ANSONIA – Members of the Ansonia Board of Education pushed back a vote to adopt a budget, citing a winter storm forecasted to hit the area over the weekend.
The meeting, which was originally scheduled in-person for Monday, Jan. 26, is now scheduled to be conducted via Zoom on Wednesday, Jan. 28. A time for the meeting had not been set as of Jan. 22.
Check the city website for updates.
During a meeting of the school board’s finance subcommittee Wednesday (Jan. 21), members reviewed a budget request which would ask the city for $39,535,903 for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.
That’s a 2.4 percent increase, or $923,004 increase, over the current budget of $38,612,089.
After the school board votes to adopt a budget, it will undergo review from the mayor’s office, the board of apportionment and taxation, and the Board of Aldermen. Any of those bodies could change the school district’s bottom line.
Mayor Frank Tyszka, at a separate meeting of the board of apportionment and taxation Tuesday (Jan. 20), signalled that he may ask the school board to whittle down their budget request, citing financial concerns across all city departments.
“When we’re in a deficit mode, we can’t be raising their budget 2.4 percent, because that means next year that money, they automatically get it,” Tyszka said.
Tyszka’s comment refers to a piece of state law called the minimum budget requirement (MBR), which forbids cities from budgeting less for schools than they did the year before, with some narrow exceptions.
The budget request as it’s currently written includes increases in employee benefits costs (a $1,191,416 increase over last year) and tuition fees for special education students who attend out-of-district schools (a $1,104,220 increase), according to budget documents.
It also includes a $749,057 cut to salaries compared to the current year. Those cuts come from the elimination of five administrative positions, as well as funding some positions through grants which were previously funded by the city, according to school officials.
Ansonia School District Superintendent Joseph DiBacco said the eliminated positions were all created through and funded by COVID 19-era federal grants which have since expired.
“These positions, they were finite to begin with,” DiBacco said.
There is also an $812,318 cut to purchased services in the proposed budget, which DiBacco said would come from keeping students in-district for more of their special education needs, saving on costs.
In the meeting, school board member Steven Adamowski asked for an explanation of all of the school’s funding sources – including grants, in addition to funding from the city.
According to documents shared in the meeting, the district is expecting $10,965,619 in grant funding next year, in addition to the money it’s requesting from the city. The largest new grant is a multi-media grant worth $360,457, according to those documents.
DiBacco said he feels fairly confident the school will receive most of its allotted federal funding, even as President Donald Trump’s administration has taken steps to shutter the U.S. Department of Education.
However, he said he was worried that Title III and Title IV funding may not come through, which together are worth about $97,000 annually. Those funds are used for English as a second language programs (ESL) and technology-related programs, respectively.
“Title III and Title IV, we’ll cross that bridge when it comes,” DiBacco said.
The school also expects to receive about $6,290,646 in supplemental revenue in the coming fiscal year. That money comes from sources including the state’s excess cost reimbursement and student activity and parent fees, according to school budget documents.
The school board’s meeting scheduled for Jan. 28 could see members formally vote to adopt a budget and send it to the city for review. That meeting is open to the public.
Correction: This story was updated to remove a reference to incorrect ratios of how much money schools get from local vs. state government.