HAMDEN, Conn. — School districts across Connecticut are being forced to make difficult decisions when it comes to their budgets. In Hamden, the school board voted this week to make cuts to staffing and school sports.
“I understand that the cuts are hard. And I don’t want people to forget this fact. The reason we’re cutting is because we weren’t allocated the amount of money we needed to operate the district the way we operated it this year,” said Gary Highsmith, superintendent of Hamden Public Schools.
Highsmith said the district asked the town for $6.6 million. But after getting half of that, they are short of about $3.1 million.
“First thing we wanted to do was keep the cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. Which means we wanted to minimize the number of teachers who might be laid off,” Highsmith said.
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The board voted to cut a total of seven positions, including three certified teachers, one administrator, one crisis interventionalist, one social worker, and one school counselor. Other positions were cut, but the district was able to move those people into another role.
The board also voted to get rid of all competitive sports at the school. However, they will still offer intramural sports, and are encouraging students to join the many rec leagues the town has to offer.
“I know how important sports are, but I got to ask you this question…do I keep the sports programs intact, or do I release one more teacher,” Highsmith said.
Highsmith said cuts had to be made, including to their partnership with Clifford Beers Community Care Center, which provides mental health supports to students and their families.
Highsmith helped bring the program to the district when he was in another role, years ago. Now, he said he’s working with the provider to try and get legislative funding for the program approved, so they can keep that relationship going.
“I’m hopeful at this point that we’ll be able to do it. And if we are not able to do it, it’s one of the programs that really, really, that hurt me,” Highsmith said. “It’s terrible. Of all the things that I saw on that, other than the human beings who lost their jobs, that was the worst cut for me. Because I know what that program means right? Because there’s also coordination in that program that works with the entire family.”
Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett said she wants to take a close look at the budget to see anything can be moved around.
“The budget that I signed gives the Board of Education an additional $3.5 million over last year’s allocation. They’re also getting over $4 million additional for the alliance grant, which is from the state of Connecticut,” Garrett said. “So, they’re getting a large amount of money to work with.”
Garrett said when the budget was submitted to her, it didn’t properly account for the alliance funding.
“So, I think that could be helpful to them, I’d like to see how they’re spending that grant,” Garrett said.
Garrett noted that she would like to see the district make a big effort to try and keep the mental health funding and the sports programs intact.
“Sports is one of the reasons that kids go to school. And really keep kids engaged. It’s a tool that teachers even use, you have to get good grades, or you can’t play sports. So, I think that it’s certainly worthwhile to keep in the budget. And it’s a really low dollar figure. It’s $47,000 that we’re talking about in a $115 million budget,” Garrett said.
Garrett also has a son who is an athlete, hoping to join the athletics programs at Hamden Middle School next year.
“I’ve got skin in the game here. And I know that a lot of families are looking forward to their kids playing sports for Hamden,” Garrett said.
However, Highsmith is adamant that the district doesn’t have the money.
“We cut as down to the bone as we possibly could. The cuts were so deep, that we even stopped buying water upstairs for the employees. That’s how deeply we went into trying to find every dime that we could,” Highsmith said.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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