Laura Glesby file photo
Teachers union prez Blatteau (right): "The proposed 2.4% increase is not enough to maintain current staffing levels, in an already understaffed system."
Mayor Justin Elicker has proposed a $5 million increase in municipal education funding for the coming fiscal year — covering less than a quarter of the $23.2 million boost requested by schools Supt. Madeline Negrón.
Elicker unveiled his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025 – 26 (FY26) at a press conference on Friday morning.
The budget is now in the hands of the Board of Alders, which will hear from the public, deliberate, and potentially amend the document through its Finance Committee over the course of the spring, leading up to a final vote in late May.
Of the mayor’s total $703,765,049 general fund proposal, $213,263,784 would be allocated toward the Board of Education.
That represents both state and city funding, according to city spokesperson Lenny Speiller: $69.3 million from the city and $142.9 million from the state.
The budget would lead to a 2 percent increase to the city and state’s Board of Education allocation compared to last year, though it would fall short of the $231,494,972 that Negrón and her team are requesting from the city.
(Negrón has also calculated a separate budget request that does not account for currently vacant positions, which would ask for $225,216,777 — or a nearly $17 million increase — from the city.)
“It’s not even close to enough to adequately fund our schools,” Elicker said at Friday’s press conference. “Last year, we had a massive deficit in our New Haven Public School system…. This year, as the Board of Education puts together its budget, we will see another significant deficit.”
He argued that the onus is on the state, which is responsible for a significant majority of NHPS’ funding, to increase support for the school system: “The state must do more. We have done our part.”
Elicker noted that the city’s proposed contribution to NHPS for FY26 is nearly 52 percent more than what the city contributed in FY21, five years prior: a change from $45.7 million to $69.3 million.
Meanwhile, the state’s contribution will have increased by 0.3 percent in that same time frame, from $142.5 million to $142.9 million.
“There are 53 social workers for 19,000 kids” in the school system, Elicker said. “That’s 358 students per social worker. That’s a ridiculous caseload.”
The mayor is additionally planning to designate $15 million of its separate $60 million capital budget for NHPS building repairs and improvements over the course of FY26 and FY27. (FY26 runs from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026.)
That $15 million allocation marks a $1.6 million decrease from the prior two years’ allocation starting in FY24.
Meanwhile, complaints of leaks, inadequate heating, and other building problems have continued to flow in.
“We are grateful to the mayor” for the proposed budgetary allocations, wrote Negrón in a statement, noting that the school system will find “many uses” for the capital funds.
“Unfortunately, due to years of underfunding and the completion of federal ESSER grants, the school system faces a shortfall of $18 million in its operating budget for next year, which will affect our ability to sustain our existing programs,” Negrón wrote. “We will continue conversations with city leaders and state representatives to identify all available resources and to make necessary program cuts.”
New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau wrote in a statement that “it is disheartening to hear that our schools might have to make cuts when we have yet to be fully funded in the first place. The proposed 2.4% increase is not enough to maintain current staffing levels, in an already understaffed system. And if and when these cuts come, they must come from upper level management and costly contracts, as far away from schools and classrooms as possible.”
“We know the City of New Haven has made unprecedented investments in the past few years and we know the state must do more,” Blatteau continued. “Given this reality, we look forward to working with Mayor Elicker, Dr. Negron, and the Board of Alders to increase funding at the local and state level to avoid layoffs and ensure that our schools are fully staffed and NHPS can keep up with desperately overdue repairs and maintenance for our school buildings”