FAQ-School Budget Information

Canterbury Education Information Group FAQ

Information for the FAQ came from the Canterbury Board of Education Website.

Budget related information came directly from the AY1718 approved budget.

How much is our education budget for AY1718?

• $10,934,105

How much of that is paid by the town government?

• $6,882,451
• This represents 63% of the education budget

How much of that is paid by the state government from ECS payments?

• $4,051,654
• This represents 37% of the education budget

How much of that is paid by the federal government and other sources (grants, etc)?

• $0
• The school received $533,700 for other programs that include the pre-K program, special education services, mental health services, and services related to economic hardship.  This amount funds programs OUTSIDE of the general budget of $10,934,105 and are treated differently from a funding perspective. This does not include a grant for the HUGS program that came in after the budget worksheet was completed.

How many pupils are enrolled in the academic year 17-18?

• As of 10/1/2017 there were 742 students enrolled in our district. That includes 282 at CES, 173 at Baldwin and 287 enrolled in HS, STEM, and OOD placements. At a BOE meeting on 11/14/2017 it was noted that three additional students had enrolled in the school system.

• We have two schools in town.  Canterbury Elementary School (CES) on Kitt Road and Dr. Helen Baldwin Middle School (Baldwin/DHBMS) located on Westminster Rd.  We do not run our own high school and our students have seven local high schools to choose from (Woodstock Academy, Killingly Vo-Ag, Ellis Tech, Norwich Tech, Norwich Free Academy (NFA), and Griswold).  We also send children to STEM and magnet schools outside of district (OOD).

How does this compare to enrollment over the past 5-10 years?

• Our school population has fluctuated over the past decade, but the trend has been towards increasing the number of students in the school system.

What are the enrollment projections for the next 5-10 years?

• Research suggests that over the next decade, the number of students in our school system will continue to increase.

What is the average cost per student for AY1718?

• $10,934,105/743 = $14,716 per student total
• $6,882,451/743 = $9,263 per student paid by town government (63%)
• $4,051,654/743 = $5,453 per student paid by state government via ECS (37%)

How does the cost per student compare to other schools in CT?

• Here is data from the state. (Important to note, data is from AY1617)
• Here is a site where you can select school districts for comparison. (Important to note, data is from AY1617)
• Information from these two sites shows that the range in CT for costs per pupil for AY1617 was $12,742 (Danbury) to $36,080 (Cornwall)
• The average in CT is $16,579 so we are just slightly above the mean based on AY1617 (from this site, it shows the Canterbury cost per pupil as $17,687, again based on AY1617 data).

How does the cost per student compare to similar school districts in Eastern CT?

• We seem to be right in the middle. Towns like Brooklyn are paying about $14,513 per student, Salem $16,725, and Scotland $21,929.

I have heard that we pay more per pupil than other schools, is that true?

• That is not true at either the state or local level. We are fairly average.

How do our students compare on standardized tests to other students in CT?

• Coming soon.  This information is complex because of the switch from CMT to the SBAC for state testing and the change in the rating system.

How do our students compare on standardized tests to students from similar towns in Eastern CT?

• Coming soon. This information is complex because of the switch from CMT to the SBAC for state testing and the change in the rating system.

What are the broad categories that the budget covers in AY1718?

• Salaries, wages, and benefits = $6,533,057 
• Tuition = $2,890,275
• Facilities, Transportation, Technology Services = $546,302
• Special Education Services = $470,803
• District & Business Support Services = $427,144
• Regular Instruction = $66,524

How many employees are there in the school system in AY1718?

• Administrators = 4
• Teachers = 43.5
• Support staff, nurses, custodians, etc = 28
• Transportation = 17

Why do we have to pay for special education services?

• It is federal law. 

Why do we have to pay for tuition to schools outside of Canterbury?

• There are two reasons. We do not run our own high school and pay tuition to sending schools. This ranges from $0 to $13,676 per pupil based on AY1617 rates. This cost is paid per student for each year they are enrolled in high school. There is no tuition cost to send students to the technical schools, but we do pay for transportation. 
•  The second reason is that some students attend schools outside of Canterbury to meet their educational needs as outlined in an IEP or due to school choice (magnet schools, STEM, etc).

Why do we have to pay to transport the children to schools outside of Canterbury?

• It is state law. We are one of the few towns in CT who runs their own transportation system.

Why are we experiencing the current budget issues in AY1718?

• Due to cuts from the state to the Education Cost Sharing funding, roughly $600,000 that was originally budgeted to be provided to Canterbury to fund education was cut by the state legislature. Therefore, the AY1718 budget needed to be reduced by $600,000 during the fall of 2017 after a budget had been approved by the BOE and the town in the spring of 2017 during the normal budget cycle. This was accomplished in a number of ways including not hiring for positions where people had retired as well as cuts to budgetary items throughout the expense sheets. You can read about this process in the minutes of BOE meetings from Fall 2017.

Will there be additional budgetary issues in the AY1819 school year?

• The high school graduating class of 2021 (freshman during AY1718) is larger than the graduating classes that have historically come through (Class of 2018 = 51; Class of 2019 = 66; Class of 2020 = 65; Class of 2021 = 79). The amount that is needed to budget for their tuition costs will raise our AY1819 budget by a significant amount in comparison to the previous school year budget because we begin paying the tuition after the first full year for most of the high schools (some are paid in the concurrent year). This amount will be added to the education operating budget for the next four years. While some graduating classes are smaller when projecting out over the next decade (average class size for current K-8 students is around 50), the overall trend is for the town to continue to grow, adding more pupils each academic year.  In 2013, the total school population was 695 students K-12.  It is currently 743 students, a growth of 6.5% over five academic years.

What options are there to deal with these budget issues?

• Staff cuts, delayed maintenance, spending cuts, increased taxes, alternative external funding sources, loans (to cover things like the roof of Baldwin which is in poor shape). The best solution would be to have an audit to determine how we can fund our educational needs over the next decade.  This audit would be done by people with no vested interest in the outcome, meaning people who are neither employees  of the town nor elected officials.

Please feel free to post additional questions in the comments.  If information presented on this FAQ is not factually accurate, please provide up-to-date information and a citation for the source of the information.