After the last Board of Education (BOE) meeting in January, it was clear that at least some members of the BOE wanted to see an increased budget proposal that cut fewer positions. So, on February 10, 2025, Interim Superintendent Dr. Laura Norbut presented three options to the board. Ultimately, the board voted 4-3 for the third option, representing a 5.48% increase. Aaron Hoffman, Erica Bushior, and Chris Paradiso voted against the budget, while Sara Kelley, Shana Boland, Jennifer Biedrzycki, and Eileen Bartlett voted for it. Let's get into the details.
School Budget Option A
Option A, presented at last month's meeting, saw a slight change over the past few weeks. A paraeducator is retiring, so instead of replacing that person, Dr. Norbut budgeted to leave that position unfilled, bringing the number of full-time positions lost up to nine. That version would require a 4.91% increase. She noted that just since the January 27 meeting, more than $352,000 in additional expenditures became legally mandated in the 2025-2026 school year based on new student needs. That includes out-of-district tuition, transportation, and nursing services. This meant the district had to find additional cuts to stay at the 4.91% increase.
Funding for curriculum has been reduced to $0. The schools are looking to reduce the number of regular education buses and bus monitors. In-service training and general travel reimbursement have been reduced, as have instructional materials budgets. The cuts total more than $1.5 million. Dr. Norbut reminded the board that many of these items would not be an option to cut next year.
For a more complete look at what's been cut, watch the meeting and skip to about 1 hour and 10 minutes.
Effective School Solutions and Special Education
The district is also looking at ways to partially grant fund Effective School Solutions (ESS) therapeutic programming in-district for special education students, which costs $150,000. Schools are legally obligated to meet the needs of students with an Individualized Education Program (IEP). When those services are unavailable in-district, students are sent elsewhere at a cost to the schools. As we have repeatedly reported, tuition and transportation costs for special education are a cause for concern at schools across the state.
Dr. Norbut estimated that the schools could find about $70,000 in Title I, Title II, and Title III funding to offset the cost of ESS by about $70,000, but pointed out that these federal funds are an estimate. Stafford doesn't know exactly how much it will receive until after the budget is in. (It's also worth reading this article to learn about how federal funding could impact the school budget.) Repurposing this grant money eliminates the possibility of hiring additional academic tutors if needed. Bringing the ESS program to Stafford, however, could allow some students to return to the district, save money, and possibly allow Stafford to grow the program to collect tuition from other area schools.
Additional funds to offset this program could be found through a TD Bank grant, which ESS says can help Stafford apply for. Additionally, Governor Ned Lamont's budget calls for "a new grant program to incentiv[ize]e special education programming within districts, through $10 million from the General Fund and $4 million in bond funds for fiscal year 2027." Those funds are still a long way off and never guaranteed.
Budget Options B & C
Take everything you learned about Option A and apply it to the following two options.
Per feedback from that last BOE meeting, Dr. Norbut added a secondary reading interventionist to the budget in Option B. That would require a 5.23% increase.
Finally, Option C includes the reading interventionist and a multi-language learner (MLL) teacher in the budget. At the last meeting, other teachers spoke about how the MLL teacher enables them to communicate more efficiently with students still learning English and ultimately allows them to spend more time with other students. It was clear that the loss of an MLL teacher would impact more than just the MLL students. That version of the budget would require a 5.48% increase.
It's also worth noting that to keep the budget as-is and adequately fund some line items, like utilities, that were underfunded this year (leading to a probable deficit), the schools would need a 9.88% increase.
The discussion and vote
When it came time to discuss and vote, Boland motioned to accept Option C. Hoffman said he would not vote for the budget because "I do not believe the situation is sustainable right now." He said that a "small cohort of students" was impacting the budget disproportionately, referring to the increasing special education costs. He said, "We're in a situation where this budget, as currently constituted, takes away from our general students, takes away from our staff's ability to be able to do their job to support our general education students, and hurts taxpayers in our town."
After saying that this increase would create the most significant tax increase since he has lived in town, other than a re-evaluation year, he called for a re-evaluation of students being sent out-of-district. He pointed out that more than $3 million of the budget goes toward tuition and transportation: "I can't vote yes on a budget until we take a hard look at what we can do to work with families to meet the servicing needs of these students at a lower cost."
BOE Chair Kelley said, "That's not going to be an overnight fix." A special education teacher, Kelley said these decisions are made as a team and that it will take time, and there will always be out-of-district placements needed. She also pointed out that the implementation of ESS is designed to bring students back to town. She also pointed out that the team has tried to preserve programming for all students but that the district needs the 9.88% increase "to sustain what we have," so all students will be impacted by any version of the three lesser increases presented to the board. "I feel it's our job as a board to fight for the best quality education for all students," she added, calling on all members to support the budget in the community so students are not impacted even more.
Dr. Norbut pointed out that any district that brought back students without the ability to provide for their needs in their schools could lead to exponentially higher costs in compensatory services and legal fees. She also noted that building an ESS program is essential to the process of bringing students back and reducing tuition and transportation costs.
Bushior said she "cannot vote against cutting teachers" who work with students instead of staff who do not. It's worth noting that at a previous BOE meeting, Dr. Norbut explained that next year’s budget calls for eliminating two ELA teachers. Each grade has two ELA teachers at Stafford Middle School. However, the curriculum is changing to integrate reading and composition classes. Additionally, most eighth graders have not been taking a reading class. So, the new plan will leave two ELA teachers in the sixth grade and one each for the seventh and eighth grades.
Chris Paradiso, who attended via Zoom, said he would not vote for the budget because "at the end of the day, it's still going to fall short. Unfortunately, this is a tough situation with not a lot of good options."
The motion to approve this budget passed by a narrow 4-3 margin and will be presented to the BOF on February 19, 2025.