Public Hearing Tonight on the South Windsor Schools Proposed $68.12 Million Budget

South Windsor residents will have an opportunity to be heard Tuesday on the school district’s proposed $68.12 million budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, which includes a $2.6 million - or 3.97 percent - increase over current spending.

The public hearing is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Timothy Edwards Middle School.

Over half of the proposed increase - $1.35 million - is in the area of special education, which Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kate Carter said in a previous meeting was due to a spike in the cost of outplacements.

In addition, the proposed budget also contains funding for full-day kindergarten, new mathematics textbooks for grades 3 and 4, seven new courses at the high school (including AP Spanish Language and Culture, Engineering and Design and Italian II), and the addition of boys and girls swim teams and boys junior varsity volleyball.

The impact of full-day kindergarten on the budget is $303,876, with the total cost of $522,785 offset by $219,000 of personnel and program grants. Because of declining student enrollment and elementary retirements, the school district would only be adding 4.5 full-time equivalent positions to the elementary staffing, of which two FTEs will be paid through grants.

Mayor Tom Delnicki said in a telephone interview on Monday that the Town Council had received over 60 inquiries on the school district’s proposed budget, including why special educations costs were so high, the impact of full-day kindergarten and why the budget was increasing even though enrollment is declining.

“We received an unprecedented number of questions on the budget,” Delnicki said.