DERBY BOARD OF EDUCATION

PO Box 373
Derby, Connecticut 06418

Members
Kenneth Marcucio, Chair Stephanie D'Onofrio Rebecca O'Hara
Andrew Mancini, Vice Chair Laura Harris Casey Picheco
Kimberly Kreiger, Secretary George Kurtyka Christine Robinson

Section 10-222 of the Connecticut General Statutes provides that each year "the Board of
Education shall prepare an itemized estimate of the cost of maintenance of public schools
for the ensuing year." In response to that obligation, the Derby Board of Education
proposes the attached budget for our public schools for 2011-12.

While mindful of the fmancial challenges facing our city, the Board of Education has
focused its budgeting efforts on the identification of what it believes to be the legitimate
needs of our children and their schools for the year ahead. Working from the
Superintendent's Recommended Budget, we eliminated items that we thought our
schools could do without, and we included those things that we regarded as important to
the maintenance and improvement of our schools.

For the third year in a row, the economic hardships afflicting our state and nation are
placing our public schools at risk. Rising costs for wages, benefits, energy, transportation
and special education tuition, together with reductions in federal education funding, place
us in the unenviable position of seeking increased financial support from our city, while
simultaneously reducing school services and staffing.

The budget that we propose for Fiscal Year 2011-12 calls for an appropriation of
$19,020,894 - an increase of$I,286,115 or 7.25% over current year funding.

The budget that the Board of Education is proposing is essentially a "maintenance

budget". It maintains most (but not all) of our current academic programs, including full
day kindergarten and interscholastic athletics. It does not provide for the reinstatement of
the many positions that we have eliminated over the last three years, such as our
librarians, classroom paraprofessionals or curriculum director. In fact, this budget
eliminates four additional teaching positions. At the same time, it calls for modest
increases in spending for curriculum development and staff training.
The additional funding that the federal government has provided to public schools under
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA ESEA Title I and IDEA)
accounted for $307,000 of our district's spending plan in the current year. These funds
will no longer be available in FY20l2.

Approximately 39% or $6.9 million of Derby's public school budget comes in the form
of the state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant. Governor Malloy has proposed that
ECS funding be maintained at the same level in 2011-12. However, until the state budget
is adopted sometime this spring, the status of the ECS grant and other important forms of
state support for education will be uncertain.

The Board of Education and the school administration have taken several steps to realize
savings and minimize the need for additional funds. These include:

• Elimination of a classroom teaching position at Bradley School. This will result

in higher class sizes and may require a "split grade" class.

• Elimination of a classroom teaching position at Irving School. As with Bradley

School, this will result in higher class sizes and may require a "split grade" class.

• Elimination of an English teaching position and the Woods Technology Shop

program at Derby High School.

• Negotiation of a new contract with the Derby Education Association which

provides for a wage freeze in 2010-11 and a 2.9% increase in 2011-12. The fact
that next year's teacher raises will be calculated off of this year's freeze means
that the school system continues to save payroll dollars.

• Negotiation of modifications in insurance benefits with the DEA, resulting in

savings of more than $100,000.

• Negotiation of a new agreement with the Derby Administrators Association that

includes a wage freeze for 2011-12.
Despite the reductions and savings listed above, the Board requires additional resources
in order to continue current programs and to meet contractual and legal obligations,
including the following "non discretionary" increases:

This figure includes the cost of contracted salary increases, including those required
by the recently negotiated contract with the Derby Education Association, plus the
$108,000 required to cover personnel costs that are currently covered by federal
ARRA funds that will not be available in 2011-12. It also reflects savings resulting
from the elimination of four teaching positions and one paraprofessional position.

Please note that the staff reductions listed above are in addition to the significant
reductions that we have made over the past two years, including our district
curriculum and professional development leadership, our librarians, and several
teaching, paraprofessional, custodial, clerical and security positions.

This figure includes a projected increase in payments to Anthem Blue Cross, the
savings resulting from changes in benefit arrangements in the new DEA contract, a
"plan adjustment factor" reflecting projected upgrades from single to family coverage
and savings resulting from the elimination of five positions.

Energy calculations include a more realistic projection of the cost of operating the
new Derby Middle School facility, based on actual bills so far in 2010-11 - the
building's first full year of operation. Also included are projected rate increases for
electricity (transmission only) and water. Natural gas rates are projected to be
unchanged. (The district administration is working with the Building Committee to
see whether reductions in middle school energy costs may be possible, as we get
more actual operating experience with the new building.)

This increase reflects actual claims experience thus far in 2010-11, plus an increase
in claims that could result from proposed staff reductions in 2011-12.

Transportation costs reflect the 2011-12 per bus rate and fuel expenses set forth in the
Board of Education's contract with All Star Transportation, plus the cost of running a
special schedule during mid-term and final examinations at Derby High School.
 This figure reflects a projected 5% increase in tuition charges for special education
students whose disabilities require that they be placed in public or private institutions
outside of the district. The district is required by state and federal law to provide
these services. (Special education tuition costs are based on the assumption that the
state Excess Cost Grant funding formula continues to reimburse excess special
education costs at a rate of 65%.)

The increased allocation for substitute teachers corrects for overruns in the substitute
account that our schools have experienced over the past two years. Under this
proposal, each school will be allocated $25,000 for substitutes related to sick and
personal days, and $5,000 for substitutes required for professional development
activities.

The number of pre-school children requiring special education services will increase
significantly next year. As a result, we are required to expand our existing part time
pre-school Special Education Teacher position to full time.

Taken together, these "non-discretionary" increases account for $994,000 or more than
three quarters of the $1,286,115 in increased spending requested in this budget.

Even in tough economic times, it is incumbent on the school system to be mindful of its
commitment to continuous improvement. Thus the proposed budget includes some new
funding that would enable the district to address a few of its top priorities during the
corning year, including:

Twenty thousand dollars is allocated for the revision of the district's elementary
reading and mathematics curricula. Funding will permit us to engage a committee of
reading specialists and classroom teachers to develop a comprehensive reading
curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade and a similar team of teachers to
develop an up-to-date K-5 mathematics curriculum.

An additional $20,000 is allocated to the development of curriculum for grades 6 - 12

in two major subject areas.
These funds would enable us to continue to provide at least a minimal set of
professional development programming for our staff, both at the school and district
level. Each school will be allotted $5,000 to support building level training efforts.
The remaining $20,000 will support district wide professional development
programming. These funds are needed because, for the most part, our staff
development efforts in FY2011 have been supported by federal funds that will no
longer be available after this year.

In an effort to reduce the number of "lagging readers" at our middle school, the
school has engaged the services of a Reading Facilitator in 2010-11. This non-
certified position supports the work of the school's only Reading Teacher. While the
middle school expanded from grades 7-8 to grades 6-7-8 this year, budget constraints
resulted in the reduction of the reading faculty from two to one. The federal funds
that are paying for the Reading Facilitator are not available beyond the current year.

This budget includes $20,000 to support the implementation of an on-line credit

recovery program for Derby High School students who have lost graduation credits
due to poor course grades, beginning this summer. State law now requires high
schools with dropout rates in excess of 8% to offer such programs.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges recently presented us with its
report on the accreditation review of Derby High School. The report includes
commendations for important progress in several areas, including the opening of the
new Derby Middle School and the improvement of school climate over the past two
years. But the report also calls for a host of improvements that it expects to see over
the next several years if the school is to retain its accreditation. This budget includes
$50,000 (an increase over the $15,000 included in the FY2011 budget) to enable the
high school to begin responding to some of the recommendations in 2011-12.
(Specific uses for these funds will be approved by the Board of Education based on
recommendations from the High School Principal and the Superintendent.)

This budget would provide $12,000 for the replacement of the aging servers that
support most of the district's information technology operations with newer
reconditioned equipment. Our present servers are well beyond their useful life and,
as such, degrade e-mail communications and data base operations on a daily basis.
This budget also provides funds to enable the district to replace the existing T-1 lines
with a fiber optic wide area network, further improving the reliability of our
technology infrastructure. The total cost of this installation is approximately $71,000.
This cost will be offset by $48,000 in federal e-rate support, plus the termination of
our existing T-l operation, resulting in a net annual cost of$19,000.
The Board of Education appreciates the challenge that you face as you work to provide
adequate financial support to our schools and the other important public services that our
citizens expect in a time of continuing economic difficulty. We look forward to
discussing our budget proposal with you in the near future.

~n1C21~d:V
Kenneth Marcucio
Chairman
Derby Board of Education

cc: Mayor Staffieri

Board of Education
Superintendent of Schools
Business Manager