Zoe Berg, Photo Editor

New Haven Public Schools’ proposed $200 million general funds budget reflects increasing personnel costs within the district while also calling for an increase in non-general fund programs like Black and Latinx elective courses. 

At Monday’s bi-weekly Board of Education meeting, Chief Financial Officer Linda Hannans presented the draft general funds budget for the New Haven public schools system, which is one of the first formal steps of the budget process. The plan was classified as a “maintaining the status quo” budget, which also ensures that the budget is balanced for this fiscal year. 

“We are working to create and implement a transparent budget process,” Superintendent Iline Tracey said at the BOE meeting. “This process must be equitable and site based to support the instructional core and premised on a balanced budget.  We must allocate resources in a manner that promotes equity between magnet and neighborhood schools as well as present a budget that reflects the true cost of running the New Haven Public Schools.” 

The budget reflects a $10 million hike from the 2021-22 fiscal year, when the New Haven public schools system’s budget stood at $190 million. The increase is largely attributed to collectively bargained contractual salary increases which the district has to pay to teachers, paraprofessionals and other staff. 

Teachers are seeing a 3.5 percent increase in their salaries, paras are gaining a 2.4 percent increase and administrators will receive a 2.5 percent raise. Combined, these increases amount to approximately $6.2 million, which is 60 percent of the budget increase. The remaining 40 percent is distributed around non-salary expenses like increasing transportation costs — $2.5 million higher than previous year — on top of maintenance of New Haven Public Schools buildings. 

“This presentation reflects a status quo budget with no change in programming,” said Board of Education Vice Chair Matt Wilcox. “So it’s pretty much to keep things going as they are now. This budget includes budget mitigation that we’ve done in the past, in order to balance our budgets, which we’ve been able to do for the last two years, and I know people are working on doing it this year as well.” 

According to Hannans, the district is also requesting additional funding outside of the general funds budget for a new health curriculum, increases in ESL and special needs staffing, additional textbooks and funding for full implementation of the Black and Latinx elective curriculum, which was recently passed by the state legislature. All of these proposals will cost $7.2 million combined. 

Hannans also presented the funding streams that the district uses for its budget. The majority of funding for the district, 51 percent, comes from state and federal grants. 

New Haven is a Title 1 school district, meaning that it is provided increased federal funding due to the fact that the city has a high level of low-income families, according to Hannans. The state also provides grants to the district through the Alliances program, which provides state funding at about $11,000 per pupil to the 30 poorest districts in the state.

According to Hannans, the district is awaiting the final total of Alliance funding that it will receive from the state, since there are currently fluctuations in the Education Cost Sharing, or ECS,  funding that the district may receive. 

Hannans added that the district has seen an increase in grant funds from $130 million last year to $200 million this year, which can partially be attributed to the district receiving an ESSER II grant of $32 million. ESSER II, or the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, was part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Emergency Security Act passed in 2020. 

In response to community members who had been calling for cuts to central administration funding, Tracey said that when auditors had been hired by the district to find areas to cut, they were unable to further optimize the budget.

Board Member Larry Connaway told community members at Monday’s meeting that this budget was important because of the number of economically disadvantaged children in the district who can gain a better education through a robustly funded district. Moreover, he requested that the district provide more information on economic diversity within the district to further illustrate to the community the importance of a well-funded budget, without the cuts that some community members have called for. 

“There are people who don’t believe that some of these children deserve the expenditures that we give them,” said Connaway. “At least we can try to win the moral battle and show a picture of our district that reflects the naked reality that some of these children are so poor, that where they were before water was an issue, clothing was an issue, food was an issue… I have a lot of confidence in this board and the superintendent and this mayor that we can at least show the weight and paint a realistic picture of what we’re dealing with.” 

The budget proposed by Hannans is a draft, which will next be presented to the Board of Alders in April. The Board of Education will adopt the voted-upon budget in May. 

The Board also, on Monday, agreed to a half day on March 18 for the district to reflect on mental health, especially in light of the approaching second anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We encourage all community members to participate in this day to focus on their own well being,” said the resolution proclaiming the Day of Hope. “The day will allow for opportunities for students, families, and staff to engage in virtual activities that promote their knowledge of self awareness, self management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision making. During this time, it is our desire that family, friends, colleagues, school personnel, and community partners will encourage one another as the universal promotion of hope and healing.”

The New Haven Board of Education has six members, four of whom are appointed while two are elected. The mayor serves as an ex-officio seventh member.