Newington Board tackles budget gaps as special-education caseload and transportation costs rise

The Newington Board of Education spent the bulk of its Feb. 10 meeting continuing a line-item review of the proposed 2026 operating budget, focusing on administrative reallocations, information-technology staffing, transportation increases and a sharp rise in special-education costs driven by higher enrollment and out-of-district placements.

Lynn (district administrator) opened the administrative review by noting relatively small increases in board services and central-direction lines but a noticeable uptick in professional-services spending tied to legal and labor-relations costs as the district prepares to negotiate next year’s teacher contract. Lynn described a reclassification that consolidated AFSCME secretaries into a single 01/13 salary line for clarity and said staff will provide a districtwide accounting of dues and memberships and a 3‑ to 5‑year lookback at those charges.

Insurance and benefits: Lynn said the benefits budget was rebuilt from a "maximum exposure" model to a "precision-based" model to align with district demographics. "We're only increasing the budget by 2.22% over the current budget," she said, "but the carrier rates increased about 18%." The district will rely on carrier rate structure and town absorption of catastrophic layers if claims exceed projections.

Technology: Jay (EdTech) and Craig (IT) presented a modest EdTech increase and a small IT rise after IT was given its own program line. Craig said the district faces a new $10,000 annual cost if it continues membership in MS-ISAC, a federally affiliated cyber information-sharing group that previously was funded at the federal or state level. The board discussed Chromebook replacement cycles, a vendor-managed repair program and a $35,000 annual line for repairs and parts.

Transportation and utilities: The board heard a substantive increase in outsourced special-education transportation (noted as part of the transportation budget) and was told diesel and parts costs have risen materially (parts up ~30%). Staff said Open Choice special-education transportation is reimbursed by Hartford and that some savings from keeping students in district are being realized by the ESS program.

Special education: Marilena, the district’s special-education administrator, summarized major cost drivers: the district’s special-education enrollment rose from roughly 585 students in 2018 to a current count of about 704, moving the prevalence estimate from approximately 14.5% to about 18.5%. "We are currently looking at 704," she said. "So keeping all of those things in perspective...we have gone up substantially." That caseload increase, combined with higher tuition and related-service rates for outplacements and more assistive-technology evaluations, pushed the special-education lines higher. Marilena said some account coding errors (a $28,000 CERC contract entry) would be fixed and that the district plans to apply IDEA-grant offsets where allowable (she estimated about $50,000 of reserve IDEA funding could offset one-time costs this year but warned reserves may not be available thereafter due to new state spending rules).

Board follow-ups and grants: The board asked staff for detailed follow-ups, including a district-level rollup of plant/utility costs, 3–5 year lookbacks on dues and repairs, transportation actuals versus budget, and forecasts of special-education outplacement and related-service spending. A G98 (Nor’easter Academy) grant application was noted as a potential $100,000 offset for a program costing roughly $164,000; the grant decision will arrive after the current stage of the budget process.

Votes and next steps: The meeting closed without votes on budget adoption; board members planned a follow-up meeting Wednesday and promised updated budget pages reflecting agreed adjustments. A separate ceremonial resolution honoring counselors was read and accepted; a motion to adjourn passed by voice vote.

Quotations: "The fact that Marilena gave yesterday was $1,800,000 saved. That was strictly from the special education program," one board member said when discussing ESS savings. "I'm going with a precision based model," Lynn said about benefits, "which takes what the insurance company has given us...We only pay the first 100...or $150,000...so we don't need to model it on the worst-case scenario."

The board scheduled additional review sessions next week to resolve open items and provide revised budget pages.