RSD #17 2019-20 Budget Released

Editorial Staff.

On Tuesday, March 5, 2019, RSD #17 Superintendent Howard Thiery presented his preliminary budget for 2019-20. Some of the goals of this budget:

• increase opportunities for students in strategic areas that are high priority such as literacy, STEM, personalized learning, and world languages
• maintain desired class sizes
• adjust and reallocate resources to reflect 11 years of declining and shifting student enrollment.

Some highlights from the superintendent’s presentation:

• state calculated per pupil expenditure is $17,805 (76/167)
• state calculated district performance is 89.5 (16/167)
• Gross budget is going up 1.6%, but because of revenue increases, the net budget is only going up 1.1%. And with the audited fund balance as of June 30, 2018, the town assessments will only be a 0.1% increase.
• The breakdown between Haddam and Killingworth is Haddam will decrease 0.73% and Killingworth will increase 1.25%

The planned and very contentious district restructuring will eliminate 10 full-time certified positions, as well as 4 full-time non-certified positions, and add one full-time certified position, for a net decrease (salaries & benefits) of $970,849.88. The total 2019/20 budget impact of the district restructuring is a decrease of $1,179,837.24 between personnel and infrastructure.

Tonight (March 7, 2019) is the joint meeting between the Killingworth Boards of Selectmen and Finance, and the Haddam Boards of Selectmen and Finance, along with the Regional School District #17 Board of Education. It will be at Haddam Killingworth Middle School at 7:00 p.m.

There will be several budget workshops where the Board of Education typically whittles down the budget, along with a Community Input Session for the budget on March 19, 2019. The Annual Hearing is scheduled for April 2, the Annual Meeting for May 6, and the Budget Referendum in both towns is scheduled for May 7, 2019. The full budget timeline can be found HERE.