As inflation continues to raise prices and the value of currency remains the same,
the Newtown Board of Education has been forced to reduce the budget for the 2025-26 school year by $900,000, on top of the original cut of
Superintendent of Schools Ann Uberti is hoping that the changes necessary to reach this budget do not impact the learning and growing environment for all students.
“I feel strongly that I want to make sure that as a school district that we maintain what is needed to help our students succeed academically and also preserve the things that bring joy to our students,” Uberti said.
Though this budget was proposed, it must still go through a round of review by the Legislative Council. This council in Newtown is made up of 12 members, who serve without compensation for their work. They take the proposed budget from the Board of Finance and create their own analysis.
“They can either accept the recommendation from the Board of Finance or they can elect to reduce the budget further. They can also vote to increase the budget, but I don’t anticipate this happening this year,” Uberti said.
Uberti also explained that the Legislative Council is the “fiscal authority” in Newtown, so in order for the proposed budget to increase, a vote must come to a supermajority, meaning 8 of the 12 members must agree. In order for the proposed budget to decrease, only 6 of the members must vote to do so.
Based on historical numbers the budget will not be increasing, especially after this most recent round of reductions of $900,000. One of the primary causes of needing to make this reduction is health insurance. This issue is non-avoidable as providing health insurance to their staff is non-negotiable in a public school system.
This increase in cost of health insurance is $2.4 million.
“It’s a staggering amount of money,” Uberti said.
Since this process began in October, there have been questions about what departments, extracurriculars or teaching positions were going to be cut from the 2025-26 school year. However, due to the fact that this budget is just a proposal, the discussion of what will or will not be cut has not yet begun.
“Right now we have not had any discussions regarding what will actually be reduced because I don’t know if that's going to be the final number. However, you know we’re doing some preliminary discussions to talk about what might be reduced,” Uberti said.
These preliminary discussions create much tension throughout the building as there are many uncertainties for the future. With many people shifting around positionally as well as retirement being a factor, it is a big decision on both the principals and superintendent.
“The budget process is a stressful time for all staff. A reduction certainly heightens that feeling throughout the building. While we always try to save jobs, sometimes it is not a viable option. Losing staff members is difficult and upsetting to our entire NHS community. The hope is always that we can save our positions through attrition. Some examples would be not filling positions for those staff that retire and those who chose to move on,” NHS Principal Dr. Kimberly Longobucco said.
A different approach to budget cuts is the elimination of freshman athletics, and while nothing is set in stone financially, the idea of this cut is not favorable.
“That's not something I want to support to be honest with you, I think it’s a big high school, it's a big change for kids coming from middle school to high school. Sometimes kids physically develop later into athletes and to have a space for them to compete with other freshmen is an important transitional piece for kids,” Uberti said.
The budget at this time is being referred to as the Board of Education proposed budget, as they are the ultimate deciding factor of what will stay and what will go in terms of positions, programs and extracurriculars.
“They’ll have to decide what stays in the budget moving forward and what is going to come out of the budget,” Uberti said
However, the decisions made by the Board of Education are proposed by staff and higher ups in numerous positions.
“Me, as a superintendent I recommend to them, so I’ll meet with principals, the Director of Finance, technology and all the different departments and we’ll kind of come together to decide what those recommendations will be, and then again it's up to the Board of Education,” Uberti said.
A different idea that has been discussed throughout the schools is the elimination of Department Chairs of all subjects in the high school.
While it is clear that the amount of money being cut from the 2025-26 budget is much larger than anyone anticipated, the specifics of what this means for the school systems is yet to be finalized.
“We will continue to talk about positions, programs and projects as the budget moves forward to the Legislative Council,” Longobucco said.
The next step for this proposed budget is for it to go to referendum on April 22. In doing so, this Board of Education proposed budget will either be accepted or denied by the taxpayers of Newtown.
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