NEWTOWN -- Newtown residents will vote again, this time on a $146.5 million budget proposal with a tax increase of less than 2%.
The Legislative Council, at its meeting Tuesday, identified $900,000 in reductions, split between the schools and town. The new mill rate, if approved, would be 29.3, a 1.96% increase year over year.
The next budget vote will be May 19 at Newtown Middle School.
"I'm a huge supporter of our school and municipal budget because they are so well vetted," First Selectman Bruce Walczak said after the meeting. "You can trust that these boards have looked at all spending in detail to make sure they are value added."
Voters last week resoundingly defeated, each by about 300 votes, the original town and school proposed budgets, which included a tax increase of 2.79%.
Advisory questions for whether, if voted down, the budget bottom line should increase were also rejected, 2,592 no to 645 yes for the town and 2,315 no to 947 yes for the schools.
The defeat at the polls forced the Legislative Council back to the drawing board Tuesday. Council members went over numerous line items, finally coming to agreement on some $474,000 to be removed from the municipal side. With that reduction, the town side increases only 2.24% from last year's budget.
On the school budget, council members voted on separate motions for possible reductions, one of $550,000, then $600,000 and finally $700,000, all of which were defeated. The council then garnered enough votes to approve $400,000 in cuts, which would see a 4.16% year-over-year hike.
The $400,000 reduction will not lead to teacher cuts or increases to class size, according to the superintendent. If the council had called for reductions in excess of $500,000, staffing would have to be on the table, Superintendent Anne Uberti said in a memo to council members.
Uberti stated in past meetings that the education budget as presented is necessary to maintain current programs and to begin to address additional student needs.
Newtown schools eliminated 30 staffers last year due to budget cuts, according to Uberti, and this latest budget proposal includes some new hires.
Staffing requests this year include a teacher at Head O'Meadow School; two teachers at Sandy Hook School; a special education teacher and a paraeducator at Hawley School; a school psychologist; five behavior therapists; a fine arts department chair; and a math interventionist. The district is also looking to add a dean of students at the middle school.
She said a significant portion of the budget reflects "baseline" or "rollover" costs -- the contractual and operational expenses required to continue the programs and supports students rely on.
Uberti called proposed additions "strategic and grounded in data," including expanded special education supports for the Program for Adaptive Learning (PAL), allowing schools to serve more students in district and avoid costly outplacements.
Elementary staffing adjustments, she said, would maintain appropriate class sizes and support inclusive practices as needs shift across buildings, while the high school math interventionist is meant to address recent trends in math performance and align supports with those already in place in earlier grades. Restoration of fine arts leadership at the high school would support the program and increase student access to the arts.