The Wallingford Board of Education voted Monday evening to back a 3.56 percent increase in the upcoming school year’s budget.
According to The Record-Journal, the vote was 7-1 to approve a $92.7 million package which includes $3.1 million in increases for the 2013-14 fiscal year.
The budget still needs the Town Council to approve it, although the council very well may shave some spending in certain areas.
Superintendent Salvatore Menzo told Patch that roughly half of the proposed spending increase — $1.5 million — is attributed to a series of state and federal unfunded mandates.
The mandates are coming from Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s education reforms enacted last year — which call for stronger teacher evaluations — as well as a set of initiatives put forth in a national set of Common Core Standards.
Most of the actual spending from these mandates would go toward professional development, curriculum writing for teachers, and instructional resources, like computer programs or other materials, Menzo said. None of the unfunded mandates call for more staff.
The rest of the proposed funding hike, roughly $1.6 million, would cover other general year-over-year expenditures in the Wallingford education system, Menzo said.
