Magnet Recruitment Funds Introduced Into New London School Budget

A $40.4 million budget proposal for New London Public Schools’ 2014 fiscal year includes funding to help bring students to the city’s magnet schools.

The budget proposed by Superintendent Nicholas Fischer includes a $156,962 recommendation for magnet school recruitment as well as an anticipated state grant award of $150,962. The Board of Education has adopted an all magnet school model as a strategy for school improvement, and the district will be working on ways to implement this plan in the coming months. 

“We’re going to have to create some capacity in this area because we’re going to have to start planning for some recruitment of suburban students,” said Dr. Steven Adamowski, a special master appointed to the district by the Connecticut Department of Education, at Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Education Finance and Audit Committee.

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Adamowski said such a recruitment effort is needed to ensure that the district’s current magnet schools meet a required threshold of having at least 25 percent of the student population be from out of district and at least 25 percent be white. Adamowski said this is the minimum threshold to receive state magnet funding, and that the ratios must reach 33 percent after three years.

New London currently has science, technology, mathematics, and engineering magnet programs at the Science and Technology Magnet High School and Winthrop School, with Nathan Hale School under development for use as a visual and performing arts school.

Adamowski said the Winthrop School is 66 students short of the required threshold, but that he expects full state funding for the school’s magnet program. He said the status of state funding for the Nathan Hale School program in the 2014 fiscal year is unclear due to ongoing construction there.

The magnet school recruitment budget is the lowest of nine areas of the district’s central services budget outlined at the committee meeting. Adamowski said he will work with the district and board to discuss the possible realignment of staff to support magnet school recruitment.

The anticipated state grant toward magnet school recruitment would put $128,011 toward salaries and $22,951 toward fringe benefits. Projected costs to the district for the effort would include $70,000 in professional services, $60,000 in communication services, $16,962 in materials and supplies, and $10,000 in dues, fees, and other costs.

Budget overview

The proposed school budget of $40,414,666 represents the committee’s decision to request a 1.5 percent increase over the 2013 fiscal year budget of $39,817,405. The schools have operated with this level of funding for five years.

The proposed budget is divided 70-30 between schools and central services, with $23,492,678 allocated to the former and $10,068,291 to the latter. Maria Whalen, the district’s director of business and finance, also highlighted $6,853,697 in costs associated with educating children out of district including $4,607,836 for tuition, $1,569,354 for transportation, and $676,507 for adult education.

Tuesday’s meeting analyzed the central services budget including:

• $2,831,139 for student services
• $2,306,366 for operations and transportations
• $1,274,598 for talent development
• $1,251,806 for the finance office
• $1,075,335 for the technology office
• $579,784 for the chief academic officer’s office
• $310,950 for the superintendent’s office
• $281,351 for the Board of Education
• $150,962 for the magnet school recruitment

Salaries and transportation

The greatest portion of the student services budget relates to transportation services, which amount to $1,540,924. Whalen said this is the main item for transporting students, including contracts with the school bus company Student Transportation of America.

The bulk of the expenses in the student services come from salaries and benefits. This portion of the budget—$1,354,758 for salaries and $369,831 for benefits—supports 13.8 positions including psychologists, social workers, and a special education coordinator. Another $932,500 is allocated to other professional services.

The out-of-district costs include an agreement where New London’s school budget supports $229,895 in salaries for three teachers at the Friendship School in Waterford, where 267 New London students are educated. Other out-of-district costs, which are used to support special education students and other pupils, include $3,948,000 in tuition costs and $1,507,574 in transportation costs.

Adamowski said this is a structural issue and that the district should be able to improve its expenditures in these areas. He said that by comparison, the Windham school district spends about $3 million on out-of-district costs.

Anticipated revenues based on Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed state budget include the loss of $287,750 in student transportation costs and $42,564 in aid to visually impaired students, both revenues that were provided in the 2013 budget. However, the district would also realize a project net revenue increase of $72,195 from $23,359,108 to $23,431,303 due to an increase in Education Cost Sharing funds.

Whalen said the anticipated ECS funds are increasing from $22,481,754 to $22,940,565. She said this is a net increase, since the number of students showing academic improvement has increased and the district is no longer eligible for a two percent ECS grant amounting to $458,811. The district also plans to use $383,888 in ECS funds to make up for a loss in PILOT funds in the municipal budget.

The committee also meets at 6 p.m. tonight at the STMHS to discuss the school budgets and at 6 p.m. on March 12 for a public hearing on the full budget proposal.

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