Region 17 Meets Tonight on Budget

The Region 17 Board of Education will hold a special meeting at 7 p.m., today at .

At the meeting School Superintendent Howard Thiery will present his proposed 2012-2013 budget plan to the boards of selectmen and finance from the towns of Haddam and Killingworth.

Thiery last week unveiled his budget to the school board. The proposal calls for spending $38.2 million next year in the regional district. Spending would increase .89 percent, or $335,062, over this year’s $37.8 million budget under the proposal.

“I believe this budget represents both Fiscal Conservation as well as Programmatic Innovation,” Thiery said in his written budget address to the school board. “It is critical that our budget is respectful to our communities in these difficult economic times and that it also continues to invest in improving the education we offer the children of our communities.”

Thiery’s address to the board goes on to say that he worked collaboratively with his administrative team and the school board over the last several months while the budget was being developed to “identify and implement cost savings and structural streamlining to reduce operating costs wherever possible.”

You can view a pdf of the budget proposal above.