Budget Subcommittee Endorses $73.2M Schools Budget

The Board of Education Budget Subcommittee met Monday afternoon with Superintendent Michael Frechette and three other senior administrators to discuss how to present Frechette's proposed budget to the full Board of Education meeting tonight, and subsequently to the Mayor and Common Council. Business Manager Nancy Haynes answered questions from the Board members about the budget numbers and the process.

The proposed budget is for $73.2M in expenditures. This represents an increase of 5.27% over last year's expenditures of $69.6M.

Frechette emphasized that this would be the third consecutive level services budget, "It needs to be clear that this is the same budget of 3 years ago." He said that the district was able to maintain services last year with no increase in costs only by asking for sacrifices by teachers, administrators, and other employees. He did not think it was reasonable to ask them for another year of salary freezes.

In his budget presentation to the Board, Frechette pointed out that $2.4M of the revenue supporting the current year's budget came from a one-time Federal stimulus grant. His proposed expenditures for next year represent an 8.99% increase over last year if those stimulus dollars are removed from last year's budget.

In an email, Board of Ed Chair Ted Raczka asked Frechette to expand on the sources of revenue for funding over the past several years. Frechette told the Board members that he anticipated that the current year's budget would require the city to ultimately contribute $51.7M, and estimated the contribution next year to be $55.3M, an increase of 7.04% in City expenditure.

However, this estimate is based on the assumption that the $2.4M of Federal stimulus money passed along to Middletown will be replaced by the State, a prospect that none in the room found likely. Governor Malloy has said his "goal" is to replace that money with state funding, but the $3.5B state budget deficit may challenge his intentions. Bill Boyd answered his own question about this, "Do they have any thoughts on what to do about it? Nobody has a solution."

If the state does not provide a replacement funding for the $2.4M in one-time stimulus money, and Frechette's expenditures budget is approved, the schools would require $57.7M from the City, an increase of 11.69% over the contribution the city made this year.

The Board members on the budget subcommittee voted to endorse the $73.2M budget proposed by Superintendent Frechette, by a vote of 3 - 1 (Jay Keiser, Bill Boyd, and Kristi Houston voted in favor, and Ryan Kennedy voted against). They generally agreed that the Board should present this budgetary figure as an 8.99% increase over last year, because if it was presented as a lower increase and then the state did NOT increase funding it would be difficult to go back to the city to get the $2.4M needed to maintain services.

The next step is for the full Board of Education to vote on the proposed budget, this is scheduled for tonight's meeting, at 7PM in the Council Chambers.

Frechette said that after the board approves the budget, he will finish preparing "The Book" which will provide the details of the spending plan. He reiterated that there would be no changes from the budget book of two years ago. In fact he told me that he did not even make "The Book" last year because it too was exactly the same as two years ago. The information in that budget book has been extensively discussed and is easily available on the Board of Education website.

The final determination of the Board of Education funding comes when the City finalizes its budget. The Mayor will propose a budget in March, which the Common Council will then vote to approve or reject. In the past two years, the Democratic majority on the Common Council has rejected the Mayor's budget and then proposed and ratified its own.

Neither the Mayor nor the Council can direct the Schools how to spend this money, State law mandates that the Board of Ed has control over the expenditures.