By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Region 15 Superintendent of Schools Regina Botsford on Monday night presented to the Board of Education a proposed 2015-16 budget of $65.26 million, a 2.48 percent, or $1.58 million, increase over the current $63.68 million budget. She said via telephone Wednesday, “I’m very proud of this budget. I think it’s a great example of managing our assets in a very responsible manner.”
In addition to the increase in the budget itself, Middlebury taxpayers will see an increase in the percentage of the budget they pay. That is due to the change in the number of students enrolled from Middlebury and Southbury.
If the Region 15 budget total remains unchanged, which is unlikely, Middlebury’s Chief Financial Officer Larry Hutvagner said Middlebury would need to contribute an additional $664,463 more than this year’s $19.95 million contribution, and the result for taxpayers would be an additional 6/10 of a mil. If neither the Region 15 budget nor the town budget decrease, Middlebury’s mil rate could move to 29.99 from the current rate of 29.34. However, both the BoE and Middlebury’s Board of Finance are conducting budget workshops that are expected to reduce their respective budgets by the end of March.
Highlighted budget items in Botsford’s budget presentation were technology, math textbooks for grade K through 3, restoration of funding for library books, a turf field at Pomperaug High School (PHS) and new textbooks at PHS.
Technology needs of $323,376 include a $234,380 infrastructure upgrade, replacement of Smartboard projectors and Smartboards, Smartboards for pre-K, additional computer projectors for PHS and additional computers and software for the Digital Learning Academy. In addition, a total of 1,074 aging desktops and laptops are to be replaced with new leased computers at a cost of $60,000 a year.
Math textbooks for grades K-3 will cost $40,000 and library books will cost $83,232. The new turf field at PHS would be funded from the capital reserve and would not impact the budget. The new textbooks at PHS would be for AP economics, personal finance and AP calculus and would cost $16,736.
Middlebury BoE member Paul Babarik said, “I think overall it is a fair budget, well thought out, not aggressive, but there is room to reduce it.”
He expressed concern about the need to reduce the number of professional staff, noting that the number of students has dropped by more than 500 since 2010-11, and staff hasn’t reduced as much. He said there are now 10.5 students per teacher, and he feels 15 to 16 students per teacher is a good number.
He said he’d also like to look at reductions in money spent on replacing computers. “We need to re-examine thefunctionality of the computers, and I think we could save quite a bit of money not replacing all the computers in the school,” he said.
Babarik also said he wants to look at outsourcing staff positions such as counselors, psychologists and nurses, and he questioned spending more than $82,000 on books for the school library. “We have a good public library in this town, and so does Southbury. Why do we need a third library at the school?” he asked.
The proportion of students from the towns of Middlebury and Southbury is determined as of Oct. 1 each year and is then used to calculate the percentage each town will pay. On Oct. 1, 2014, Region 15 had 3,881 students enrolled compared to 4,012 the previous October and 4,556 in October 2010.
For the 2015-2016 year, Middlebury has 1,226 students, down 31 students from this year’s 1,257 students. Southbury has 2,655 students, down 100 students from this year’s 2,755 students. These numbers generate a budget obligation of 31.59 percent for Middlebury (up from this year’s 31.33 percent) and 68.41 percent for Southbury (down from this year’s 68.67 percent). Numbers are rounded.
Region 15’s largest individual increase was in salaries, which rose 39.93 percent to $40.51 million from $39.88 million. Salary increases are mandated by the existing contract with the teachers’ union.
The next largest increase was instructional, which rose 29.12 percent to $1.67 million from $1.20 million. Instructional include the technology enhancements and purchases along with annual subscriptions for databases and network management.
The third largest increase was rentals, leases and advertising, which rose15.04 percent to $1.67 million from $1.44 million. It includes the computer leases and an increase in special education therapies.
The fourth largest increase was insurances, which rose 11 percent to $10.86 million from $10.69 million. While the district saves $1 million annually by self-insuring health with Middlebury and Southbury, property and liability insurance premiums increased, as did the medical insurance premium.
Lower increases were seen in tuition (3.80 percent), transportation (2.82 percent) and facilities (2.69 percent). One category, debt service, decreased by 4.43 percent.
The Board of Education will meet for budget workshops Tuesday, March 3; Thursday, March 5; and Thursday, March 19. All meetings will be at 7 p.m. in the PHS media Center. On Monday, March 23, the BoE will present the budget at 7:30 p.m. in the PHS AP Room, and the public hearing and adoption of the budget will be Monday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the PHS AP Room. The referendum will be Wednesday, May 6.
