Board of Education Approves $62 Million Budget

The Windsor Board of Education unanimously approved the proposed education budget for fiscal year 2011-12 at its meeting Tuesday night.

The $62 million proposal met no resistance when recommended to the full board by finance subcommittee members Christopher McAuliffe, Christopher Watts and Cristina Santos.

The proposal reflects a 2.31-percent increase in funds compared to the current year, but it could have much greater, Watts said.

If not for the utilization of federal Job Funds, from which Windsor Public Schools received $675,000 last fall, the increase in funds would have been 3.3-percent. The board applied $75,000 of the funds to the current school year budget, and saved the the remaining $600,000 for use on 2011-12 budget because of the anticipated reduction of federal and state education grant funds.

The money from the Job Funds will go towards the "redeployment" of positions and to address fixed costs associated with benefits, tuition for out-of-district placements and transportation.

Board of Education Secretary Doreen Richardson thanked Superintendent of Schools Dr. Elizabeth Feser and the committee for taking care to avoid "slashing jobs," and to place importance on maintaining current standards of education in the district given the current economic climate.

According to the budget, across the district a total of 7.4 teachers will be eliminated.

The finance subcommittee did not recommend changes to the original budget proposed by Feser one month ago.

Having been approved by the board, the budget will now be sent before the town council.

The only major question for board members will not be answered until fiscal year 2012-13: where will the board find money, similar to the $600,000 federal Job Funds, to keep the increase in requested funds down?