Date: 3/10/2021
SOUTHWICK – During the Southwick-Tolland-Granville Regional School District School Committee meeting, the committee received a presentation for the district’s initial $25.9 million fiscal year 2022 (FY22) budget.
To start the budget discussion, Superintendent Jennifer Willard went over the district’s new initiatives for the year, including more social emotional learning for the schools.
“Last year we knew we needed to add some additional social emotional support at Woodland School, and we did start a program with a social emotional teacher. We are also going to continue that support at Powder Mill School next year as well,” she said.
Along with initiatives for younger students, Willard said the district is also developing its curriculum to be more accessible to all students.
“For grades 7-12, we are working on universal design for learning, so we are designing lessons for everybody. So, what’s good for some is good for all and we are making sure all of our lessons are accessible to all of our students. Especially when kids are returning from COVID-19, we are continuing to work on trauma-informed best practices,” she said.
When discussing the overall changes to the budget, STGRSD’s Director of Finance and Operations Stephen Presnal said the total appropriated budget would be decreasing.
“The total appropriation budget for FY22 is decreasing by $293,000. Some of the biggest drivers for the reduction include significant reductions to group health insurance, the premium rates are being reduced. The pension assessment went down as well,” he said.
While the overall minimum contribution rate to the town is decreasing significantly from what was expected, Presnal said the contribution from Southwick would increase.
“With the budget where it is now, we would see Southwick with an increase of $130,000, Tolland would see a decrease of $20,000, and Granville a decrease of $14,000. Some of the things that are driving the increased assessment for Southwick is we are seeing a reduction in certain revenue sources, including transportation reimbursement,” he said.
The committee will host a public hearing for the budget at the March 16 meeting before it votes on the budget at the March 30 meeting.
Among the meeting’s correspondence items, Willard said the district received a waiver because the preschool classrooms at Woodland School did not reach the peer to special education student ratio because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“Our class sizes in our preschools are usually about 15 with about seven to eight students with special needs and eight peers so it is about a 50-50 split. This year because of social distancing we did not have as many peers in the classrooms, so we had to prioritize students on an IEP to get them into the classroom,” she said.
Also under the meeting’s correspondence items, Presnal announced the district would participate in a cyber security awareness program through a grant from the Executive Office of Technology security.
“There have been some horrific stories of other school districts and municipalities across the country that have fallen victim to ransomware, so the need is pretty important, and we are happy we are able to participate in this program,” he said.
Presnal added the program would include cyber security awareness training for staff along simulated phishing emails to test the district.
The STGRSD School Committee next meets on March 16.