$81.1M School Spending Plan Approved By Cheshire Board Of Education

CHESHIRE, CT — Town Manager Sean Kimball will review an $81.1 million school budget after the Board of Education recently approved, by a 6-1 vote, Superintendent of Schools Jeff Solan’s proposed 2022-23 spending plan with no changes, according to the Record-Journal.

Solan’s budget, which represents a 5.34 percent increase over the current spending plan, is driven by two primary factors – medical benefits and growing student enrollment. Solan said the 201-22 operating budget was supplemented by a $1.5 million appropriation directed to the medical benefit reserve account.

“That appropriation reduced our operating budget meaning that we will need to increase this year’s budget by $1.5 million to fill the void,” according to Solan’s budget message presented to the school board.

Solan also said that the cost of the benefits has grown, resulting in a resulting in a requested medical benefits budget line increase of $2,235,633, or 54 percent of the overall budget increase.

“Cheshire has seen student population growth beyond even the highest projections from only two years ago,” Solan said. “New England School Development Council provided a 2021-2022 K-12 enrollment projection of 4,052 students. Our current enrollment is 4,113, which is a figure we were not expected to reach until the 2025-2026 school year. This population growth has necessitated the addition of staff to address the academic and special education needs of our students.”

The budget includes five new teacher positions, along with eight instructional assistant positions that were added during 2021-22 to “address the growth in the number of students with specific academic and behavioral needs outlined in Individualized Education Plans,” according to Solan.

The Record-Journal reports Faith Ham was the only board member to vote against the budget in what she said was a protest vote.

Ham said she had hoped to see more growth in instruction and teaching and was frustrated with the fixed costs, including medical benefits and contracts, that were in the budget, according to the Record-Journal.

Read more at the Record-Journal here.

For Solan’s full budget proposal, visit here.