From this mornings Republican-American….. Reply

BY LYNN MELLIS WORTHINGTON

REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

KENT — The Kent Board of Education is girding for a tough budget year, knowing it faces a large increase next year for insurance costs and an increase in teacher salaries from a recently ne­gotiated contract.

The health care insurance is obtained through a region­al collaborative that involves all seven schools in Region 1 and the six towns. Region 1 Business Manager Samuel Herrick has indicated the schools may have to plan for at least a 20 percent in­crease, but the final numbers haven’t been calculated yet.

The education board’s budget subcommittee met Tuesday to begin developing the 2014-15 budget for Kent Center School.

Board members zeroed in on several areas and asked for additional information about cafeteria operations and costs, common core cur­riculum impacts, parapro­fessional salaries and bene­fits compared to the region’s other schools, and reducing supply costs by reducing pa­per usage.

“Unless it is an absolute necessity, I would not expect there to be an increase in anything,” said board Chair­man Paul Cortese.

No budget numbers had been filled into the draft document the committee worked with. A second workshop will be held Jan. 28 at 5:30 to firm up the numbers before a Feb. 6 meeting of the entire board.

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