Jasmine Wright Photo
School administrators and the Ansonia Board of Education discussed next year's budget March 12. (Left-to-right: school business administrator Erich Marriott, assistant superintendent Steve Bergin, and superintendent Joseph DiBacco.)
ANSONIA – The Ansonia Board of Education voted to adopt a budget for fiscal year 2025 – 2026 that carries a $2 million, or 5.3 percent, spending increase.
Members of the board voted unanimously March 12 in favor of the $39,560,719.75 budget. School board president Rich Bshara said the numbers will likely continue to change as the schools receive more information from the state.
The budget includes a $549,763 increase for salaries across the board. That’s a 2.9 percent increase over the current budget.
The largest increase is a $1,045,744, or 40.5 percent increase, in student transportation costs. Bshara said past budgets haven’t included enough for transportation costs, and that the district consistently overspends its budget as a result.
However, on the city’s side, the tax board already voted to adopt a budget March 3. The tax board’s budget includes $38,426,212 for the board of education – or about $1.2 million less than what the schools are asking for.
Both the city and the school’s budgets may see changes in the coming weeks. The tax board is scheduled to meet alongside the Board of Aldermen’s finance subcommittee Wednesday (March 19) to discuss the citywide budget, which includes education.
Board Attributes Budget Increase To Transportation Costs
Bshara said the school district struggles to budget for rising transportation costs.
“Transportation is really doing a big number on us, especially for special ed,” Bshara said.
He pointed to a federal law – the 1987 McKinney-Vento Act – as a cost driver. That law requires the district to fund transportation for homeless students, who may live out-of-district.
“McKinney-Vento, where we have to transport kids from wherever they are back to us, then home again, a number of these things are driving up our transportation costs,” Bshara said.
He said the district has struggled to budget appropriately because transportation costs temporarily cratered during the pandemic.
Jasmine Wright Photo
School board president Rich Bshara said transportation costs are skyrocketing.
Federal law says students with needs whose education can’t be met locally have the option to go to out-of-district facilities. The home district picks up tuition and transportation costs. School districts all over the U.S. complain that the costs rise too rapidly for districts to keep up.
Bshara pointed out that the school district is overspending its current budget. The district is currently projected to exceed its transportation budget by more than $725,000 this year, according to the schools’ most recent monthly financial report.
Bshara added that routine transportation costs are also going up, because the district’s contract with its bus company is being renegotiated. He said he expects the increase to be between eight and ten percent.
In addition to transportation and salary cost increases, the budget also includes increases of:
$119,075.69 for utility costs, a 12.9 percent increase over last year;
$144,099.00 for purchased services, a 9.1 percent increase over last year;
$57,072.47 for employee benefits, a 1.0 percent increase over last year;
$110,236.46 for tuition, a 3.4 percent increase over last year;
and $16,000 for heating costs, a 4.6 percent increase over last year.
The budget also includes cuts to several line items. However, Bshara said that no services will be cut. He said the cuts are a result of moving costs around to other line items.
The cuts include:
$51,800 from maintenance contracts, a 6.2 percent decrease from the current budget;
$11,100 from travel/field trips, a 9.4 percent decrease;
$15,450 from instructional supplies, a 6.4 percent decrease;
$10,765 from non-instructional supplies, a 6.2 percent decrease;
and $13,591 from membership dues/fees, a 30.8 percent decrease.
Bshara described the budget as a “status quo” budget in response to a question from board vice president Chris Phipps.
Budget Process More Transparent
Last year, the Ansonia school board didn’t make the details of its budget public until after budget season was already over. It voted to adopt a budget in June, about two weeks after the Ansonia Board of Aldermen had already voted to adopt a citywide budget.
The closed-door budgeting process limited taxpayers’ access to public information about where their money was going. The Valley Indy reported at the time that the process may have also run afoul of state law.
This year, the budget is being made public while there is still time for the numbers to change.
The Valley Indy made requests for the school board’s budget in January and February. Bshara said in a statement last month that the board was facing challenges in putting its budget together, including uncertainty regarding state numbers and staff turnover in the district’s finance department.
Meanwhile, on the city’s side, the tax board has already voted to adopt a citywide budget – but that budget could see significant changes before it goes to referendum. The proposed city budget currently includes a 9.85 percent mill rate increase; city charter requires referendum approval for any mill rate increase above three percent.
A series of public Zoom meetings to discuss the budget are scheduled over the next two weeks.
The school’s budget request could be discussed at those meetings. The budget as adopted by the tax board currently gives the district $1.2 million less than what the district asked for.
The Zoom meetings are scheduled for March 19, March 24, and March 31. Links to the meetings can be found on the city website under the ‘meetings’ tab.
