BOE Sends Budget Proposal to Public Hearing

After trimming the 2012-2013 school budget by about $250,000, the Region 13 Board of Education voted Wednesday night to send the proposal to a public hearing next month.

The $34,089,930 budget will be presented to Durham and Middlefield residents on April 11, after which the board will have about a month to make any additional adjustments before the budget is sent to referendum in both towns in May.

While funding for full-day kindergarten remains in the budget, the board has managed to reduce Superintendent Susan Viccaro's original 4.24 percent spending increase down to an overall 3.27 percent increase.

In their latest efforts to reduce the budget, administrators presented the board with $121,000 in additional cuts, more than half of which were made in the area of special education. Additionally, the board agreed to reallocate about $123,000 leftover from the nearly $5 million bond approved in 2008 to replace athletic fields, roofs and wells.

Board member Kerrie Flanagan said $70,000 would be used to pay down debt, while the remaining $53,000 would be put into the capital reserve fund.

The public hearing on Wednesday, April 11 is scheduled for 8 p.m. at .