Bristol, CT: BofEd facing budget deficit; "$10 million required for special education"

Mar 24, 2026, Bristol Edition: Board of Education advances $154.6M school budget proposal to finance board amid deficit concerns - The Bristol Edition

The Board of Education voted to send the superintendent’s proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year to the Board of Finance at a special meeting last Wednesday night.

Board members examined the request of $154,649,443, a 12.83% increase from the prior year. The budget will reflect 53 new positions, five restored positions after the district made cuts last year and repurposed funding for a district-wide psychologist and math ISTs.

Speaking at the special Board of Education meeting, Jodi Bond, director of finance for Bristol Public Schools, reiterated to the board that the district is anticipating a deficit of $3.4 million for the current fiscal years as of late February and will have effects on the overall budget.

The proposed budget will be presented this evening, Tuesday, March 24, to the Board of Finance immediately following the financial board’s regular meeting.

In a statement sent to TBE following the March 18 Board of Education meeting, Board of Education chair Shelby Pons said that the request’s focus was on stabilizing the schools and reducing rising costs after four consecutive years of flat funding, while covering rising health care costs for employees.

“The reported growth in the BOE budget over the past four years was not real growth. Nearly $10 million was required for special education, and $3.9 million came from the BOE’s own reserves. Without that, the actual increase was only about $1.6 million over four years,” Pons said.

Pons explained that “Over the past four years, the Board of Education has received a smaller share of the city budget, dropping from about 58% to 56%. That means schools have been getting less, not more. To manage that, we made difficult decisions, including eliminating more than 40 positions last year.” 

Pons said that existing structural challenges have been recognized, and that an effort between the city and the Board of Finance is being made to create a stable approach.

“With the opening of the new Northeast school and the shift to K to 5, we now have the space to bring more special education programs in house. This means better support for students and lower costs, which will save millions over time in out-of-district tuition costs and transportation,” Pons said.

Pons explained that areas for potential savings had been looked into, such as closing a school, but the savings would be minimal.

“The goal is to continue working with the City to address structural issues that are outside of our control, and we need the full amount requested to stop the predictable deficit from recurring, as it has over the past three years. This funding will allow us to put measures in place to keep more students in-district by expanding our special education programs, and reduce long term costs,” Pons said.

At last Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting, Jennifer Van Gorder, the only board member who voted against the budget, expressed concern at the meeting about impacts that the proposed budget may have on taxpayers in Bristol.

“I think it doesn’t absorb well with the taxpayers, when we’ve seen such astronomical tax hikes throughout Bristol, and I know it’s not just a Bristol issue, but we do have to, you know, keep little grandma in mind,” Van Gorder said.

Pons said that even though it looks like the budget has gone up, the budget only saw a 1% increase last year, and flat-funded in the prior two outside of mandatory appropriations for special education, other budgets in the city receiving a 3% to cover contractual obligations and insurance.

Pons rejected the idea that the education budget was increasing taxes and said that further cuts would not be beneficial.

“We’re at a place where there is nowhere else to go. We’ve eliminated positions, we’ve cut every corner we can, and we’re seeing the impact,” Pons said, “When you say the taxes went up, they certainly didn’t go up because of us, because we weren’t getting any of the funding. The funding was going to all of the other city budgets, so I do feel horrible that people’s taxes went up, including my own, but I’d feel better if it went to education, and we’re not seeing that.”