Mala Calls for 2.87 Percent Budget Increase

The Region 17 school board has begun its review of a proposed $38.44 million budget for 2011-12, a $1.07 million increase that would be offset by the return of $677,543 in unexpended funds to the district towns of Haddam and Killingworth.

The budget would raise spending by 2.87 percent unless revised by the school board, and compares to increases of 1.62 percent and 1.58 percent in the past two budgets.

Still, outgoing school Superintendent Gary Mala told the school board, the proposed budget would have been a $1 million higher had there not been a number of teachers who enrolled in the district’s early retirement incentive program and fruitful contract negotiations with the teachers’ union.

Delivered to the school board as he had promised before his departure Wednesday to become superintendent of Avon schools, Mala said the $1.07 million increase in operating costs for the school district results from contractual salary increases, an eight percent hike in the cost of employee benefits, and a 24 percent rise in out-of-district tuition expenses for special needs students – “Something that is out of our control,” Mala noted.

However, Mala said the budget benefitted significantly from a 0.18 percent decline in the overall cost of teachers’ salaries in the coming, as a result of the labor negotiations and retirements.           

As always, the considerable majority of the budget is allocated for what school administrators call non-discretionary spending: salaries, benefits, transportation, debt redemption, utilities, and transportation among them. Those expenses amount to $35.81 million in this budget, or 93 percent of spending, he said.

The budget does benefit to a minor degree from reduced debt interest expense, as well as reductions in building and grounds maintenance and in the cost of support staff.

Mala said fewer support staff are needed to cover for teachers when they are out of the district for professional training because much more of that training is now taking place within the district.

And Mala made particular note of the cuts made to funding requests from school principals and department heads, providing seven pages of requested increases to budget items, everything from a copier lease to administrative dues and fees, that were not approved.

Those cuts add up to $1.1 million, he said, with nearly $196,000 of that amount requested for staff positions.

The budget anticipates a slight decline in enrollment, to 2,403 from the current 2,452 students, although he said kindergarten enrollment still has not been resolved because so many registration days were lost to inclement weather this winter.

Mala and Martha Vaughan, the district’s financial operations director, forecast outside revenues of $178,371, significantly lower than current revenues due to a precipitous decline in interest income.

However, the net assessments to the two district towns will be reduced by the return to each of $677,543 in unexpended funds from the 2009-10 school budget.

Haddam, with 54 percent of the district’s students, receives the largest share of the return and bears the larger portion of the total cost.

Mala said the community will receive $370,680.90, reducing its net budget assessment to $20.4 million, while $306,862.10 will be returned to Killingworth, lowering its share of the district budget to $17.1 million.

“From the past five budgets, the district has returned about $3.1 million to the towns, he said. “It’s indicative of the spirit we all need to operate under as we go forward.”

A Killingworth resident, Mala told the school board, “We’re facing extraordinary times and we need to come together to make decisions for our communities – what’s fair, what’s reasonable, and recognizing the context in which we’re doing the work.