Finance committee recommends $99.85 million Cheshire schools budget, backs new early-childhood lead role

The Cheshire Board of Education finance committee voted unanimously May 12 to recommend a $99,849,080 operating budget for fiscal year 2026–27 to the full board, endorsing superintendent Jeff’s proposed reallocations that would create a new early‑childhood teacher‑leader position and an elementary assistant‑principal at Barnum.

Jeff (superintendent) told the committee the town subsequently received roughly $1,500,000 in state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) funds after the district closed its budget but the town has authority to reduce the mill rate and keep those dollars at the municipal level. “So long story short is the town allocation is well above and beyond the minimum budget allocation,” Jeff said, describing why the board needed to reconcile the state money, Title I rules and recent personnel changes.

The superintendent explained Title I guidance requires federal Title I funds to supplement, not supplant, other district spending; that review identified about $107,000 that must be included as supplement in the operating budget. To address both required Title I adjustments and other budget pressures, Jeff proposed reassigning the high‑school social‑studies opening created by a library/media specialist change into a full‑time teacher‑leader at Barnum and converting the retiring Darcy principal role into an assistant‑principal slot there. He said the shifts would leave total teacher and administrator FTE unchanged and are expected to produce roughly $18,000 in savings compared with the prior budgeted arrangements.

Board members pressed for more detail on scope and pay. “I feel like that position should have a different title than teacher leader,” Anne Marie said, requesting a draft job description and that the assistant‑principal role include preferred special‑education credentials. Jeff said a draft job description exists and recommended a personnel‑committee review before the full‑board vote.

Members also asked about class sizes at Cheshire High School if a social‑studies line were removed. Jeff said the sections taught by the departing teacher could be redistributed without creating unusually large classes and offered to provide exact enrollment and section numbers at the next meeting.

Several members raised whether the state ECS adjustment would change the calculus. Matt noted the town could lower the mill rate after receiving state ECS dollars, effectively redirecting the funds away from the school operating budget. Jeff confirmed the town has taken that approach in this instance and said the district lacks a direct mechanism to receive ECS funds from the state; the state routes those funds to municipal treasurers.

After discussing line‑item reallocations — including a $112,000 reduction in the district’s stop‑loss projection, reallocations of Title I lines, and targeted reductions such as a transportation‑coordinator cut and secretarial changes — Matt moved that the finance committee recommend the operating budget of $99,849,080 (a $300,000 reduction from the board‑recommended figure) to the full board; Mark seconded. The members of the finance committee present voted unanimously in favor.

The committee’s recommendation sends the superintendent’s adjusted budget and the proposed personnel changes to the full board for a final vote; Jeff said the personnel committee will finalize a job description in the coming days to guide hiring should the full board approve the plan.

The finance committee meeting adjourned after the vote.