Hernandez presents to FO committee Monday. Credit: Zoom screenshot As New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) prepares its next budget, district leaders are debating whether to ask for the full cost of adequately staffing schools with counselors, teachers, security guards and new academic programs, or i nstead tailoring their request to what city and state officials have historically been willing to fund. At the center of the debate are two numbers. The first is $252,644,902, a data-driven estimate prepared by NHPS Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Amilcar Hernandez. Hernandez said at Monday’s Board of Education Finance Operations Committee meeting that that’s how much it would cost to add new programs and staff to better support students. The second number is $232,144,167 — reflecting what the district believes it needs to maintain only its current operations next fiscal year. “The $232 million will definitely keep us the way we are; $252 million will take us to the next level,” Hernandez said during Monday’s committee meeting, which was held on Zoom. Hernandez shared the same presentation with the committee — consisting of board members Matt Wilcox, Andrea Downer, and OrLando Yarborough — that he and Supt. Madeline Negrón have been sharing with the community at a handful of recent budget forums. The budget currently in the works is for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Throughout Hernandez’s presentation he reminded the committee that the state’s per-pupil funding rate for its Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula hasn’t changed since 2013. Which means, he said, the state’s financial allocation is not based on the actual current costs for student services and programs, living wages for staff, and quality academic operations. “The revenue from the state has not been able to keep up,” he said while also noting that, as of Dec. 31, NHPS is working through a projected deficit of $8.8 million for the current fiscal year. That means that, instead of spending $213 million as covered by NHPS’ approved budget for the year that ends June 30, the district is on track to spend closer to $222 million. Hernandez said he plans to continue working to mitigate the district’s deficit but the issue remains that the district continues each year to start in the red because it is underfunded by the state. Hernandez said that the district hasn’t yet settled on how much money it is going to ask of the city and state for next fiscal year’s budget. Monday’s presentation to the committee showed that $252.6 million is what NHPS needs to increase salaries, benefits, and non-salary expenses like instruction supplies, utilities, and transportation. Hernandez noted that significant projected increases include contractual staff raises costing $8.8 million and a $6 million bump for transportation. “In a perfect scenario, if I have $252 million, not only can I do everything that we’re doing but now it releases some of the special funds to now do innovation, add programing, increase and improve the quality of service,” Hernandez said about what would amount to a $39 million year-to-year bump in the budget. Meanwhile, “$232 million is the least that we need in order to maintain status quo,” he said. That number is still nearly $20 million — or 8.9 percent — more than the current year’s school budget. Hernandez also said he’s identified at least $20 million of “special funds” to cover parts of the general fund budget because “there is no more right sizing to do.” While the district’s general fund is made up of local and state dollars that typically pay for core operations, its special funds are restricted dollars and grants tied to specific programs, students, or compliance requirements. “The disadvantage is we have to commit $20 million of special funds in order to make this happen and in a perfect world what we would love to do is maintain those special funds so we can innovate, create more programming, increase the quality of service, so we can do the many things that we cut in the past that we’d love to bring back or new things that the district would like to do for our students,” Hernandez said. Yarborough, who is the president of the Board of Education, asked if it is an effective strategy to request only the “status quo” amount compared to what the district actual needs. “I don’t necessarily intend for us to ask for a status quo budget because there are many improvements the learning community can benefit from having,” Yarborough said. “We want an ideal school system.” If $252 million is the actual cost to run the district, Yarborough said, NHPS should consider asking for what it needs. Yarborough also noted that “our transportation costs need to be reined in,” given the roughly $6 million bump coming next year. Hernandez said while the district is having conversations with the state delegation, “the reality is that we have yet to see any movement from any of the stakeholders that could give us indication that we will receive even the minimum amount requested. In lieu of that, we have to start planning accordingly.” “If we only had the per-pupil funding the Hartford had for their school district, there would be an extra $32 million in the budget,” Wilcox said in response to Hernandez’s presentation. “We don’t just exist in a vacuum. We are in a very wealthy state and per-pupil funding is everything. The numbers are big because we have one of the largest districts in the state.” Wilcox clarified with Hernandez and Negrón that a $252 million budget would also include staffing increases that the district has identified as needed through its staffing gap report, which documents how many educators, coaches, support staff and more would actually be needed to significantly improve student development. Downer questioned why, if NHPS’ enrollment is on a decline, the budget still continues to grow. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that when enrollment goes down your cost is going to go down,” the superintendent replied. She gave an example explaining that even when classes are cut, educators and services still continue, meaning costs wouldn’t necessary decrease. Downer questioned what exactly is driving a $39 million increase that would result in a $252 million budget. Hernandez pointed out that teacher salary raises over the next year alone will cost the district at least around $7 million. He also noted that other staff like administrators will be getting contractual increases. Downer said she can’t and won’t support a budget request without also seeing a detailed budget breakdown. “We can no longer keep doing the same thing that we’ve been doing and expecting different results,” Downer said. “I won’t be able to support this at all.” “We’re always operating with the negative,” Negrón replied, “so I agree with you that we have to do something different.” She added: “What else are we going to do different? We still have to provide for almost 18,000 students. We have already closed buildings. We have merged. But I can’t say that we’re going to cut every line by a certain number. How else are we then going to be able to meet the obligation of providing a public education for our kids?” According to the budget timeline presented by Hernandez, he aims to present the full school board with a draft budget early this month. He’ll then make revisions to the draft budget in the middle half of the month and present a final Fiscal Year 2026-27 (FY27) budget recommendation in late February. Also… what’s the current year’s budget number, again? Last July, when the school board voted to approve a budget for FY26, the Independent reported that the schools budget was $220.77 million. At recent budget forums, however, Hernandez has identifying the general fund budget as $213 million. NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon explained to the Independent Wednesday that the FY26 budget voted on by the school board last July indeed totaled $213 million (though board members did not state that number aloud at the time.) The $220 million, meanwhile, included the $213 million general fund budget, $4 million worth of special grant funds, and $3 million allocated by the alders as a reserve for NHPS if it needs help covering a deficit. Read the full draft budget presentation below. FY-27 Draft Budget (FO)Download The post Schools Budget Q: To Ask For $232M Or $252M? appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less