After Debate, BOE Approves School Budget with 6.7% Increase

Cover image from Steve Madancy's proposed 2026/2027 budget.

For much of the evening last Thursday, the main sticking point for the Board of Education as it considered whether to approve the proposed school budget was this: should the district hire an additional social worker to help manage the increasing number of students with acute needs?

In the end, the four Republicans on the Board, who objected to the proposal on various grounds, did not succeed in convincing the Democratic majority to strike that line item from the budget.

Their arguments were similar to ones advanced during the BOE workshops on January 13 and 15. Their starting point was that an 6.8% increase was a very large one and the Board had an obligation to trim it in any way that was feasible. From there, Sean Carson and Joe Baczewski questioned whether the school system really has either the ability or the duty to tackle issues that often stem from the way parents raise their kids. Baczewski pointed to the lost opportunity for other students who do not have these issues, arguing that the $83,000 for salary and benefits might better be spent on, say, professional development relating to the subject.

The replies from Democratic members of the Board varied but all came to the same conclusion. Bob Brown reiterated that schools are seeing an increase in social-emotional issues, and that once students enter the building, there needs to be staff in place to help them, something that social workers are best equipped to do, given their training.

Terri Carmody argued that the problems are sometimes beyond the ability of even parents to handle, and that the position was “one of the most important parts of the budget.” She later added, “It’s not going to take care of all of the problems, but it’s a start.”

Zaya Oshana sought to put things in context by noting that the students with acute issues must be handled by someone in the community – if not the schools, then the police or community services – and that the school system is in some ways best placed to do it. Adding a social worker line, he observed, would reduce the student-to-social worker ratio from 486:1 to 453:1. While the move that would not solve the problem, Oshana said, it would benefit both the students in question and their classroom peers.

Adjusting NEXUS Funding

Once it became clear that the Democrats would not budge on the social worker position, Joe Baczewski signaled that would vote for the budget if another change was made, one that would reduce the hike from 6.8% to 6.7%.

The change had to do with funding for teachers in the NEXUS program. This is a school choice program that allows students in Hartford who have won a placement lottery to attend school in Southington. The town sends the capitol city a bill for the educational services these students receive. The proposed budget would prefund four teachers.

The number of students coming from Hartford varies from year to year and won’t be know until the fall. Asked about trends, Director of Business and Finance Jennifer Mellitt indicated that the number has been decreasing recently, and was in the low 60’s last year.

Madancy’s proposed budget called for four teachers to cover students in NEXUS. At the start of the meeting Lisa Cammuso moved to reduce this number to two; Baczewski’s proposal took it down to zero.

With this change made, the Board voted. The modified budget passed 7 to 2, with Cammuso and Cecil Whitehead voting no.

Elephants in the Room

Throughout the discussion, there was palpable frustration on the part of board members that the major drivers of the budget increase – which was larger than last year’s 5.1% increase – were beyond their control. According to figures included in the Superintendent’s original document, the most important new costs were contractual pay increases ($4.0 million more than last year), health insurance increases ($1.7 million more), increased costs for out-of-town special education tuition ($660k more), transportation ($355k more), retirement fund contributions ($335k more), new personnel ($326k more), and new hardware and software (200k more).

At the same time, state and federal support has essentially flatlined, which means that local taxpayers must foot an increasingly large portion of the total bill. Colleen Clark described the district’s predicament as one of being “squeezed” between rising costs and shrinking outside aid.

Clark and Carson also pointed out that the budget increase is just first of multiple asks of taxpayers, given the likelihood that upcoming referendums will seek voter approval for new parking at the high school and an expensive set of rebuilds of local elementary schools.

The budget will now go to the Board of Finance and the Town Council for further consideration.