Enfield BOE Makes Case For Budget Increase

ENFIELD, CT — Enfield school leaders used a special Town Council meeting Monday night to make their case for an $83.58 million proposed school budget, saying the 2026-27 plan is meant to rebuild programs and staffing after recent cuts without taking on costs the district cannot sustain.

No vote was taken Monday night. The special meeting agenda called only for the Board of Education budget presentation and adjournment.

Board of Education Chair Amanda Pickett told council members the proposal already passed the school board by an 8-1 vote. She said the budget was built around three priorities: student offerings, student and staff supports, and sustainable funding.

Superintendent Steve Moccio said the district is asking for a 4.97 percent increase over the current appropriation. He said the request totals about $83.58 million, or roughly $4 million more than the current budget.

Pickett said district leaders did not simply repeat last year’s budget. She said they built this one around current student needs and the district’s improvement goals.

Moccio said the district reviewed all 550 account lines in the budget. He said the biggest cost pressures are salaries and benefits, transportation, out-of-district placements, contracted student services, tuition and technology.

He said the top eight budget drivers account for 96.5 percent of the overall spending plan. He also said Enfield remains a people-based operation, with most of the budget tied directly to staffing.

School officials repeatedly pointed to special education as one of the biggest pressures on the district. Moccio said that since August, 102 students with existing IEPs have moved into Enfield, 76 have left, 89 more students have newly qualified for special education services, 38 are still in process and another 36 are in the birth-to-three pipeline.

Pickett said the district’s Oct. 1 enrollment snapshot showed 22.3 percent of students have IEPs, nearly 5 percent are multilingual learners and almost 51 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. She said those numbers help explain the level of support many students need.

District leaders also stressed that the request is not an attempt to restore everything at once. Moccio said the proposed staffing level would rise to 869.46 full-time-equivalent positions from 855.75, but described the plan as a gradual rebuild.

Among the additions highlighted Monday were a restored library media specialist at JFK Middle School, grade-level staffing to address class-size pressure, more team leadership at JFK, a new math teacher at Enfield High School, a new RISE special education program at the high school and expanded career center staffing.

Pickett said the RISE program is designed to better support students with IEPs at the high school level. Moccio said it is aimed in part at students with school-avoidance issues who may be transitioning back from Eagle Academy into Enfield High School.

Moccio also said the district is still looking for efficiencies, especially in transportation. He said Enfield has already made routing changes, published walk-zone information and plans to use a transportation request form to identify families that may not need bus service, which could help free up seats and reduce costs.

After the presentation, Mayor Gina Cekala thanked school officials and said council members had already had time to review the material. She said she appreciated both the shorter presentation Monday night and the more detailed backup documents the council received earlier.

Deputy Mayor John Santanella focused much of his questioning on what is driving the increase. He asked how much of the nearly $4 million jump is tied directly to the teachers contract approved last year and later thanked school officials for the level of detail in the budget package.

Councilor Cindy Mangini also praised the presentation. She said the layout made it easier for council members to review details without getting lost in the numbers.

Mangini then pressed district leaders on excess-cost reimbursement assumptions tied to special education. She asked why the district budgeted at about 70 percent reimbursement when the identified need is closer to 91 percent.

Moccio said the state funding pool is not large enough to realistically assume a 91 percent reimbursement rate. He said using that higher figure would risk underfunding the budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Pickett stepped in during that exchange to make a broader point about how the conversation is framed. She said students in special education are still Enfield students who have a right to be educated and have their needs met.

Mangini said she especially liked the proposed RISE program. She also said the district is not going to rebuild overnight, but she was glad to see a long-term plan to start restoring what had been lost.

Councilor Robert Cressotti voiced some of the strongest support of the night. He said the budget shows the district is slowly stabilizing after what he described as deep cuts in recent years and said increased special education investment is mandatory because of legal requirements and student need.

Cressotti also praised the transparency of the budget and the fact that it passed the Board of Education with bipartisan support. He said that kind of backing and detail had not been seen in some time.

Councilor Carol Hall asked follow-up questions about reserve funds and the district activity account.

Moccio said the district currently has about $1.5 million in its non-lapsing account from last year and expects that balance to be around $1 million at the end of this school year. He said part of that money may be needed to help refill the insurance fund.

By the end of the meeting, school leaders formally presented their case, several council members praised the proposal’s direction and transparency, and the budget now moves forward in the town process.