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Board of Education presentation frames FY27 request around student services, grants and personnel costs
Summary
The Board of Education's FY27 presentation highlighted enrollment declines, multilingual and special education student counts, $215,000 in FY26 grants, and main budget drivers including salaries and benefits that together accounted for a roughly 5.08% budget increase.
The Board of Education's FY27 budget presentation, reviewed during the March 23 Board of Finance hearing, emphasized district performance, demographic trends, student services and the cost drivers behind the FY27 request.
Slides shown to the Board of Finance highlighted Waterford's relative performance and per-pupil spending compared with other Connecticut districts and noted a multi-year decline in total enrollment. The BOE presentation listed 2025-26 multilingual learner (ML) counts (about 64 ML students in the most recent year shown) and a multi-year special education enrollment trend (roughly 394 students in the most recent year on the slide). It also noted school-based health clinic usage year-to-date and described expansion plans for bilingual programs where thresholds are met.
The district reported $215,000 in grant funding for FY26 and summarized competitive grant receipts over prior fiscal years as a partial offset to the operating budget. The presentation identified the main budget drivers as salary and compensation increases ($1.28 million) and benefits ($1.13 million), with tuition, energy and transportation also contributing to an overall proposed increase of about 5.08%. A health-insurance rate adjustment of ($129,000) was displayed as a possible reduction feeding into a new FY27 subtotal.
Line-item slides detailed changes across instructional services, support staff, contracted services, transportation, insurance, communications, tuition (public and private), purchased services, supplies, maintenance and small equipment; the district noted that device replacement was being moved to capital. The presentation closed by listing community partners, including Electric Boat and UConn Avery Point, and thanking supporters.
At the BOF meeting several board members used the presentation data when debating targeted reductions; the minutes do not identify a single presenter by quote for each slide, so the material is described as the Board of Education's presentation and the slides are part of the official record.
