This THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23rd, the board will be voting on the 2023-2024 budget.
$313,871,939
of the taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars
3.98% increase
from last year
If this budget passes, the tax-payers of Stamford
will see an increase in their tax bill.
Sign-up for PUBLIC COMMENT by sending an email to jgonzalez@stamfordct.gov
*See below for our suggested talking points*
This budget covers 2,069 different positions that service over
16,000 students and earns those students an average of a 32% proficiency rate in math and a 40% proficiency rate in reading.
$19,122
per general education student
$34,135
per special education student
Do you think you could provide your child with a better education, if the state allocated that money directly to you?
WHY ARE WE NOT GETTING MORE VALUE FOR OUR TAX DOLLARS?
The REAL DEAL:
In 18 months, when our ESSR funds dry up,
we will face an $8.8 million fiscal cliff.
“A total of 120 Stamford school positions, at a cost of roughly $8.8 million, are set to expire in the next two years, as they are funded through short-term COVID-19 relief dollars. Those positions — which include 19.5 kindergarten para-educator full-time equivalent spots, or FTEs, 23 parent facilitators, 21 technology integration specialists, 8.5 teacher FTEs and 27 security workers — are currently paid for through the second and third installments of the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, also known as ESSER II and ESSER III.” - Stamford Advocate
SPU's Proposal
Act now to cut the budget by 1.4% or 4.4 million dollars for a savings of 8.8 million over the next two years to create stability and ensure we don’t lose 120 positions all at once and don't raise taxes for the hard-working families of Stamford. Instead, we can more strategically analyze what we need and how it moves us towards greater academic success for our students.
How can we achieve this?
By streamlining our programming and curricula district wide to empower our teachers and maximize our administrators.
1. There are FREE high-quality curricula, including daily lesson plans aligned to state standards, we can adopt so that all students are learning the same thing across the district and teachers can focus on what they do best - teaching (not staying up late at night to lesson plan).
Check out this example from Wake County, North Carolina, a district of over 160,000 students (use incognito mode to read for free)
2. There are already dozens of administrators from central office assistant superintendents, to building principals and assistant principals; there are at least 2 positions with the title “curriculum, instruction, and assessment,” and 2 more that deal with data. What is the job if such positions, if it is not to guide the implementation of new high quality curricula? Whatever they’re doing is NOT working!!! Restructure the personnel we have around the high-quality curricula with measurable student outcomes.
Sign-up for PUBLIC COMMENT by sending an email to jgonzalez@stamfordct.gov
If you want to catch up on the Fiscal Committee check out this blog post with our meeting summary notes and a link to the BOE video: www.stamfordparentsunited.com/post/boe-reviews-2023-24-budget-proposal-4-increase-in-the-face-of-8-8-million-fiscal-cliff
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