New London — The Board of Education has forwarded an amended $64.6 million budget to the mayor, asking for a 2.5 percent increase in city funds to cover costs.

The fiscal year 2017 school spending plan is just a 0.21 percent increase over this year’s $64.5 million budget but requires substantially more funding from the city’s general fund because of what Superintendent Manuel Rivera said is a loss of $2.9 million in state funding and $1.8 million in additional fixed expenses, such as salary increases contained in the new teachers' contract.

The amended budget was passed Thursday with a unanimous 7-0 vote and restores four positions initially cut at Jennings Elementary School.

The school, next in line to transform into a magnet school, had lost $743,530 in Rivera’s proposed budget and initially about 17 full-time positions: teachers, educational assistants and English as a second language tutors.

Board member Mirna Martinez said she approved the budget with "an extremely heavy heart."

She said it was disconcerting that 13 full-time positions would be lost at Jennings, a school where the student population is predominately Hispanic and more than half the students are English language learners.

"I see it as a huge equity issue," Martinez said. "But I am supporting (the budget) because of the efforts by the administration to reinstate some positions to Jennings school and assurances from the superintendent that if we get other state monies, it will be going to that school."

The three full-time tutor positions, along with an interventionist position, were reinstated thanks to what Rivera said was about $200,000 in additional funding added to the budget.

The money was gained because of overbudgeting for paraprofessionals at Bennie Dover Jackson Middle School and a discovery Tuesday that $100,000 could be carried over from a grant. 

The revised spending plan containing the changes was not available at Thursday’s meeting.

Board member Jason Catala echoed Martinez's concerns, saying the district is “losing staff in a part of town we should be paying attention to.” It is also the only school with all New London students, he said.

The school is currently developing curriculum to support a dual language magnet school for the 2017-18 school year. Other schools in the district that are already magnet schools are benefitting from increases in state funding, Rivera said.

“We are trying to balance all of the interests, all of the needs, all of the work we are trying to do,” Rivera said. “Hopefully, a year from now, when we get approved as a K-5 dual language school, we will begin to see some of the benefits.”

Board member Zachary Leavy said the budget was a “tremendous step forward,” considering flat funding in years past that had stymied growth at the schools.

He noted that the budget contains two additional guidance counselors, bringing the total in the district to nine.

The proposed budget will require a $43.5 million appropriation from the city’s general fund as compared to $42.4 million in the current year.

After subtracting state and federal grants and the $22.9 million from the state’s educational cost-sharing fund, New London’s share of costs is projected to be $20.1 million, a $993,000 increase from this year.

Scott Garbini said the budget goes a long way in helping to transform the district into “an educational system that this nation hasn’t seen yet.”

“I truly believe we are going to be in the national spotlight,” Garbini said.

g.smith@theday.com

Twitter: @SmittyDay