The budget season for the Stonington School System begins around the end of October and ends when the town citizens approve the budget sometime during late spring to late summer. The Stonington Board of Education always begins its work with the budget by deciding annual budget goals. Goals are derived from studying the status of the previous budget, the board’s strategic plan for school improvement and success, and board goals from the previous year. The goals determine how the board structures its budget and what requests are made for funding. (The goals also guide the board should the board find it necessary to reduce the budget because of action by the Town board of finance or failed referenda.)

For many years the Stonington Board of Education has drafted policy and budgets that direct resources of the district toward kindergarten and early elementary education. The leverage of early childhood education was decided because of data that show children failing to succeed in literacy and numeracy by third grade will have great difficulty succeeding later. Another leverage has been increasing the ability of the system’s employees to provide instructional strategies that data (mainly through brain research) show increases learning (mainly through students being actively engaged in their own learning–rather than sitting passively listening to adults talk, as well as studying rigorous and relevant content). This year the board has added a new dimension. It is the goal that students will be taught so that they will have the knowledge and skills to be successful in the 21st Century.

Authors such as Daniel Pink and Thomas Friedman write about a different world that youngsters today will face as adults. It has been pointed out that the competitor of today’s graduate is not the graduate from the town next door, but rather international. It is a fact that China and India, both industrial and diplomatic players on the world stage, each has one billion more people than the United States, and that in ten years the one largest English speaking country in the world will be China. So, as technology improves exponentially and the world shrinks daily, the United States (and Stonington) cannot afford to be mired in curriculum and pedagogy from the past. The world has changed, and a successful school system must also change with it.

Therefore, the three budget goals for the 2008-2009 school year as adopted by the Stonington Board of Education, are as follows:

  • To increase support strategies for students; thereby enabling all children to succeed in the 21st Century
  • To begin redefining curricular content and course offerings to enable all children to succeed in the 21st Century
  • To increase access and use of instructional technology to enable all children to succeed in the 21st Century

To access the presentation that was provided to the board of education and view the documentation of how the goals relate to past budgets, past goals, and the strategic plan, click BOE_Goals_0809(.pdf).