In my January newsletter, I shared an update on both the 2024-2025 budget and the 2025-2026 budget. I will do the same for this newsletter since there has been new activity in both areas. You can access last month’s newsletter here.
If you would like to help, you can reach out to your State elected officials and ask that they use your State tax dollars to support local education.
2024-2025 Budget
The current budget remains frozen for the same reasons I mentioned last month. However, the State House and Senate both supported adding $40 million to the State’s Excess Cost Reimbursement fund for this fiscal year. If the Governor signs this legislation, it will mean that Trumbull would receive about 72% of our expected reimbursement instead of 59.9%. From what I have read, the Governor seems hesitant to sign the bill. You can provide your own opinion (either way) by emailing Governor Lamont using this link. I am very pleased that our State Representatives heard our plea and acted. As a reminder, the State is supposed to pay 100% reimbursement and, if they did so, it would reduce the local tax burden. Instead, we are seeing local taxes increase while the State Government is talking about adding new educational initiatives like Pre-K and free breakfast for all. While I am not against Pre-K, we should not start new initiatives when we cannot “afford” our current obligations.
2025-2026 Budget
On February 4, the Board of Education unanimously adopted a budget of $131,859,769; a Year-to-Year increase of $7,329,367 or 5.89%. This is far higher than I would have expected when I began the budget process this year. For perspective, if we only moved all our current staff and programs forward then our request would still require a 5% increase. This increase is driven by two major assumptions: Excess Cost Reimbursement will be 67% and our insurance increase will be 13%. I am hopeful that recent events means that the Legislature will change Governor Lamont’s budget to ensure that ECR reaches at least 72% for the 2025-2026 school year. We are also hopeful that the 13% increase in insurance will come down. We are told that we will be given a final insurance number by the end of March. Our budget request also includes the $300,000+ for materials associated with the Science of Reading mandate passed by the Legislature in the past.
On March 4, with my team, I will present the BOE Adopted Budget to the Board of Finance. This meeting will take place in the Assembly Room in Town Hall at 7:00 PM. Your presence at the meeting and support for the BOE budget would be appreciated.
The Board of Finance will hold two public hearings on the overall budget. The information for those meetings is below:
March 13, 2025, at 7:00 PM - Thursday
You can attend the meeting held at Town Hall Chambers at 7:00 PM or join online at
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84589441539?pwd=ahbr4Rskx9KwszJ3CqafgONR3O8ifl.1
Webinar ID: 845 8944 1539
Password: 007175
March 22, 2025, at 10:00 AM – Saturday
This meeting will be virtual and you can join online at
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84631675294?pwd=CkBW5A2Nmvcb8Lw5VGWLlQgFibfEIP.1
Webinar ID: 846 3167 5294
Password: 614096