School Board to Adopt Proposal for Budget Increase

Nearly three weeks and as many pubic hearings after former Interim-Superintendent Ernest Perlini revealed his budget proposal for fiscal year 2013, the Board of Education is set to vote on a budget with a 1 percent increase.

The Board's finance committee recently voted, 4-0, to move ahead with Perlini's proposal, and is recommending that the Board, as a whole, vote to adopt the proposal, which will then be presented to the Town Council for approval this spring.

The proposal represents a .99 percent increase in requested funds, which amounts to an increase of about $614,000.

At the time of his presentation of the budget proposal, Perlini said it "reflects the needs of the community of Windsor at this time."

"It reflects the poor economy we have right now," he added.

The minimal increase was achieved through the proposal of a number of cuts throughout the district, including nearly 16 staff positions, self-funding health care and, what Perlini called, the "deferment" of programs or building maintenance to another fiscal year.

In all, the proposed budget comes in at just over $62 million. 

According to district documents, the town would be responsible for about $50 million of that amount thanks, in large part, to Education Cost Sharing (ECS) funds provided by the state.

Windsor received $11.5 million in ECS funds for the current fiscal year. Gov. Dannel Malloy recently announced that Windsor's state funding would increase by roughly $300,000 in fiscal year 2013.

ECS funds do not go directly to the district. They are funds provided to municipalities to lessen the tax burden of public education.

The Board of Education will hold a vote on the proposal during its regular meeting Mon., Feb. 13 in Town Hall Council Chambers at 7 p.m.