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NEW CANAAN, Conn. – The New Canaan Board of Education added more than $1 million to its proposed 2013-14 school year budget before finalizing a $78.79 million spending plan after a lengthy meeting Tuesday night.
The proposed budget is about $4.2 million — or 5.7 percent — more than the current $74.5 million budget approved by the New Canaan Town Council last April.
The final total was changed after the school board reviewed and approved an $882,000 increase for health insurance costs and a $226,000 expenditure to pay for campus security monitors for Saxe Middle School and three elementary schools. The monitors are part of planned security upgrades the board discussed two weeks ago after the Newtown school shootings.
Most of the budget, about $51.9 million, would be used to pay salaries.
Proposed staffing changes would include adding a full-time custodian, technician and accounting clerk as well as a part-time public information specialist. The district would also spend about $7,000 in two stipends to pay a women’s ice hockey coach at New Canaan High School. A math teacher would be added at Saxe Middle School, but three elementary school teachers would be eliminated.
The proposed budget will be presented to the Board of Selectmen at a meeting Thursday. It also must be reviewed by the Board of Finance and the New Canaan Town Council.
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