For years, Connecticut schools have seen enrollment decline. “Across the state, enrollment is down around 6 percent compared to 10 years ago, the lowest it has been in at least a decade,” reported CT Insider last month. At Monday’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting, declining enrollment was a topic of much discussion.
According to the October 1, 2024, enrollment numbers delivered to the state, Stafford had 1,280 students, including the 24 students in outplacement who were also a topic of discussion at the meeting. That means enrollment has decreased by about 50 students since last year. However, Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Laura Norbut told the board that due to the transient nature of Stafford’s population, that number had already increased and was up to 1,291 as of November 13.
Additionally, Dr. Norbut says that when you spread out the declining enrollment across all the grades, it only results in a few fewer students for each grade. While the schools make adjustments grade by grade – for instance, there is one fewer class of fifth graders this year – the overall impact of the declining enrollment is not enough to warrant eliminating staff. “We’re operating on a skeleton staff,” she said.
Board member Chris Paradiso asked Dr. Norbut to elaborate, asking how many more staff the schools need. While Norbut did not put a specific number on the table, she pointed out that the schools lost many staff members two years ago and have only been able to add a few back since then (all of which was detailed during budget conversations at the beginning of 2024).
Board member Aaron Hoffman pointed out that “we’re down about 250 students over 10 years.” He, like commenters on social media, said that despite declining enrollment, the budget numbers continue to increase. “I’m not saying our budget should go down by 15%, no one would ever say that,” he said, but asked if they could be “creative with our budgeting process.”
Dr. Norbut reminded Hoffman that the district had closed a school during those ten years when enrollment declined significantly. “We’re going to be at a crossroads,” Dr. Norbut said, adding that the district would need to decide whether they want to build programs in the district or continue to place so many students out of the district – circling back to the conversation about the two dozen Stafford students have to travel out of town to receive special education services.
A lack of staffing outside of the classroom is also an issue for Stafford. According to the minutes from the October 21 Budget Committee meeting, the schools have had to rely on contracted services to fill several open positions in the district: “Dr. Norbut explained that the School Psychologist positions at the middle and high school and the Speech Language Pathologist position (split between the middle and high school) utilized contractors, but that the role of the Special Education Teacher is intended to be filled by a permanent employee. Ms. [Erica] Bushior also asked about the progress in attaining an Athletic Trainer. Dr. Norbut shared that, although a contract was signed with Go4 Healthcare, the candidate they anticipated coming to Stafford was placed in another school district. She explained that the company is contacted on a regular basis and has not been able to provide us with a candidate at this time.”
Using contractors is often more expensive than hiring full-time staff; however, as Jen Biedrzycki said during Monday’s regular meeting, it’s not uncommon for staff to leave for positions in other towns where they are rumored to make up to $20,000 more yearly. She suggested conducting a market analysis of wages in nearby districts to try and make jobs in Stafford more marketable.
Good to Know
In 2022, The Patch listed average teacher salaries across the state’s best-performing districts. Here are the Top 10:
