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2024-2025 BOE Budget FAQ
Updated automatically every 5 minutes

Revised 1/19/2024

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Ledyard Board of Education Budget

Frequently Asked Questions

Thank you for visiting the Ledyard Board of Education Budget FAQ page for the 2024-2025 budget development process.  Each year elected officials, team members, and members of our community present questions related to our budget. These questions can be financial in nature, or related to policy or operations. It is our goal to respond in a public forum, as transparently, and comprehensively as possible. If at any time the budget information or this FAQ document does not answer your questions, or if you have feedback, please feel free to contact me at jhartling@ledyard.net or our Director of Finance, Ken Knight KKnight@ledyard.net. This document will be updated as new questions of public value are presented, with revision dates recorded in the document header.

Sincerely,

Jason S. Hartling

Superintendent

Questions:

  1. We continue to hear about declining enrollment, is the district reducing staff to meet this decline?

Prior to 2018,  like most districts across the State, Ledyard saw an enrollment decline. However, in the past several school years the district has seen a general stabilization and at times an increase in our enrollment. Our total “in-district” enrollment as of Dec 1 was 2427 .  

  1. What are we doing to reduce our outgoing magnet numbers and increase the incoming?
    School choice is an option in Southeastern CT as part of the effort to reduce racial isolation in New London. There is no specific effort to reduce participation. Generally the numbers of out of district students per grade k-8 are in the single digits, with higher numbers of students at the high school level accessing the State Technical Schools or MSHS.

Enrollment in Ledyard Public Schools Pre-K through Eighth Grade is based on verified residency of the student within the Town of Ledyard. Ledyard High School offers a Regional Agricultural Science Program that students of 11 different communities outside of Ledyard are eligible to attend. Additionally, Ledyard has general tuition agreements with communities that do not have a local high school.

  1. How much do we spend on magnet school students going to other districts?

There are approximately 95 students attending magnet schools as of October 2023 at an estimated tuition cost of $443,000.  In addition, the district pays for any additional special education costs that the students require.

5.    How does per pupil spending in Ledyard compare to the surrounding communities in SE CT?

        Ledyard operates a program at a cost significantly lower than the surrounding communities. As a community Ledyard currently ranks 153 out of 166 for funding per student.  Recent analysis of CT SDE data shows the following comparisons:

A comparison with the State:

6.       Does the proposed budget include increases due to inflation for transportation and energy costs in our facilities? Is a COLA provided for employees?

The district transportation contract is up for renewal after the end of the current fiscal year.  We are anticipating an increase based on renewal rates that have occurred in other districts. Costs for special education transportation are based on forecasted student enrollment and student need; special education costs are highly volatile.

Electricity and natural gas is increased by $190,000 due to new contracts for supply.  Heating oil is increased by $15,000 based on market fluctuation, and diesel is flat due to a relatively stable price year over year.  Utility costs continue to be potential areas of risk.

Increases for employees are provided based on contractual agreements; agreements are available at at ledyard.net on the employment agreements page.