Kelly Murphy

This document outlines the Newtown Public Schools' 2026-2027 budget request, framed to support its Overarching Strategic Goals for 2025-2028. The strategic goals prioritize continuous improvement in curriculum and instruction, ensuring safe and modern facilities, maintaining fiscal responsibility, attracting a high-quality workforce, and strengthening family and community partnerships. The budget specifically allocates resources for strategic additions in special education, academic excellence, and reinstating key positions to prepare students for personal success and inspire excellence.

The subcommittee discussed the March itemized estimates report, noting strong performance in salary accounts and reviewing budget variances. The committee covered upcoming requirements for the Healthy Food Certification process and the final renewal year for the Chartwells contract. Updates on the non-lapsing account were provided, specifically regarding middle school air conditioning and workflow analysis costs. The facilities update addressed the timeline for various summer projects, including school pool and fire alarm upgrades, and outlined new State requirements for water PFAS testing.

The committee discussed a four-phase facilitation process for facility planning involving defining success criteria, stipulating facts, identifying options, and gathering public feedback. The committee reviewed past facility planning case studies, noting that early community engagement is essential for project success. Furthermore, the committee evaluated three consultant firms and expressed concerns regarding the shift in presentation focus by one of the firms. Next steps were defined, including contacting consultants for follow-up discussions regarding their proposals and drafting an executive summary of facilities data for public dissemination.

The committee held a planning meeting to evaluate proposals from two firms, District Management Group (DMG) and STV, for strategic facilities planning. Key discussion topics included comparing DMG's focus on a comprehensive community engagement and visioning model against STV's technical focus on physical building assessments and cost estimation. The committee debated the necessity of robust community buy-in strategies versus technical execution, taking into account the district's specific needs for potential school consolidation and the budgetary implications of each proposal.

The committee reviewed and approved revisions to the Philosophy and Mixed Media Arts curricula for the high school. The Philosophy curriculum update emphasizes a concept-based approach focusing on inquiry, debate, and real-world application, while the Mixed Media Arts curriculum shifts to a standards-based, choice-driven model integrating environmental awareness and artistic experimentation.