Dear Parents and Guardians of Julian Curtiss,
It is budget season in Greenwich and the Superintendent has proposed the school budget to the BOE for the 2024-2025 school year. Below is an excerpt of an email sent out by The VOTING MOMS prior to the BOE meeting that took place last night. It contains some good facts abut the budget and the process.
Agenda Item 1: The Greenwich Public School operating budget for the next fiscal year (2024-2025).
"It is generally understood that the BET publishes budget guidelines for our public schools by early October of each year. The BET did not publish guidelines in that time frame this year. Absent the BET’s initial guidance, Toni Jones (the Superintendent of GPS) built and presented a budget in line with the current needs of the school system. (It’s worth the reminder: Toni is a seasoned expert working 24/7 for our schools – as our superintendent, we should generally trust her to do this work together with other stakeholders, who don’t always agree with her, but work to produce the best results for our town). Based on a number of factors – such as increased enrollment, higher cost of utilities, competitive substitute teacher salaries, and increased special education needs (based on enrollment and legislative requirements) – the budget needs were 6.5% higher than last year. The additional context of the budget is that Toni Jones is creating a budget in a challenging inflationary environment.
The BET rejected the Superintendent’s school’s budget by issuing new guidelines; instead allocating GPS a 4.3 percent increase for operating costs. This substantially lowered budget could have a number of key implications for the schools. To understand the context of the budget and the challenges of funding the school districts' needs, it is important to understand that the mandatory and essential increase in funding for Special Education services, combined with predetermined increases in teacher salaries, exceeds the overall rise in the BET's budget. Consequently, to adhere to the BET's financial directives, the District may need to implement program reductions. This could include discontinuing ALP Science, decreasing the number of staff in the district-wide ALP, and significantly reducing the duration of weekly Physical Education sessions, along with other potential cuts. Notably, the lion’s share (~85%) of the budget goes to salaries and transportation (i.e. costs that can’t be cut and which rise with increased enrollment). Once those items are funded, it is challenging to find much else to cut. We should always be looking for opportunities to cut unnecessary spend; but also be realistic about the spending needs of the district. "
One of the potential cuts being considered is the K-2 Foreign Language Program, along with other programs. Our Julian Curtiss parents and staff came out last night to provide information to the board and advocate on how important this K-2 foreign language program is to Julian Curtiss. I feel so proud to be the principal of this wonderful community.
Efforts did not go unnoticed. The board listened. The vote [to eliminate K-2 foreign language] went through to cut the K-2 foreign language program at Hamilton Avenue but they held off on the Julian Curtiss vote to do further research. I am sure there are many questions to come but we will continue to work together to bring the best programs to our community.
60 Countries, 30 Languages, One Great School!
The link below will take you to the Board of Education website. Go to meetings and choose December 14, 2023. You can view the agenda and watch parts of the meeting if you are interested. Take the time to see our parents and staff in action.
https://go.boarddocs.com/ct/greenwich/Board.nsf/Public#
On another note, we are getting into the holiday spirit and decorating our classroom doors again this year! Our theme this year is kindness! The door displays reflect acts of kindness and spreading joy to our school, friends, family and community. There are a few sneak previews below.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Trish McGuire and Matthew Hartigan
