RIDGEFIELD PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Board of Education Recommended FY 2018-19 Operating Budget

Approved February 26, 2018

Introduction On behalf of the Ridgefield Public Schools Administration, I am pleased to submit the Board of Education’s recommended FY 2018-19 Operating Budget for review and consideration by the Ridgefield Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance. The budget has been revised and reduced from the originally submitted plan to reflect initial changes in the health insurance renewal. The budget also includes the reinstatement of the following positions: 2.0 FTE at Ridgefield High School, 1.2 FTE K-5 Art education, and K-5 special education clerical paraeducators. The Board’s recommended FY 2018-19 Operating Budget represents a financial plan for the 2018-19 academic year that simultaneously advances educational excellence and fiscal responsibility. The total Board of Education FY 2019 Operating Budget is $96,555,184 which represents a 4.23% increase over the 2017-18 budget approved at referendum. The proposed budget features essential investments in Contractual Obligations ($1,490,590) Special Education and Related Services ($752,480) Health Benefits ($1,043,426), Transportation ($157,279), Energy, ($219,086) and Digital Learning ($112,999). With the limitations these essential investments present, we bring to the Town a budget that advances the District’s goals, Vision of the Graduate, and critical needs, while simultaneously demonstrating fiscal responsibility. ESSENTIAL INVESTMENTS Program Area

Dollar amount of the Budget Increase (4.23%)

Personnel Contractual Obligations

$1,490,590

Special Education and Related Services

$752,480

Health Benefits

$1,043,426

Transportation

$157,279

Energy

$219,086

Digital Learning

$112,999

Everything Else

$145,780

Total FY 2018-19 Budget Increase

$3,921,640

Budget Growth $3,921,640

The Board of Education FY 2018-19 Operating Budget ensures that the core values of the District are leveraged to advance teaching and learning. Those core values include: fostering academic, social, and emotional growth for all students, promoting wellness of body and mind, building an inclusive climate of trust, safety, and respect, valuing diversity by cultivating global competencies, and attracting, supporting, and retaining talented educators who embrace continuous learning. The Board is confident that the proposed budget will advance efforts in fulfilling the District’s stated mission of “providing engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences so all students can pursue their interests and prepare for life, learning, and work as global citizens.”

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Strategic and Goal Driven Framed by Ridgefield’s Strategic Coherence Plan, the Board of Education FY 2018-19 Operating Budget will advance the District’s efforts to create safe, healthy, supportive, and intellectually stimulating learning environments for all students. The District has set the development of global citizens as the ultimate outcome for our work with students. The aim is to empower students to be critical, creative and innovative thinkers, authentic problem solvers, effective communicators and collaborators, and empathic and selfdirected learners prepared to thrive in a rapidly changing world. The District Strategic Coherence Plan and associated action steps can be reviewed using this link: (Strategic Coherence Plan). The Outcomes and Goals weave throughout the entire proposed budget. The Ridgefield Board of Education is committed to aligning the District’s organizational systems to support the attainment of District goals. The Board has identified educational priorities that drove the budget development process. Those priorities are: Priority 1: To maintain class size guidelines Prek-12 to support personalized, relevant and engaging teaching and learning opportunities. Priority 2: To narrow the achievement gap between children with disabilities and their non-disabled peers. Priority 3: To strengthen instructional frameworks to better meet the academic and social and emotional learning needs of all students. Priority 4: To foster an organizational culture of professional growth and innovation. Priority 5: Growth for all students.

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Targeted Investments Curriculum Development, Professional Learning and Growth is a featured investment. Funding requested District-wide specifically supports curriculum and professional learning in several core areas. The 2018-19 budget continues to build educators’ knowledge, skills and practices that will promote growth for all and position the organization to reach the goals and outcomes of the District Strategic Coherence Plan, the RPS Mission and the Vision of the Graduate.

FY 2016-17

FY 2017-18

FY 2018-19 Request

$ Difference

% Difference

$1,276,709

$1,053,368

$1,098,240

$44,871

4.26%

BUDGET DRIVERS

FY 2017-18 Actual

FY 2018-19 Request

Salaries and stipends

$447,099

$462,766

$144,620

$216,670

Initial Purchase Textbook

$85,649

$76,569

Curriculum Work

$65,000

$70,000

Conference and Training

$71,200

$52,234

Professional Services

$35,000

$49,800

Purchased Services (combined) for job-embedded professional learning

The total 2018-19 budget is $1,098,240 demonstrating a 4.26% increase from the 2017-18 budget. The salaries and stipends include the Assistant Superintendent of Schools salary, Humanities Supervisor salary, office secretary salary, citizenship courses, and teacher stipends for mentoring beginning teachers.

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The total salary and stipend is $462,766 which represents a year-to-year increase of $15,667. remaining costs make up the Teaching and Learning program package totaling $635,474.

The

The purchased services lines funds expert consultants that provide job-embedded, personalized professional learning to our educators in our classrooms, with our students. This model has yielded demonstrated growth in teacher practice and student outcomes. Research on teacher learning, which shows mastery of a new skill is a multi-dimensional and time-consuming process. “French (1997) concluded that teachers may need as many as 50 hours of instruction, practice and coaching before a new teaching strategy is mastered and implemented in class. While many forms of active learning help teachers decipher concepts, theories, and research-based practices in teaching, modeling — when an expert demonstrates the new practice — has been shown to be particularly successful in helping teachers understand and apply a concept and remain open to adopting it.” (From Teaching the Teachers (2013) a report from the Center for Public Education.) For the 2018-19 budget, the elementary purchased services line includes a significant increase, $73,900 due to an increase in math consultant time and the shifting of Columbia University’s Teachers College Literacy staff developers into the operating budget (previously grant funded). The middle school purchased services line includes an increase of $22,700 primarily due to an increase in math consultant time. The District continues to shift mathematics instruction to fully align with the expectations of the Core Mathematics Standards. This requires significant changes in practice such that the teachers are developing a wider and deeper set of student skills and understanding. Current student performance data and observation of teacher practice suggest that continued growth is needed in the area of mathematics. The math consultant will provide targeted, job-embedded professional learning for educators that is designed to support teachers in employing contemporary instructional practices in mathematics. The Literacy Lab Sites are regarded as one of the most impactful professional learning opportunities in which our educators engage. Currently, all K-5 teachers (general and special education), literacy coaches, interventionists, and principals are learning within the Literacy Lab Sites. The literacy coaches and principals continue to provide job-embedded professional learning between each Lab Site session enabling the District to personalize the learning for individual teachers.

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Supporting the implementation of contemporary instructional practices is the curriculum. Curriculum refers to the means and materials with which students will interact for the purpose of achieving identified educational outcomes. The elements of curriculum include standards, the content and concepts that are presented, unit of instruction, lesson materials, as well as formative and summative assessments. In Ridgefield, we are continuously designing, upgrading and digital mapping our curriculum and related documents to ensure relevance and alignment with current standards and practices. . Given educators’ primary responsibilities related to teaching, there is little time embedded for learning new standards, frameworks for instruction, and research-based strategies to engage the contemporary student in our 21st century context. With all of these demands there is no time embedded for curriculum design learning and doing. The time and human resources required to engage in the transformative work that will meet the goals of the Mission and propel our Vision of the Graduate forward are limited in our current calendar and structures. Therefore, much of the curriculum work occurs outside of the contractual day for educators. The curriculum work allocation funds those district curriculum activities that teachers engage in beyond the scope of their individual roles. . Within the 2018-19 budget, curriculum work allocations include, but are not limited to: Anticipated FY 2018-19 Curriculum Work RHS Upgrades by Departments: ● Advisory ● English ● Math ● Science ● Visual Performing Arts

$16,960 ● $1,200 ● $3,600 ● $6,400 ● $3,600 ● $2,160

Middle School ● Humanities ● NGSS - Science ● Math

$15,800 ● ● ●

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$1,600 $11,000 $3,200

Elementary ● Art ● Digital Literacy ● Integrated Studies ● Literacy ● Math ● Music ● Physical Education ● Pre-K

$16,000 ● $1,600 ● $2,400 ● $2,000 ● $1,600 ● $3,600 ● $1,600 ● $1,600 ● $1,600

K - 12 Social and Emotional Learning

$4,000

The 2018-19 budget continues to build educators’ knowledge, skills and practices that will promote growth for all and position the organization to reach the goals and outcomes of the District Strategic Coherence Plan, the RPS Mission and the Vision of the Graduate. Specifically, an elementary team of lead learners will attend the Anchors of Emotional Intelligence Institute at Yale University. This team will then turnkey the training within the District for the entire elementary faculty. The training will provide educators with fundamental instructional tools to enhance students’ ability to understand and regulate their own emotions and to consider and empathize with how others are feeling. The Anchors also foster the kind of healthy emotional climate essential to personal growth. The Professional Services line funds local partnerships that provide students with engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences. Continuing to be funded through this budget are the partnerships with the Woodcock Nature Center (4th grade Ecosystems and Biodiversity Unit) and the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (8th grade STEAM Unit). The 2018-19 budget introduces the entire 6th grade to crosscultural, integrated experiences that will expand students’ worldview, build their global competence and foster the dispositions of the RPS Vision of the Graduate through the humanities curriculum and partnerships with an outside resource. Digital Learning is a second targeted investment, with a hardware lease that supports year three of the 1:1 Digital Learning Initiative with the expansion of ChromeBooks to students in grades 10. The 1:1 Digital Learning Initiative was expanded to grade 9 this year and will be extended into grade 10 in the 2018-19 school year. In support of the Vision of the Graduate, teachers integrate technology into their instruction and student learning experiences. In 2018-19, students in grade 9 and grade 10 will have the option of receiving a District Chromebook or electing to bring a personal technology device to school daily. The net annual dollar amount for the 1:1 Digital Learning Initiative Chromebooks will be $42,435 per year for three years.

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Hardware Lease and Digital Learning Resources The hardware lease is a three-year lease used with an annual rotation of new equipment leased and old equipment either retired or cycled elsewhere in the district. The lease payment is a financial commitment to pay the prior two-year’s annual lease payment plus the first year lease payment for the new lease. This current budget proposal has a hardware lease containing the replacement of two mobile laptop carts at the two middle schools used for visual and performing arts, Ridgefield High School computer lab replacement computers and replacement Chromebooks, and 6th grade 1:1 Chromebooks. In addition to the 1:1 Digital Learning Initiative the hardware lease also contains the replacement of two mobile computer labs at the middle schools. The mobile labs are Apple Macbook laptops used in Visual and Performing Arts classes that require a different set of resources that are not loaded onto Chromebooks. The two Macbook labs are replacement labs for laptops that are 7-10 years old. The hardware lease also includes the replacement of the four oldest computer labs and the robotics lab at Ridgefield High School. In total, these replacement labs account for $57,995 per year for three years. The year-to-year decrease for the hardware lease is $48,008, which is a 10.91% increase. The Educational Technology budget also includes software and subscriptions used by students at all levels. These include Nettop used by teachers at the middle schools to support instruction in a 1:1 learning environment. The budget has resource such as Nearpod that engages students in interactive full class and small group learning experiences. The Nearpod subscription is an extension of grants received from Nearpod and the Ridgefield Education Foundation this school year with the expectation of the district continuing those licenses into the 2018-19 school year. The costs for Nettop and Nearpod total $15,000. The Educational Technology budget includes new requests for online resources that support elementary school students in mathematics and reading. Symphony Math will be used by elementary students to engage in a visual online system that adapts to student needs and allows students to progress at their own pace. The system helps assess student learning, provides targeting instruction for student areas of need, and provides data to the teacher that can be used in their instruction and differentiation needed for all learners in their class. Symphony Math is designed to teach students the conceptual understanding of mathematics and is not used to for skills practice and memorization. The cost for Symphony Math is $37,000. Additional resources added to the new budget requests include Think Central ($36,000), Read Naturally ($8,250), and Thrively ($3,600). Think Central is an online extension of the math curriculum used by

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elementary teachers. The online tools were provided by the initial investment in the curriculum and is now a required renewal to continue providing access to students and teachers. Read Naturally is a new request and is designed for Tier 2 and Tier 3 reading support for students that require further reading support and instruction. Thrively will be used to support student mental health, another area linked to the Vision of the Graduate. In total, the Educational Technology Subscriptions budget is increasing $86,399. Assistive Technology includes software, online subscriptions, adaptive tools, low and high technology devices, and any other tool or resource required by the district to provide when listed in a student’s IEP for special education services. Increased costs to some of these resources plus the introduction of new resources that are emerging onto our student IEP’s has resulted in an increase of $15,950 to the Educational Technology budget. Students engage in research through the Library resources at all levels. Research is a critical skill aligned to the Vision of the Graduate. The Library budget within the Educational Technology budget includes databases used by students in the research process and to access content aligned to core curriculum. Due to increase costs and renewal rate changes from completed subscription agreements the Library budget is increasing $6,686. Special Education is a third featured investment. The District has been faced this year by a major problem with our out-of-district tuition costs and unplanned settlement costs. This has placed severe budgetary pressures on all District operations and is a driver of the budget increase in the FY 2018- 19 operating budget. The District has taken the budget problem seriously and are comprehensively examining how to mitigate unplanned settlements going forward.

SETTLEMENTS Ridgefield Public Schools has historically been challenged with supporting students who have been unilaterally placed in out-of-district facilities in the state of Connecticut and in out-of-state facilities through the settlement process. The chart below reflects five years of settlement agreements.

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School Year

Number of Students

Total Cost of Settlements

2014-15

19

$ 1,341,890

2015-16

15

$1,093,836

2016-17

18

$1,223,549

2017-18

24

$1,289,893

2018-19 Projected

21

$1,251,575

During the 2017-18 school year, the District was faced with ten unplanned mediation requests that resulted in settlement agreements. Currently, there are two due process hearings underway and there are two additional requests for mediation that have not yet been scheduled. The 2018-19 settlement projections include six settlement agreements that will end in 2019. There are eleven agreements that will end in June or August 2018. Historically, parents have returned to the District when a settlement expires and requests continuation of the agreement. These 11 agreements are projected in the 2018-19 school year at the 2017-18 level anticipating that parents will seek continuation of these agreements. In addition, the two additional mediation hearings and the two due process cases are estimated in the budget.

OUT OF DISTRICT PLACEMENTS Ridgefield Public Schools, through the Planning and Placement Team (PPT) process has placed students in state approved special education facilities and in out-of-state facilities. These PPT decisions support children with disabilities in which the district is not equipped nor has programming sufficient to provide the necessary supports and services within the district. The chart below reflects five years of out of district placements.

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School Year

Number of Students

Total Cost of Tuition

2014-15

33

$ 1,894,055

2015-16

25

$ 1,626,448

2016-17

22

$ 1,380,046

2017-18

28

$ 2,484,022

2018-19 Projected

23

$2,353,107

During the months of July and August 2017, twelve families moved into Ridgefield. Of those twelve families, four have children with significant special needs who were previously placed in private, special education facilities. Since these children have IEPs being implemented in state approved private special education schools, it is the obligation of the District to implement the IEPs in the student’s current placement. From September 2017 until January 30 2018, three additional children moved into Ridgefield whose IEPs are being implemented in state approved special education schools. The cost of these placements are reflected in the 2018-19 budget projections. PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION SERVICES: NURSES During the 2017-18 school year, the District had to hire 1:1 nurses for three medically fragile children. In addition, there are agency nurses that ride buses to monitor children with life-threatening allergies and other serious medical conditions. These were unplanned expenses in the 2017-18 school year budget as the children have moved into the District or are Ridgefield residents who began attending school this year for the first time. The nurses support children PreK through grade 12 with a variety of challenging medical conditions such as severe seizure disorders, tracheostomies, feeding tubes, life threatening allergies and other medical conditions that require constant monitoring. The Professional Education Services - Nurses is a new account created to track and monitor the use of agency nurses. Professional Educational Services- CCSN Building on the work of the past two years in professional learning, communication, assessments, and service delivery, this 2018-19 budget continues the reduction of the contract with Connecticut Center for Children with Special Needs (CCSN) by $100,000 and enhances behavioral services for complicated student needs by adding a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). Page 10 of 17

PreK to K RISE Program at Barlow Elementary School The Ridgefield Intensive Special Education (RISE) program has provided comprehensive special education and related services to children who require a higher level of specialized instruction, social/emotional, and behavioral support. Currently, there are eleven children transitioning from the RISE PreK program to Kindergarten in the 2018-19 school year. There are six children who, if they did not need the level of services provided by the RISE program, would attend their south side of town neighborhood school. The impact of transitioning these children to RISE programs on the north side of town and the long term impact of transitioning these children to Scotts Ridge Middle School has led to discussions regarding continuum of services. The Board of Education’s recommended FY 2018-19 Operating Budget includes a plan to transition this cohort of students to a Kindergarten RISE program at Barlow Elementary School for one year. During the 2018-19 school year, the District will build the capacity of the school teams at Branchville, Farmingville and Veterans Park Elementary Schools with the expectation that these children would be transitioned to their neighborhood school with supports and services in the 2019-20 school year. If these children continue to require the higher level of services that the RISE program offers and are unable to be included in their neighborhood school, the Kindergarten RISE program at Barlow Elementary School can be relocated to the south side of town. AGGREGATE STUDENT ENROLLMENT For the 2018-19 school year, 4,838 students are projected to be enrolled in the Ridgefield Public Schools PK- grade 12. This represents a decline of 79 students from the projected enrollment for the 2017-18 school year and a decline of 74 students from the District’s actual 2017-18 PK- grade 12 enrollment. Enrollment

Budgeted FY 2017-18

Actual FY 2017-18

Projected FY 2018-19

Elementary Schools/ PK-5

2007

2017

1992

Middle Schools

1199

1205

1205

High School

1711

1680

1641

4917

4912

4838

TOTAL

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K-5 ENROLLMENT RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES The 2018-19 Board of Education budget provides for the total number of staffing positions authorized to support the educational programs of the Ridgefield Public Schools. The school administrators are responsible for allocating staff in accordance with class size practice and the contract between the Ridgefield Board of Education and National Education Association- Ridgefield (NEA-R).

Elementary Schools Currently, there are 104 K-5 elementary classroom teachers in the district. Applying the District’s class size practices to the projected enrollment, 100 classroom teachers would be required for the 2018-19 school year, resulting in an decrease of four classroom teacher over actuals and one classroom teachers over the 2017-18 budget. Across the six elementary schools, there would be six grade levels that would have classes projected to have at least one class size at maximum from the onset. These classes are:

BES

K projected at 41 (2 sections - 20, 21)

BES

Grade 4 projected at 74 (3 sections - 24, 25, 25)

FES

Grade 3 projected at 49 (2 sections - 24, 25)

RES

Grade 4 projected at 49 (2 sections - 24, 25)

SES

Grade 2 projected at 72 (3 sections - 24, 24, 24)

VPS

Grade 4 projected at 50 (2 sections - 25, 25)

Middle Schools The Board of Education FY 2017-18 Operating Budget implemented the aligned middle school feeder patterns to a 50-50 enrollment split for the incoming grade 6 students. As a result of this model, ERMS reduced one grade 6 team. In 2018-19, the 50-50 feeder pattern can be modeled forward with the projected enrollments and continued efficiencies are projected through the reduction of one grade 7 team at ERMS. Page 12 of 17

The 50-50 Aligned Feeder 2018-19: SCOTTS RIDGE MIDDLE SCHOOL

EAST RIDGE MIDDLE SCHOOL

Grade Level

Student Enrollment

Number of Teams

Grade Level

Student Enrollment

Number of Teams

6

205

2

6

191

2

7

187

2

7

200

2

8

168

2

8

255

3

2017-18 POST BUDGET POSITIONS INCLUDED IN 2018-19 PROPOSED BUDGET FTE

POSITION

1.00

ERMS Special Education Teacher

5.00

SPED Instructional Paraeducators

FY 2018-19 CERTIFIED STAFFING CHANGES The Board of Education FY 2018-19 Operating Budget reflects the continued implementation of the aligned feeder middle school enrollment pattern resulting in the reduction of a team at ERMS. In order to meet the social, emotional and mental health needs of students, additional school psychologists are allocated in this budget. LEVEL

ADDED FTE

POSITION

ELEM MIDDLE

2.00

MS Math Specialists

HIGH PPS

2.00

School Psychologists

SPED

3.00

Special Education Teachers

1.00

Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA)

0.50

Speech & Language Therapist

SPED SPED

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REDUCED FTE

POSITION

-1.00

Elementary Teacher

-4.90

ERMS Grade 7 Team

-0.075

HS Teachers - enroll

FY 2018-19 NON-CERTIFIED STAFFING CHANGES

LEVEL

ADDED FTE

POSITION

ELEM

1.17

Lunch/Recess Supervision

0.10

Bus Supervision

MIDDLE HIGH SPED

1.00

Athletic Program Assistant Benefits Only

2.00

Instructional Paraeducators

TECH

REDUCED FTE

POSITION

-1.50

Math Paraeducators

-2.00

Tech Paraeducators

TOTAL DISTRICT- FY 2018-19 STAFFING PLAN The 2018-19 staffing plan includes enrollment driven changes to staffing, additional staffing incurred by the District outside of the 2018-19 budget and new requests. The following page illustrates those changes.

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FY 2017-18 Actual Staff

FY 2017-18 Budgeted Staff

FY 2018-19 Projected Staff

Budget to Projected Change

Actual to Projected Change

Teachers

448.519

446.644

450.169

3.525

1.650

Administrators

27.480

27.480

27.480

0.000

0.000

Secretaries

34.000

34.000

34.000

0.000

0.000

Paras

113.710

115.134

119.060

3.926

5.350

Custodians

53.000

53.000

53.000

0.000

0.000

Nurses Therapist/ Other

22.000

22.000

23.000

1.000

1.000

Technology

10.000

10.000

10.000

0.000

0.000

Operations Managers

5.000

5.000

5.000

0.000

0.000

713.709

713.258

721.709

8.451

8.00

Total

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CONCLUSION The Board of Education’s recommended FY 2018-19 Operating Budget has been carefully crafted in a collaborative process to advance the District’s Strategic Goals, Mission and Vision of the Graduate. The proposed budget ensures that Ridgefield’s academic and co-curricular programs remain robust; social, emotional and physical well-being is bolstered, class size guidelines and teacher-to-student ratios are maintained, and school facilities are maintained as important community assets. Ultimately, the Board of Education believes the recommended 2018-19 budget will make a difference for every student in the Ridgefield Public Schools. CAPITAL BUDGET NOTE This Executive Summary by design has focused on the recommended operating budget. The Board of Education approved the Five-Year Capital Plan request of $949,388 in December 2017. These projects address environmental, health, and technology and facility upgrades to ensure the continuity of safety and school operations. More specifically, the core infrastructure for the District’s heating and cooling systems, security systems, and instructional systems are all supported by network infrastructure and wireless technology. The District needs to upgrade the core infrastructure to mitigate risk associated with the aging network systems and outdated wireless units that do not support industry standard wireless protocols. The district’s daily safety, security, and heating and cooling operations are all supported by the outdated networked infrastructure. 1

SCOTLAND

REMOVE AND REPLACE 30-YR OLD #2 HEATING OIL UNDERGROUND TANK

$100,750

2

SCOTLAND

ASBESTOS ABATEMENT AND RE-TILING (PHASE 2/4)

$121,900

3

SRMS, RES

REPLACEMENT UPGRADE TRANE BUILDING AUTOMATION SYSTEM

4

DISTRICT

TECHNOLOGY AND FACILITIES UPGRADES FOR CONTINUITY OF SAFETY AND SCHOOL OPERATIONS

$475,700

5

RHS

REPLACE COOLING TOWER

$153,500

$97,538

$949,388

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Budget by Location is Attached.

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