Region 15 board reviews proposed 2025–26 budget; superintendent recommends facilities, data roles amid ECS uncertainty

Superintendent presented Regional School District 15’s proposed 2025–26 budget Monday and described a plan that preserves current programs while adding targeted staff and capital spending to address aging facilities and data-management gaps.

The superintendent told the board the proposed budget “addresses all of the staffing needs” and aims to smooth historically underfunded accounts over multiple years rather than defer costs. He recommended restoring a director of facilities position (estimated at about $125,000 annually) and adding roughly $100,000 a year to the district’s operating capital account to begin a multiyear program of HVAC and roof replacements. He said many HVAC units — “especially at the high school… from 1979” — are near end of life and a planned replacement schedule preserves the district’s ability to seek state reimbursement.

Why it matters: Board members said they want to avoid sudden class-size increases and to protect in-class supports while the district manages inflation, rising health-insurance costs and an unsettled state reimbursement picture for special-education excess costs (the “excess cost” reimbursement that districts receive from Hartford).

Highlights…