superintendent's Message:
Dr. Steven Adamowski

A Message from the Superintendent

I am pleased that Norwalk Public Schools has a final approved budget for the 2019-20 school year, reached as a result of a compromise reached between the School District and the City.  This compromise consists of the following elements:

• A base budget increase of 3.0%
• A supplemental amount totaling $2.28 million to fund one-time Board of Education items funded from the City’s fund balance and built into the approved FY 2019-20 budget;
• An agreement between the City and the Board of Education allowing the Board of Education to carryover unexpended funds up to 1% of the FY 2018-19 operating budget ($1.9 million), for use in FY 2019-20, per CGS 10-248(a);
• Budget reductions totaling $1.8 million from the Board’s original approved FY 2019-210 budget submission from January 2019.

The approved budget funds the priority implementation steps for FY 2019-20 that the Board laid out in the Strategic Operating Plan.  The Strategic Operating Plan is an ambitious plan designed to raise the bar and close the gaps.  The budget goals funded for the 2019-20 school year include the following seven priorities:

1. Add a fourth “Specials” teacher at 6 elementary schools, which will allow the District to complete the phase-in implementation of the contractual agreement regarding a normal elementary school day;
2. Implement 4^th and 5^th grade band instrument instruction at the remaining six (6) elementary schools which did not participate in this initiative during the 2018-19 school year;
3. Increase the high school per pupil expenditure and add five (5) new high school teachers in order to complete implementation of the State-required 26-credit graduation requirement at our high schools.
4. Expand the District’s Summer School Program to the sixth (6^th ) grade and expand the entrance criteria to reduce summer learning loss for at risk students;
5. Expand the District’s Choice Programs by allocating funds for the development of a Montessori Primary Years classroom at Brookside School;
6. Provide program support for the additional students who have elected to enroll in the District’s Choice (magnet) Programs; and
7. Sunset the successful Three-Year Special Education Development Fund.

Click here for more of Dr. Adamowski's budget message.