The cover page of the newly release draft budget.
After months of public requests for a detailed budget breakdown, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) has released a 120-page document containing proposed budget expenditures for the fiscal year that starts Tuesday.
NHPS spokesperson sent the Independent a copy of the draft document on Friday.
It contains a line-by-line breakdown for school district expenditures for Fiscal Year 2025 – 26 (FY26), which begins July 1.
Click here to view that document in full.
Harmon told the Independent that this budget document reflects district plans to merge Wexler-Grant with Lincoln-Bassett, turn Wexler’s current Foote Street building into an alternative middle school, and introduce ninth grade to Betsy Ross as part of the planned transitioning of that 5 – 8th grade arts middle school into a 7 – 12th grade arts high school.
Harmon said this budget document does not include changes related to the superintendent’s recently revealed proposal to close Brennan-Rogers School, which the Board of Education is slated to vote on during a special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at John C. Daniels School.
Supt. Madeline Negrón and Mayor Justin Elicker will host a presentation for the press of the NHPS budget at 4:15 p.m. in John C. Daniels School’s auditorium at 569 Congress Ave. in advance of the Board of Education meeting. (See below for the full text of the press release announcing that presentation.)
When asked if the district has a line-by-line salary breakdown for central office staff and the superintendent’s executive team, Harmon told the Independent, “Because school personnel often change between spring and fall, the finance team has always ‘rolled up’ salary numbers. Individual salaries are published as the Board votes on them.”
He said he has requested that that information be compiled. He added, “The origin of this budget book was in a document prepared in print form for the Board of Education and the Alders.”
Superintendent, Mayor to Present Schools Budget in Advance of Board Vote
See below for the full text of a press release sent out by NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon at 5:52 p.m. Monday.
NEW HAVEN, CT – Superintendent Dr. Madeline Negrón and Mayor Justin Elicker will present the proposed FY2026 budget for New Haven Public Schools in advance of a special Board of Education meeting called to vote on it. The press presentation will be Tuesday, July 1, at 4:15 p.m. in the auditorium of John C. Daniels School of International Communication, 569 Congress Avenue. The Board meeting begins at 5 p.m. at the school and online.
Looking toward the FY2026 fiscal year, the school district was confronted with a projected deficit of $23.2 million, most notably due to revenue constraints following the conclusion of the American Rescue Plan and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP/ESSER) funds. Mayor Elicker and the Board of Alders increased the city’s annual support to the school district by $5 million; the state legislature provided an additional $3.6 million ($1.7 million in additional Excess Cost Grant recovery and $1.9 million in special education support). These contributions helped to reduce the projected deficit to $14.6 million.
An initial budget projection made as many as 129 layoffs seem inevitable. In the intervening weeks, the district finance team scrubbed the numbers and looked for alternative budget cuts. Attrition exceeded expectations, enabling the district to reduce its staffing count by 76 positions. The revised budget proposal reflects $5.3 million in reduced staffing, inclusive of $1.8 million in voided vacancies, $820,000 in central office cuts, $1.7 million in classroom consolidations, and $1 million in FY2026 vacancy assumptions. Thus far, all staff displaced by the elimination of these positions have been placed within the district.
In a further effort to forestall layoffs, the superintendent proposed the closure of Brennan Rogers School, an intradistrict magnet. The school currently has 132 students enrolled, roughly a third of them from the neighborhood around the school. Closing Brennan would save $2.2 million. District leaders are optimistic that Brennan Rogers staff can be placed in existing, funded vacancies elsewhere in the district.
With these and other cuts, the school district still has $2.7 million to mitigate. The superintendent will continue to look both for potential sources of funding and for additional reductions to reduce costs.
WHAT: NHPS budget presentation
WHEN: 4:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 1, 2025
WHERE: John C. Daniels School of International Communication, 569 Congress Avenue, New Haven
WHO: Superintendent Dr. Madeline Negrón and Mayor Justin Elicker