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Dear
Wethersfield Public Schools Parents and Community Members:
As the April
20th public hearing on the town budget rapidly
approaches, I would like to present some background
information on how our school budget was developed and what
the proposed figure represents.
Within the
current fiscal crisis, every sector of our society has felt
the effects of our struggling economy, and our public
schools are no exception. We are expected to do more with
less. Throughout the entire process of developing our
school budget for 2009-2010, we have been, and must remain,
fervently committed to our mission and educational goals
while reducing costs.
Originally,
our budget projection for next year represented an increase
of over 6% from the current fiscal year. Over the past five
months, our principals, staff, parents, and community
members have worked relentlessly to identify cost-saving
measures. Our senior staff immediately stepped forward to
voluntarily freeze their salaries, but other decisions to
keep expenses at a minimum were much more difficult. Our
guiding principles in developing the proposed budget were to
preserve existing systems and staff, and to avoid reductions
that would directly impact our students.
On February
24th, the Wethersfield Board of Education
approved a 2009-2010 budget of $49,590,389. This represents
only a 2.85% increase over the current fiscal year and is
also the lowest budget increase in the past 9 years. It
maintains recommended class sizes, current educational
programs and core services, yet keeps expenses to a minimum
by redistributing resources, postponing hiring for vacant
positions, and delaying the purchase of equipment and
supplies.
We’ve
demonstrated fiscal responsibility by reducing our original
budget projection by more than $1.5 million. Since salaries
and benefits make up the largest percentage of our costs,
additional cuts to our proposed budget would mean staff
layoffs, which is an option we hope to avoid.
The
Wethersfield Public Schools’ motto of “Rigor and Success for
Every Student” summarizes our mission of providing high
quality education that will prepare our future citizens to
excel as they meet the challenges of college and beyond. I
believe our proposed school budget, even with diminished
financial resources, will allow us to continue to strive for
excellence in the education of our children.
To
summarize, the current Wethersfield Public Schools budget
request allows us to:
-
Maintain
recommended class sizes
-
Maintain
current programming at the high school, middle school,
and elementary schools
-
Maintain
our core services
The proposed
2009-2010 budget will be discussed at the Town’s Public
Hearing on April 20th at
7 p.m. at the Silas Deane Middle School. I encourage all
parents and Wethersfield residents to attend and have your
comments and suggestions heard.
Sincerely,
Michael Kohlhagen
Superintendent of Schools
