Sally E. Bahner Photo .
Don Neel, BPS chief operating officer, and Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez.
Schools Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez gave his FY19 Budget Presentation Wednesday night with the theme “Responsiveness.” Hernandez typically provides themes to his presentations, which, in the past, have included “Sustainability,” “Synergy,” and “Coherence.”
The PowerPoint presentation included various priorities, projected average class sizes and grade level counts, anticipated accomplishments, major “drivers” (salaries, benefits, etc.) as a percentage of the proposed budget, a list of previously requested increases (in percentages), enrollment numbers, numbers and percentages concerning students eligible for free and reduced meals and the English Language Learning population, and graphs concerning “critical data.”
Superintendent’s Slide
It all culminated with his proposed budget of 1.95 percent – $1,088,837 – which represents the increase over last year. Enrollment continues to decline at the elementary, intermediate and high school levels.
The Final Number?
Sally E. Bahner Photo .
The only thing missing from the “Responsiveness” budget was the actual operating budget number. That was absent. It was a budget presentation with no numbers – except for the $1 million figure and a reference to more than $600K going toward funding the medical self-insurance and required benefit contributions. The Board of Education attended the budget presentation.
The 2017 – 18 Representative Town Meeting (RTM) approved school budget came in at $55,799,386. Add to that the proposed 1.95 percent/$1,088,837 increase, brings the total to $56,888,223.
This $56.8 million figure does not include the capital (building maintenance and repairs) portion, nor does it take into account any state funds. The school budget makes up the largest portion of the overall town budget.
The school budget is broken into two sections, the operating budget and the capital budget.
The actual line item breakdown will be discussed at a workshop on Feb. 21.
What Was Included
Over the past few years, Branford had grappled with declining enrollment and a rising number of students needing reduced and free lunches and a sizeable number of English Language Learners (ELL).
School enrollment is currently under 3,000, declining from 3,063 in June 2016, to 2,929 in June 2017, to the present enrollment of 2,844.
Hernandez noted that when he started in Branford eight years ago the number of student eligible for free and reduced meals was under 20 percent. Since 2013 – 14, it has varied from 24 percent to 27 percent and is now at 26 percent.
The total ELL population was reported at 166 in 2014 – 15 to 160 in 2017 – 18, varying only slightly in between.
Hernandez noted that 38 percent of the population is designated as “high needs.”
Full Time Employees (FTEs) may also be reduced or reallocated, along with the transition from the previous Walsh Intermediate School team structure to the Next Generation WIS team structure.
According to the state’s budget the town is expected to receive $1,847,951 in 2018, down from $2,211,848 in 2017 in Educational Cost Sharing funds. Click here to read the CT. Mirror story.
Once the school budget is discussed and approved by the Board of Education, it will go before the Board of Finance in March with final amounts determined by the RTM.
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So a budget with no specific numbers to actually back up the budget requested? I wonder if his $800 raise was included in that. Maybe he's expecting another raise to prepare a real budget that one would think is expected. I don't understand why he couldn't present a detailed budget. He must have arrived at that ridiculous number somehow. And I still don't understand why they keep asking for more money each year when the enrollment continues to decrease.We are down 7% in 3 years, but the budget goes up a couple % each year. And that 38% High Needs number is so random. He uses that # as a sympathy card he can use when asking for money. They can designate students into so many categories to make the numbers look this way. I would love an explanation as to what exactly high needs is and how they identified them. There is no way 38% of the kids in our school system would be considered high needs by anyone other than an education administrator looking for money. I hope most of the current BOE members aren't expecting to be re-elected in the 2019, 2021 and 2023 elections.