School Board Requests $1.4 Million Increase to Budget

The Naugatuck Board of Education requested a $1.4 million increase to its budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year during a meeting Monday evening.

Superintendent John Tindall-Gibson and board Chairman Kathleen Donovan presented the proposed $57.9 million budget to the joint Board of Mayor and Burgesses and Board of Finance. The proposed increase nears 2.6 percent over the accepted budget in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

School business manager Wayne McAllister, also the borough’s controller, outlined the budget proposal. A bulk of the increase — just over $935,000 — is attributed to contractual increases for salaried employees including teachers, administrators and staff.

In addition, the board is requesting four full-time equivalent teaching positions. This includes a third grade teacher, a middle school language arts teacher, a high school math teacher and a health instructor, officials said.

The school district is also reportedly focusing on getting additional elevators in the high school to make it ADA compliant.

The boards took no action on the proposal and will revisit the budget on May 9 after giving the board members two weeks to go over it in depth.