The Daily Five: All-Day K Is Not A Done Deal, Towns Take Aim At Governor's Budget, And The Huskies Do It Again!

 1. Expect more clouds and a few showers today. Weather.com is predicting a 40 percent chance of rain increasing to 60 percent this evening when we could see a few thunderstorms. The high temperature will top out at about 68 degrees with overnight lows of 49 degrees.  

2. UConn women have done it again! (Did you have any doubts?) The women's basketball team beat the Louisville Cardinals 93-60, which is apparently the most decisive victory ever in a Championship game. It was the Huskies eighth National Championship win. I guess the Kentucky governor owes Gov. Malloy a ham now. 

3. East Lyme parents who favor establishing all-day kindergarten in the coming school year are being urged to attend tonight's Board of Finance Meeting.

"The Board of Education proposed their budget to the East Lyme Board of Finance a few weeks ago. At that time a comment was made regarding the lack of support voiced for the budget at that meeting," an email sent out to parents stated. "You don’t have to agree with the entire budget, but if no one shows support for the school budget in general, we are telling the board of Finance that it is not a priority."  

The East Lyme Board of Education voted in favor of establishing all-day kindergarten last fall and many parents spoke in support of it during the board's budget hearing. The Board of Education's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013-2014 would fully-fund the program at a cost of $426,000. However, as the email to parents noted, "it's not a done deal yet." 

Full-day kindergarten is the district's costliest new line item and a few of East Lyme's Selectmen have suggested that, given the current economic climate, the district ought to put it off another year. The Selectmen don't have the power to change the school budget, but the Board of Finance does. 
 
The Board of Finance will be making its final recommendations on the school budget at its meeting this evening at 6:00 p.m. at East Lyme Town Hall.

4. Municipal leaders from across the state will be rallying at the state Capitol in Hartford today in a further attempt to persuade legislators not to pass the cuts in funding, including a proposal to eliminate the car tax, as proposed under Gov. Dannel Malloy's budget.

The day-long event is being organized by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) in advance of the late-April deadlines for Appropriations and Finance Committees. 

CCM members will be asking the Legislature's Finance and Appropriations Committees to report out budget proposals that truly “do no harm” to municipalities; proposing reasonable relief from state mandates; and presenting legislators with town-by-town breakdowns of how much each stands to lose if the Governor’s budget proposal is enacted.

5. The governor's budget proposes to make up the difference in town funding by increasing the amount of money available to towns in the Education Cost Sharing fund (ECS). However, a report being released today by research-based think tank Connecticut Voices for Children, find that a number of municipalities are being short-changed there too. 

The report, entitled, “The Impact of the Governor’s Proposed Municipal Aid Budget on Education, Towns, and Children,” finds that two-thirds of the Governor’s proposed increase in ECS aid to high-need school districts is funded by cuts to other, more flexible municipal aid. 

Because of shifts from other municipal aid, eight of the thirty towns that house these targeted districts—Bloomfield, Bristol, East Windsor, Killingly, Putnam, Winchester, Windsor, and Windsor Locks—would receive no net state aid increase at all.