Enfield schools to receive $275,000 from state for ECS shortfall

ENFIELD — The school district will receive $275,000 in funding from the state Department of Education, money that city leaders, teachers and school administrators say is sorely needed.

Enfield, which was designated an Alliance district in 2022, will receive the funding after the Department of Education, Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz worked together and allocated the one-time payment from the American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Relief Fund emergency. Funds must be committed before September 30th.

Groton, also an Alliance district, will receive $225,000.

“Given that we do not expect the funds to be included in the FY26 general fund budget, we encourage the district to identify projects or programs that are unique in nature,” Education Commissioner Charlene Russell-Tucker said in a statement from June 27. letter to Interim Enfield Superintendent Andrew Longey and Groton Superintendent Susan Austin.

The Alliance District grant program was created to foster a partnership between the Department of Education and school districts with some of the state’s lowest accountability scores, Russell-Tucker said. The program allocates the annual increase in education cost-sharing funding, if applicable, over a statutorily established base fiscal year for the district to pursue “bold and innovative strategies that dramatically increase student achievement and reduce achievement gaps and opportunities”.

At the time of their designation as Alliance districts, Russell-Tucker said both Enfield and Groton were cities that were considered “overfunded” under ECS’s phase-in to full funding and received less funding annually. Of the Alliance’s 36 districts, Bysiewicz said Monday, 34 received additional funding, but Groton and Enfield received none.

“Therefore, there was no increase in their ECS grant over the base funding year to be set aside as an Alliance district grant,” Russell-Tucker said.

The Enfield Board of Education sent a letter Thursday to Lamont and other legislators and the State Board of Education, demanding that the city be removed from its designation and reimbursed $414,126, which Enfield Board of Education President Charlotte Riley said said to be the difference between the 91 percent. the reimbursement the district expected to receive and the 71 percent it received in the excess cost grant, Connecticut’s cost-sharing method for students who have extraordinary special education needs and related costs.

Bysiewicz said she received calls from Enfield Board of Education member Tina LeBlanc and Enfield City Council member John Santanella over the course of several weeks about how education funding “was a huge issue” while which city deliberates its budget.

“They wanted to know if the state could help with additional resources,” she said.

After hearing about LeBlanc and Santanella, Bysiewicz said she reached out to Russell-Tucker to ask how the state could help Enfield.

“She was able to find $500,000 of unspent money from the Department of Education and commit it to Enfield and Groton,” Bysiewicz said. “I was very happy that he was able to find the money that the department had set aside for various projects that cities and towns could apply for, but for whatever reason he either missed the deadline or the requirements, so the money they were not allocated immediately”.

Bysiewicz said she is grateful to Russell-Tucker for recognizing the needs of both Enfield and Groton. “They’re not rich districts and they have a lot of needy students and families,” she said, adding that there’s a reason the cities are in the Alliance’s group of 36 districts. “The commissioner wouldn’t have looked so hard under the sofa cushions for money if he didn’t think there was a great need.”

Santanella said Monday that he is extremely grateful to Bysiewicz for working diligently with LeBlanc and state leaders to find some relief for the city. “We are deeply grateful for these funds and hope they can be allocated to help alleviate some of our challenges,” he said.

LeBlanc said after she was frustrated to hear that other Alliance districts had received aid, she asked Bysiewicz if there was anything the state could do for Enfield. “She was very good at talking to people in state government and that’s how this funding came about,” she said.