South Windsor board signals broad support for $250,000 boost to superintendent's budget

The South Windsor Board of Education indicated broad support on Feb. 5, 2026, for adding $250,000 to the superintendent's proposed fiscal-year budget to address rising enrollment and special-education needs, board members said at a special meeting.

Superintendent Dr. Carter told the board the district ranks near the bottom in per-pupil spending within its comparison group and estimated that "in order to match per pupil spending of the second to the last district, we would need to add approximately $6.6 million to the FY25 budget." She outlined two incremental scenarios — roughly $200,000 and $300,000 — that would fund a high-school social-studies teacher, behavior specialists at Eli Terry and Timothy Edwards, and move some special-education costs off reserve accounts and into the operating budget.

"I would be interested in ... looking at a $250,000 increase to the superintendent's budget," Chairwoman Corsy said, proposing a middle path between the scenarios Dr. Carter described. Corsy opened the floor and most board members voiced support for that approach while emphasizing fiscal caution.

Miss Manily said the superintendent's 7.91% request is "lean and defensible" and argued a modest upward adjustment would give district leaders flexibility without directing specific expenditures. Miss Yanoway highlighted enrollment growth as the driving factor: "We are one of two school districts in the state of Connecticut that are experiencing more than a 20% enrollment increase over the past 10 years," she said, adding that South Windsor saw an increase of 969 students over that span.

Several board members noted the district's reliance on reserves and past council actions. Mr. Marks said that even with the proposed $250,000 increase the budget would still rely on about $107,000 in reserves and urged the town council to consider the board's direction. Mr. Nuttles described the $250,000 as a useful "stepping stone" but called it "woefully inadequate" compared with the multi-million-dollar gap Dr. Carter described.

Board members repeatedly framed the adjustment as a targeted, one-year step intended to "clear the log jam" of deferred staffing requests rather than a permanent change in policy. No formal roll-call vote was taken at the special meeting; the chair told members the board would consider and formally vote on the budget at its regular meeting in February.

The meeting ended after members indicated consensus and a motion to adjourn was made and accepted. The board did not adopt a budget amendment at the special meeting; any official increase will require action at the upcoming regular session.