Milford Superintendent Proposes 4.39% Budget Increase

MILFORD, CT — The difficult economic environment will continue to affect Milford school costs. Superintendent Anna Cutaia requested a $106 million 2023-2024 budget, which is a 4.39 percent increase over last year’s adopted budget.

"We by no means are immune to the economic pressures and challenges that we experience as a state and as a nation," Cutaia said in her Board of Education presentation Monday night.

The budget will go through a series of workshop meetings before getting a full Board of Education vote.

She acknowledged that the proposed increase is more than most previous years. The last similar percent increase occurred about a decade ago. However, economic conditions have changed and there are greater mental health and other needs for students, she said.

Cutaia uses a zero-based budgeting system where all requests need to be evaluated and justified every year, she said.

"Every administrator is rolled back to zero, every department, every school building is rolled back to zero," she said. "So for example if you had $300,000 in that line item last year, you don't start at $300,000, you start at zero and if that line item is now proposed at $350,000, there are a lot of questions around why, how did you get to that number."

The school budget increase request would’ve been about 14 percent if all requests were included in the ask.

Administrators were able to find about $150,000 in cost savings as well. The full budget proposal is available on the Board of Education website.

Cost drivers

The lion’s share of the increase is due to four areas, most of which are difficult to avoid. Cutaia cited salary and benefits, special education, transportation and unfunded state mandates as the largest cost drivers. In total, the four areas account for 4.21 percent of the 4.39 percent increase request. Only 0.18 percent of the increase is for system improvements.

Salary and benefit increases alone account for 3.43 percent of the 4.39 percent.

The teacher’s union entered into a new three-year contract with the Board of Education About $1.6 million (1.53 percent) of the total requested increase is due to contractual raises. Benefit costs will increase by nearly $309,000, which is another 0.30 percent.

There is a net increase of 9.8 full-time equivalent certified and 2.2 non-certified positions, which accounts for another 0.82 percent of the total budget increase request. The increase includes moving four elementary school counselors from the ESSER 2 grant to the general fund budget. Milford Board of Education decided to gradually phase in school counselors into the general fund in order to avoid a funding cliff when the grant expires in July 2024.

Another $330,000 (0.32 percent) of the increase is due to rising special education costs, including $148,000 for contracted services and $182,000 for contracted services.

Transportation costs are also increasing by about $312,000 (0.31 percent of total increase), including rising fuel costs. About $187,000 of the increase is for regular education and $125,000 for special education.

Two unfunded state mandates added another $155,000 (0.15 percent) to the budget request increase. The state now requires schools to evaluate all HVAC systems every three years, which will cost an estimated $130,000. The state also requires installing menstrual cycle dispensers in all K-12 schools, which will cost $25,000.

System improvements

School officials strived to make the most with their 0.18 percent requested increase for system improvements, Cutaia said.
Some of the proposed improvements include:

• Spanish in fifth grade, which will bring world language instruction to all elementary school students.
• K-3 classroom library books.
• Science-based experience for third grade students.
• New middle school mathematics program.
• New English/language arts books for grades 6-12.
• New world language classroom libraries for grades 6-12.
• Robots for middle school students.
• New musical instruments for two middle schools and The Academy.
• Pottery wheel for Jonathan Law High School.
• Additional certified nursing assistance course to keep up with demand.
• Additional senior world language course.
• New AP physics and statistics textbooks.
• Improvements to human resources department.
• Replacement of cameras and radios for safety/security.