Newtown Budget

The Newtown Board of Education met on May 6 in order to review policy updates, financial reports and staff matters in response to the passing of the budget with a $900,000 cut.

            The Newtown Board of Education passed  a package of amendments for the 2025-26 school year.

            This came following the school budget pass of 2,432 to 1,838 for $91,744,644 during the meeting on April 22.

The proposed budget was accepted by the Legislative Council. This council is made up of 12 members who serve without compensation from their work.

“I think it's important for people to realize that when we do have budget cuts, it will affect the programs we offer in Newtown, and the kind of education we are able to provide for all our students,” NHS Mathematics teacher Debra Pickering said.

            Superintendent Anne Uberti stated in her report that the BOE was now placed to come up with the additional budget reduction of $900,000. Uberti also stated that this was not an easy decision and her recommended reductions will be in areas which minimally affect students' education. 

            Uberti recommends reductions be made in technical adjustments, reducing staff training and staffing along with supplies and other reductions.

            Technical adjustments including oil budgeting and workers compensation policy, both less expensive than expected, at $120,804.

            Other reductions totaling close to $206,500 include the high schools alarm and increase in pay to participate programs.

“Any budget cut will impact students, teachers and families profoundly,” NHS Mathematics teacher Kelly Murphy said.

Cuts will also impact the K-6 Spanish programs. One spanish teacher from the program will be reduced and spanish will now begin being offered at Second grade in place of Kindergarten.

            Some Board of Education members raised amendments in order to oppose this decision over the course of the budget discussion, yet those amendments failed.

Administrators for all the schools in the Newtown Public School district met and discussed where each school could give in order to make reductions. Dr. Kimberly Longobucco informed where theses reduction will be made at NHS

Reductions to NHS includes 2.0 full time employees, reduction to athletic and general supplies, reduction of alarm replacement. This will also include an increase in Pay to Participate for extracurricular activities. The details in regard to each line item were undisclosed at the time The Hawkeye went to print.

One major cause of needing to make reductions in the budget is for health insurance.The increase in cost of health insurance is $2.4 million. 

            NHS Principal Dr. Kimberly Longobucco discussed the process that goes into reducing her budget

“We are taking all our course requests for next year and we are looking at how many people want each class. And so what we do with that is see how many classes of all of the different subject areas that we can fill. If there are any that come up short, say for example, math, I can run everybody's math classes with one less math teacher next year. Then that would be a person I would potentially put forward to be reduced,” Longobucco explained.

Longobucco went on to explain that she never wants to get rid of employees but wants to condense teachers and staff through people leaving of their own volition.

“What we usually like to do is lose people through attrition, which basically means like they are choosing to retire or they are choosing to leave,” Longobucco explained.