On Tuesday, January 28th, the Board of Education held their annual budget meeting at TE Middle School. During the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Kate Carter gave a presentation regarding the anticipated budget for the school year 2025-2026. This gave the Board of Ed, administrators of South Windsor Public Schools, and parents insight on the proposed increase being asked for the district’s budget for the next school year.
At the beginning of the presentation, Dr. Carter again reiterated the increasing enrollment in South Windsor Public Schools, which has already been something that both the Board, administrators, and parents have been aware of. The number of students enrolled in South Windsor Public Schools impacts the outcome of the budget. Ten years ago, in 2014, the proposed budget increase was 1.94%. Last year, in 2024, the district proposed a budget increase of 7.29%.
Enrollment across all schools in the district has increased significantly. Elementary schools (PK-5) have increased 32.53% since 2014. Timothy Edwards Middle School enrollment has increased 24.74%, and South Windsor High School has increased 7.26%. Overall, enrollment in South Windsor Public School has increased 22.43% or 1,008 students in the last ten years, and those numbers are projected to increase by 482 students at the peak in 2033. That means that the total growth in enrollment would be 1,490 students from 2015-2033.
Carter explained at the meeting how there are 75 districts in Connecticut who have populations smaller than South Windsor’s growth.
Not only does enrollment affect the amount of money that is proposed in the budget, but it affects how much the districts can spend on each student. In 2014 there were only 35% of other districts in Connecticut that spent more money per student than South Windsor. Now, in 2024 around 92% of districts spend more money per student than South Windsor.
Furthermore, the proposed budget for the school year 2025-2026 is $100,230,328, which will be a 5.97% increase from the 2024-2025 proposed school budget. There were multiple reasons for the budget increase: increasing enrollment, contractual obligations/ maintenance operations, special education (needing more special education teachers), and strategic planning (safety officers, after school clubs, and a behavior specialist).
However, with the increase for the budget there was also a reduction that had to be made to be able to achieve a “responsible budget.” The budget was reduced by about 4.1 million dollars.
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A screenshot of the Tiered Budget Reductions that were implemented in order to reduce the budget proposal. (South Windsor Public Schools Budget Proposal 2025)
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A slide in the presentation which shows how many districts statewide spend more per pupil over the last 5 years than South Windsor. (South Windsor Public Schools Budget Proposal 2025)
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In the first reduction round, the budget was reduced by 1.9 million dollars for reserved projects and reducing staff services. In the second round, it was reduced again by 1.5 million dollars due to staffing requests from administration, and mental health support for Timothy Edwards Middle School. In the final rounds of reduction, the budget was reduced by another $635,284 dollars, due to 7 FTE’s that were requested by the curriculum leaders that were cut.
Principals, administrators, and curriculum leaders had requested multiple positions for additional teachers and additional staff, but these proposals will need to be cut in order to have the lowest percentage increase to the budget possible. The reductions to the staffing request have been presented to be about $1.33 million dollars.
Dr. Carter commented at the meeting that “the taxpayer relies on us to be forward thinking and consider the financial impact many years down the road, not just one budget cycle.”
However, these requested staffing cuts are not permanent, during her presentation Dr. Crater made a point that almost all of the cuts represent deferred costs that will be back next year, along with additional requests.
“They are not truly cuts, they are deferred costs and ones you will see in the FY 2027 budget,” Dr. Carter explained.
Board members thanked Dr. Carter for the work her team put into the presentation and commented how the proposed increase of 5.97% was consistent with the increase last year with other districts in South Windsor’s DRG (District Reference Group) or classification of students with similar socioeconomic status in other districts. The Board also acknowledged how there were a lot of really good things on the list to be cut that they would like to have a discussion about to make sure they are doing the best for the students and families of South Windsor.
