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Board of Finance approves 3.5% increase for Board of Education budget; town-side and police adjustments added
Summary
After extensive debate over teacher positions, surplus accounting and preliminary state aid, the Board of Finance voted to send a $56,478,059 Board of Education budget (3.5% increase) to the town council, approved $25,000 for a golf-course equipment shed and restored a police officer position funded by a $71,600 grant.
Call the order.
The Board of Finance voted to increase the Board of Education budget by 3.5% and to send a $56,478,059 BOE budget to the town council, after several competing proposals and roll-call votes. The board also approved a $25,000 addition to the town budget for an equipment shed and reestablished a police officer position funded by a $71,600 grant.
Why it matters: members disagreed over how much to raise the BOE budget, balancing pressure from recent referendum returns and parent concern about classroom staffing against a pattern of year-end BOE balances and uncertainty about final state aid (ECS and Pequot-related funds). The 3.5% figure was advanced as a compromise between members who wanted a smaller, mill-rate-neutral increase and others who argued for larger adjustments to protect teaching positions.
Board debate and key concerns Board members spent much of the meeting debating numeric options (3.35%, 3.5%, 3.58%, 3.6% and 3.8%) and how to offset any increase. Some members said historical budget books showed recurring end-of-year balances and urged caution about permanently increasing the mill rate. Others said modest increases could prevent the elimination of two English/ELA positions at the middle school and stressed that parents had expressed concern that classroom staff would be cut.
An early motion to increase the BOE budget by $250,000, offset by anticipated additional Education Cost Sharing (ECS) revenue, resulted in a 3–3 tie and failed. Later motions yielded a sequence of votes; a 3.58% motion passed in one sequence, and the board ultimately approved a 3.5% BOE increase in a later roll-call, recorded 5–1 in favor. The board clerk read the roll-call tallies as part of the official record.
Town-side and staffing votes Separately, the board unanimously (6–0) approved a $25,000 addition to the town-side budget to fund an equipment shed at the golf course. The board also voted 6–0 to reestablish a police officer position effective July 2026, using a $71,600 grant allocation that had been cut by the town council earlier in the process.
Numbers and next steps The board recorded the BOE budget to be sent to the town council as $56,478,059 and the general government budget as $53,781,144; the water budget was submitted unchanged. Members noted that the state’s final ECS/aid numbers were not yet firm and that the council and a required second referendum would be the next steps in the approval chain.
The meeting adjourned after the budget submissions were moved and recorded. The town council will receive the budgets for the statutory follow-up process and any required second referendum timeline.
