7 more teachers on the budget for Ledyard schools
Ledyard — A public hearing on Wednesday will seek feedback on the Board of Education's budget for the coming fiscal year, which would increase by 5.6 percent due to requests for additional teachers and technology upgrades.
The proposed $32,304,247 budget for the 2016-17 academic year includes an additional four elementary school teachers, three math interventionists, one districtwide social worker and more Chromebooks and laptops across the schools.
The Board of Education voted unanimously at its Feb. 3 meeting to adopt the budget, which represents a $142,957 reduction from the superintendent's proposal on Jan. 16.
The reduction was achieved because a teacher retired, and the decision was made to delay implementation of attendance software, among other cost adjustments.
Many of the salaries are projected, as the district will be negotiating a number of contracts this year, including the paraprofessionals, custodians and technology unions.
In December of last year, the Town Council sent a budget directive requesting that budgets be held to contractual increases only.
Superintendent Cathy Patterson, at a Board of Finance meeting Feb. 1, said that the school's contractual obligations include a number of mandates such as student transportation and tuition to magnet schools that the district's administration has no control over.
Additionally, the cost of special education rose 5 percent due to enrollment numbers and last year's flat budget, according to Patterson, amounting to more than $112,000 in increases.
The four additional elementary school teachers will help curb large kindergarten classes at Gales Ferry and Juliet Long elementary schools, which averaged more than 20 students per class.
At previous meetings, Patterson has discussed the budget as an important tool for keeping Ledyard "regionally competitive" as students in town have more and more options, including Grasso Tech and the New London Science and Technology Magnet School.
Enrollment in magnet and technical schools is also expected to rise from 74 students to 82 students in the coming fiscal year, with a commensurate increase in tuition payments from $253,183 to $313,949.
Finance Committee Chairman Michael Brawner and others pointed out that math interventionist positions existed in the schools in previous years, but were cut from the budget.
He said the math interventionists will help elementary school students improve their math scores and keep up with the challenging Common Core math curriculum.
The state's math assessment scores show a decline in math proficiency from a high 70 percent in kindergarten to about 44 percent in fifth grade.
"It's not going to get better on its own," Brawner said. "If we don't get the math scores up, it's going to ripple into the middle and high school, where they don't have sufficient math capability."
Budget proposals going back to 2014 have attempted to restore those positions, unsuccessfully.
The public hearing is the second step in the education budget process. After the forum, the Board of Education may revise the budget ahead of the March 7 deadline to submit it to the Town Council.
The hearing will take place at 7 p.m. at the Ledyard High School media center.
Twitter: @_nathanlynch
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