Milford Schools Look To Eliminate 18 Current Teaching Positions Next Year

The Milford Board of Education is scheduled to vote 7 p.m. Wednesday night on approving its budget request for fiscal 2015-16.

Superintendents of Schools Elizabeth Feser says it will cost about $2 million to return the school system to a PreK-5 system in time for the fall of 2015. Read that full story here.

Additionally, Feser is seeking to greatly enhance security at the schools including hiring two more police officers. Her proposed security upgrades would cost about $200,000. Read that full story here.

In order to reduce the burden on taxpayers, Feser said she looked for savings in her proposal to offset the budget increase through reductions in the existing budget.

“The greatest amount of savings was in staffing primarily stemming from continued enrollment decline,” Feser said. “We are recommending staff reductions totalling $1.174 million.”

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Feser is proposing to eliminate 13.4 regular education teaching positions saving $804,000, five special education teachers, $300,000, four part-time media aides, $40,000 and the reclassification of a teacher saving another $30,000.

Feser said despite the staff reductions she is hoping layoffs will be avoided.

In 2004 the schools enrolment was 7,600 pupils and next year’s its forecast to be 6,222 students.

The district is also projecting a $170,555 savings in its transportation account as bus runs and stops continue to be consolidated.

Milford schools are also planning to save an additional $126,107 by energy conservation, and the district is saving $422,154 on computer purchases.

“We were able to purchase many computers in this current budget due to a grant from the state and matching funds from the Board of Education budget, thus are able to reduce this line items for the next school year,” Feser said.

The district also saved $119,750 by realigning its curriculum work.

“I will reiterate that the development of this budget was an arduous task particularly determining the costs of the reconfiguration when individual school enrollment is yet to be determined,” Feser said. “We used every piece of information we had to determine our costs. More importantly, we sought to ensure equity between and among the schools.

Beyond reconfiguration, this budget responds to increased demand for safe school facilities and welcoming building. Moreover, it is a budget that will contribute to the continued growth of Milford Public Schools as measured by the quality of its educational program and student performance,” Feser said.