saavedra, President of the New Britain Board of Education, said the school system would like to see that number increase in 2015-16 so that they can do more for their students.
“It is a big ask and we understand it is a big ask,” said Beloin-Saavedra. “This is [Superintendent of Schools] Mr. [Kelt] Cooper’s proposal and he took the philosophy that we have to put out there what we need; whether we get it or not is another story, but we want the public to understand what we believe we need. We know we are going to have to cut that request back; by how much that remains to be seen.”
Last month, Cooper put forth a requested 2015-16 schools budget that would result in an overall increase of 10.59 percent—that’s a proposed jump from $123,200,000 to $136, 242,393 (or $13,042,393) from 2014-15 to 2015-16. A large part of that potential increase comes from the hiring of 42 new teachers: 27 at the elementary level and 15 at the high school.
In a PowerPoint presentation during his budget presentation last month, Cooper called his request of an additional $13 million a “fair and reasonable budget request” and that it is “far less than what is needed to have New Britain on a level playing field with DRG I and [the] state.”
DRG I includes cities like Hartford (whose 2013-14 PPE was $18,721), New Haven ($17,052), and New London ($14,847) while the state average PPE in 2013-14 was $15,180, according to Cooper, and the DRG I average was $16,027.
New Britain’s 2013-14 PPE of $12,842 was 18 percent lower than the state average and 25 percent lower than the DRG average; in addition, it is 46 percent less than what Hartford spent per student and 33 percent less than what New Haven paid in 2013-14 (2014-15 PPE figures will be determined by the state at the end of the academic year).
Beloin-Saavedra said New Britain Schools would like to spend more per student—but the schools can only operate within the parameters of the funding they are issued. “We can only spend what we are given so it’s not that we are able to do more with less [in terms of having a low per pupil expenditure]—it’s we do whatever we can within available appropriations,” she explained.
“So the state gives us our ECS [Education Cost Sharing] Grant, and two thirds of our budget is funded by the state through the ECS Grant and then the City of New Britain picks up about a third of it,” she added.
According to Beloin-Saavedra, “We would hire 60 new individuals as part of that [requested funding increase], 42 of whom would be teachers dedicated to lowering class sizes at the elementary schools and increasing course offerings at the high school.”
In terms of the new high school teachers, five positions would be dedicated to new areas: engineering, automotive, a work-based learning coordinator, drama, speech & debate.
The school district is hoping to provide more support for students who often have turbulent home lives, explained Beloin-Saavedra. “A lot of our kids come to school hungry; some of our kids are coming from instability, and when that home life is unstable, they bring that with them when they come to school,” she said.
“So when you think of all these different factors that impact our kids before they ever walk in the doors of our school, we need to make up for that,” continued Beloin-Saavedra. “So we are not only talking about imparting the academic piece to our kids but we are talking about the mental health piece; we are talking about giving some of our kids some stability, providing the background knowledge and the enrichment they otherwise might not have access to. There is a lot that goes on in an urban system that the school itself does that let’s say our suburban school systems don’t have to really come to terms with because their kids are getting those experiences and those exposures outside of the school day. And so to do that costs more money.”
The type of “background knowledge and enrichment” Beloin-Saavedra was referring to includes going to a museum or taking a trip to the ocean.
“But the reality as we know is that the city is strapped for cash and in a very sensitive financial predicament so the question is we need it, we know morally we have to advocate for it, but exactly how much of that $13 million we are going to get, we have no idea,” she said, noting the City Council will vote on a final 2015-16 budget in June, after the mayor provides her recommendation in April.
