MONROE, Conn. — Principals of the town’s three elementary schools made a case for creating a new assistant principal position at Stepney and more hours for a speech and language pathologist at Fawn Hollow, while presenting their budgets to the Monroe Board of Education at the Jan. 5 workshop.
School board members are reviewing Superintendent Joseph Kobza’s $78.55 million spending plan for fiscal year 2026-27, which is a 5.16 percent increase from the current year. They also heard from administrators of Jockey Hollow Middle and Masuk High schools, and had workshops covering special education and curriculum and professional development on Jan. 8, and the IT, facilities and capital portions of the budget last Monday.
On Jan. 5, Stepney Principal Ashley Furnari, Fawn Hollow Principal Leigh Metcalf Ances and Monroe Elementary Principal Kelly Svendsen explained their combined budgets for line items within their control, minus contractual obligations such as salaries and benefits.
That combined elementary schools budget, for building operations and instructional supplies and things impacting student performance, is $173,580, which is a 4.6 percent or $8,375 decrease from the current year.
Ances said the budget proposal assumes there will be no increase in section sizes. As a result, Furnari said there are savings from not having to buy desks and other things needed to set up a new classroom.
A second try
The superintendent’s budget proposal includes a 0.3 speech and language pathologist at Fawn Hollow ($33,000) and an assistant principal at Stepney ($142,397), the later of which was requested last year, but did not make it through the budget process when reductions were needed.
The 0.3 speech and language pathologist would increase hours for two existing positions, so the school would go from having a combined 1.5 full time equivalent to a 1.8 FTE. Currently, one-and-a-half positions handle a caseload of 94 students, according to Kobza.
“It’s just too much for them,” he had told board members in his presentation, adding the additional hours will help staff to balance caseloads, ensure compliance with IEP (Individualized Education Program) service time and enhance consistency of intervention.
Director of Student Support Services Jennifer Parsell said the staff members already have a speech pathology assistant, so moving from a 1.5 to a 1.8 will be “a huge help for those caseloads.”
In the workshop on Jan. 5, elementary school teachers made their case for the assistant principal position.
Stepney currently has 491 students, including 23 multilingual learners, 93 special education students, and 93 students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program.
“We are the Title 1 school this year in Monroe,” Furnari said.
She said about 44 students receive accommodations, as well as intervention and TSS, 50 students in reading around 50 in math.
In their presentation, Monroe’s three elementary school principals said the assistant principal position would lead to enhanced student support, a stronger school culture and better crisis management, improved teacher support and evaluations, and more effective operational management, enabling a stronger focus on instructional leadership and enhanced community engagement.
“Our hope is that it will move forward this year, because it’s not only going to benefit Stepney, it’s going to benefit the district,” Furnari said, “and our students and teachers at Stepney really deserve to have two leaders in the building, so that there’s somebody else there when I’m not available, because as much as I think we do a great job when we share responsibility, I’m spread thin.”
Furnari said she spends so much time with building operations issues, that she cannot get to the classrooms as often to perform the educational side of her job.
“My vision of the position, I think, will not only benefit our building but the district as well,” she said.
Furnari said other administrators in the district assist her with 45 certified teacher evaluations of which she does 11 herself. She said help from an assistant principal could free those administrators up to spend more time in their specialty areas.
The time spent working with and supporting teachers has a direct correlation to providing quality instruction for students, according to Furnari.
She said an assistant principal will be a “think partner” she could work collaboratively with, and they could specialize in certain areas.
“I want to see whoever we hire have a strong background in special education,” Furnari said. “An assistant principal could support the special education staff and run our meetings.”
Currently, Furnari attends about 100 team meetings per year herself.
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As part of looking at the expense side, it would be helpful to look at the growth of the student body over the last 10 years. In my neighborhood, there has been significant turnover. In every case, a family with no school age children, sells to a family with 2 or 3 school age children. The property tax increase to cover the increase in education expenses for teachers, administrators, and facilities. And the cycle continues with the next sale. Maybe we should look at these turnover numbers and see the effect of a slower turnover rate by freezing or lowering the tax increase rate for houses with no school age children.