The State Department of Education informed 11 school districts and towns last month that they needed to appropriate more money this school year to comply with minimum budget requirements — and Winchester is the only town that has not complied.
Because of this non-compliance, the State Board of Education unanimously voted to launch an investigation into the towns budget and what their options are in forcing them to appropriate the $1.4 million shortfall, which is about 7 percent of the town’s education budget.
“Given the magnitude of this shortfall, we certainly want to begin an investigation,” said Brian Mahoney, the chief financial officer at the SDE.
“If other towns can make it work then so can they,” said Charles A. Jaskiewicz, a member of the SBE.
Jacqueline was CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter, and an original member of the CT Mirror staff, joining shortly before our January 2010 launch. Her awards include the best-of-show Theodore A. Driscoll Investigative Award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for reporting on inadequate inmate health care, first-place for investigative reporting from the New England Newspaper and Press Association in 2020 for reporting on housing segregation, and two first-place awards from the National Education Writers Association in 2012. She was selected for a prestigious, year-long Propublica Local Reporting Network grant in 2019, exploring a range of affordable and low-income housing issues. Before joining CT Mirror, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.
