Gilbert Budget Not Yet Ready

WINSTED — Despite rumors that The Gilbert School is seeking a 4 percent budget increase for the 2008-09 school year, David Cressy, superintendent of Gilbert, confirmed Wednesday that the high school is only in preliminary stages of formulating a budget and nothing is yet set in stone.

"There really isn’t even a budget yet," said Cressy. "We had a preliminary finance meeting."

At the meeting, Cressy said they discussed a budget increase of 3 to 4 percent; however, without solid numbers on student enrollment and health insurance cost, the figures are only preliminary.

On Jan. 16, a budget will be presented to the school board, at which time the board will begin deliberations.

"Between the middle of January and the beginning of March the budget will be finalized," said Cressy. "Then our sending towns will have an idea of what the percentage of costs will be.

"Our intention is to provide cost-effective education, but good quality education. We have to be sure that it is still responsible for everybody."

The current budget and tuition costs to the towns of Winchester and Hartland are $13,850 per pupil. Current enrollment sits around 410 students, with nearly 94 percent of the students coming from Winchester.

For budgeting purposes, enrollment for the 2008-09 school year will be calculated at the end of January and is based on the number of students in grades nine through 11 and estimates of the size of the eighth-grade classes in the sending towns.

A misconception in town is that the Gilbert Trust covers some of the budget each year.

"The trust provides supplemental [funds]. They don’t actually provide direct budget support," said Cressy. "The trust, largely through alumni contributions, provides enhancements. The annual operating cost is born by the sending towns."