Groton Superintendent proposes $77.8 million education budget
Groton — Superintendent Michael Graner has proposed a $77.8 million education budget for the coming fiscal year, a 1.79 percent increase over current spending.
The budget would cover contractual pay raises for teachers and staff, maintain class size, keep all instructional and extra-curricular programs and continue expansion of the magnet programs. The Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the proposed budget at 6 p.m. on Monday in the band room of Robert E. Fitch High School, followed by a budget work session at 7 p.m.
Graner said he started with a proposed budget of $79.8 million, or 4.43 percent more than current spending, mostly due to contractual pay raises for employees. Teachers are due to receive 1.5 percent pay raises, along with "step" increases related to education and experience. Paraprofessionals and administrators have contractual increases of 2 percent in the coming year.
To offset the budget increase, Graner reduced the health insurance reserve account by $1 million and cut another $1 million from multiple areas like textbooks, student interns and tuition. The district saved on tuition mainly by reducing the number of special education students placed in schools outside Groton.
Graner also found substantial savings in health costs. The insurance reserve account is money that was budgeted for employee health costs but not spent. Since the Board of Education is self-insured, it saves money in years in which employees are healthy. That savings is then deposited in the health insurance reserve account.
The current reserve account is $1.8 million, so Graner took $1 million from that total, leaving $800,000 to cover any unforeseen health expenses.
"I looked at every account where I thought there could be a savings," he said.
He will recommend Monday that the board reduce some staffing through attrition, he said. Some grades may see enrollment declines which would allow classes to be combined in some grades, he said. He estimated the savings in staff at between five and eight people.
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