NHPS request: A budget without new items and with only contractual increases.
School board officials plan to plead for $12 million more from the city than what the mayor has put in his proposed new city budget — money they say would still cover only the bare bones.
The school district’s finance department and superintendent presented that budget request of $220,076,118 for the 2024 – 2025 school year during the latest Board of Education Finance and Operations Committee meeting via Zoom.
They emphasized that the request would simply maintain staff, programs, and services that the district currently has, and nothing new.
This is Supt. Madeline Negrón’s first budget proposal put forth since she stepped in to lead the district.
The budget request to be presented to the full Board of Education Monday night was announced a week after Mayor Justin Elicker introduced his proposed FY 2024 – 2025 city budget. If approved by the Board of Alders, that budget would increase the city’s contribution to the Board of Education’s budget by $5 million. That would bring the city’s general fund contribution to the public school system from $203,263,784 this fiscal year to $208,263,784 next fiscal year.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) leaders plan to put forth a higher budget request for next school year of $220 million, they said at Tuesday’s committee meeting.
“We need to continue to support the work that is happening inside of our attempt to bring about high-quality instruction,” Negrón said. “It’s continuing that work, and the resources that are needed to continue to do that.”
The $220 million request for the 2024 – 2025 school year is a slightly lower budget option than the district’s finance department presented to the Finance and Operations Committee on Feb. 20, which was $222 million and included several new positions and programs.
The new request will cover “all contract requirements and very little anything else,” Chief Finance Officer Linda Hannans said.
Notable cost drivers for the district’s general funds budget are personnel, out-of-district tuition, and transportation, which make up 86 percent of the budget. The district’s four largest bargaining units have contractual changes for FY24-25 including 2.25 percent general wage increases (GWI) for teachers, 2.5 percent GWI for administrators, and 3 percent GWI for management. Additionally the transportation contract has an anticipated 3 percent increase.
Hannans, her team, and Supt. Negrón presented several new programs and services that the district would like to invest in but were not included in the FY24-25 budget request. The new items would cost a total of an additional $2.4 million. Negrón said she’d like to invest more in high-quality instruction, which then comes with a need for more tutoring, educator coaching, and social workers. She also said she wishes the district had money to invest more in family engagement, college/career pathways, safe learning environments, increased IT support, bilingual learner supports, security guards, and cybersecurity.
24-25 barebones budget compared to a more ideal budget.
“I know that money is tight. I’m being very conservative around the new ask, but again these are some of the new asks that we are trying to build into the budget,” Negrón said.
The presentation highlighted that while NHPS’ student enrollment had been on the decline since 2016, this 2023 – 24 school year saw a small annual increase from 19,150 students to 19,363.
Next year’s projected special funds revenue is expected to be $97,604,152 based on historical trends, Hannans said. She emphasized that the district’s federal pandemic-relief funds will sunset in September.
“I don’t want to be at the mercy of grants, because grants are not guaranteed,” Negrón added. “We need to at least afford a few dollars to be able to continue that work.”
As reported in this story, Elicker’s budget proposal estimates a $3.5 million drop in what the city expects to receive through the state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant.
The school district’s entire budget in 2023 – 24, including state and local funding and grants, totals to $341.1 million. Its allocation from the city and state made up 60 percent of its full budget.
This year's budget...
... and the proposed budget changes.