Darien Schools Superintendent Dan Brenner is proposing a 2.08% budget increase in the 2017-2018 fiscal year budget, an increase of almost $2 million, for a total operating budget of $95,802,809.
The proposal includes money to buy iPads for one grade (not yet determined) at Darien High School, a $1.4 million DHS cafeteria expansion project and a 2.8 percent increase in spending for teacher and administrator salaries under two union contracts that have not yet been completed, although the contracts have been approved in principle by both the Board of Education and votes of members of both unions.
Brenner’s budget also includes $2.3 million in state aid in the form of the state’s Excess Cost Grant. Other Darien officials have said town officials need to plan for Darien getting no money from the state, given the state’s grant cuts in recent years.
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Highlights from the Superintendent’s Budget Presentation
Darien per-pupil spending continues to be below the average of school districts in the state's "DRG A" grouping for similar school districts, Brenner said.
Brenner said he, district officials and the Board of Education will need to discuss the matter further, since the state may make cuts in the grant even after the budget has passed. He said school district officials have not received word from the state that aid will be cut.
Brenner pointed out that a total of 83 percent of the budget is salaries and benefits, including health insurance, as well as paying utility bills, including lighting, heat and telephone and internet service. The Darien Public Schools budget is typically about two-thirds of the entire town budget.
In his presentation, Brenner noted that the budget reflects some program initiatives, but those changes in almost all cases cost little or nothing. For instance:
An alternative high school will be staffed by two teachers, one transferred from other high school work, the other from the middle school (a presentation on the alternative high school proposal will go before the Board of Education on Tuesday, Jan. 10).
For several academic departments, department chairs will replace monitors and coordinators.
The computer technology budget (for student digital devices, software and related items) would increase by $159,356 over this year’s budgeted $465,219. The increases in the budget are largely to pay for increases in software maintenance, including educational software ($72,173), copiers and duplicators ($40,916), and buying more Chromebooks for elementary school students ($159,356).
According to the budget document (expected to be posted to the Darien Public Schools website on Friday):
For 2017-18, funding is designated to purchase more Chromebooks at the elementary level. The budget would add an additional Chromebook cart for Grades K-2; a cart contains 25 Chromebooks. funds would also be used to give each fifth grade student a device for home and school use. The middle school will have an adequate number of devices for 2017-18 for all three grades. For 2017-18, an iPad would be purchased for each Darien High School ninth grade student for home and school use.
Although the document mentions ninth-graders getting iPads, Brenner said the school district hasn’t yet decided which grade will get them, and discussions on that are continuing. Only one of the four high school grades will get the new iPads in the next school year under the current plan, he said.
Schedule
On Saturday, the Board of Education will hold a meeting to get the complete proposed budget presented, starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending late in the afternoon. The board is scheduled vote on the budget, including any possible changes, on April 13.
First of two slides about the budget schedule from a presentation about the budget structure (for full slide presentation, see the Darien Public Schools website)
The budget then goes to the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting, each of which must approve it. If any cuts are made, the Board of Education will decide where the budget will be cut, probably sometime in June. The budget goes into effect on July 1, 2017 and continues to June 30, 2018.
