Super Asks for Additional $20M
By Robin Vinci at January 17, 2024 | 7:55 pm | Print
Even though Superintendent Kelt Cooper is sure he is not going to get it, he asked for $20 million additional funds from the City in his budget on Monday night.
“I know these are challenging times not just here in New Britain, but elsewhere, but this is what we need to keep us at status quo,” said Cooper. “It’s a sizable request. We need teachers. We need textbooks.”
Cooper said $10 million additional dollars is needed in the personnel account and $10 million in non-personnel.
Additional funds include $6 million to maintain payroll, $2 million for self-insurance, $700,000 in retirement, $1.7 million in textbooks, $3.1 million for outside tuition, $1.7 million for transportation that is contractual, $500,000 for equipment replacement, $200,000 for office supplies, $300,000 for technical services, $400,000 for constructional services and the rest is miscellaneous for various accounts.
It would put the Board of Education with the $20 million increase at $138.5 million for 2013-14. The current school budget is presently $118.5 million.
“We are asking for $138 million, but we should probably ask for $148 million,” said Cooper. “None of this even addresses class sizes.”
According to School Board President Sharon Beloin Saavedra, last year in order to save teachers and classroom sizes, 12 percent was cut across the board in non-personnel items. This led to some accounts being underfunded. Those need to be made up this year.
“That put us in a hole in tuition. That put us in a hole in transportation,” said Saavedra. “We anticipated grant dollars would come in and we would be able to re-arrange dollars across the board. Our grants came in lower than anticipated and our cuts stayed.”
The budget was then frozen creating a hole in line items.
“We compounded our own problems by doing that across the board cut,” Saavedra said. “This will be our fifth working document if we get flat-funded again.”
Saavedra said it is only a draft and will take until June to finalize.
‘”Maybe, between now and June we get there,” said Saavedra. “Every problem we are facing today was created by us in an effort to save teachers.”
Cooper said one of his priorities is to buy new textbooks each year beginning in math and science. Saavedra said class size is the single biggest priority. Class sizes range around 28 students.
“We have to make hard decisions,” said Aram Ayalon, board member. “Nothing is sacred.”
“I don’t think there is one member of the Common Council here. I don’t know who our council liaison is, but they never show up. They need to be in discussion with us. The Mayor is not here,” said Erin Stewart, board member. “The conversation needs to be brought to their attention for them to wake up and realize they are just as responsible for a struggling budget as the state is. I don’t know what it is going to take to get them to realize this, but something needs to happen. I challenge them to justify flat funding the board of education.”
A public hearing is set for Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. at the board of education. The final school board budget must be presented to the City by Jan. 23.
