by Maya McFadden The New Haven independent
Looking ahead to the 2026-27 budget, Supt. Madeline Negrón has launched the district’s first online public input forum — and Bridgeport public school board members are seeking to build stronger ties with New Haven’s Board of Education to jointly push for improvements to the state’s Education Cost Sharing formula.
Negrón’s question for the Thought Exchange is, “As we plan for the next school year, what key factors should our district and community address together to advance achievement and equity for every student?”
Since New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) opened the forum on Friday for school staff, families, and community members to share their input on goals for the district’s budget next year, the top suggestion, as of Tuesday, is to have enough quality educators with reasonable caseloads to meet students’ needs. Other popular requests include a transparent public budget, safer and better maintained buildings, and more after-school programs.
During Monday’s Board of Education meeting at King/Robinson School, Negrón invited all NHPS stakeholders to participate in the budget development process for next year. “We want to make this a very collaborative transparent process,” Negrón said. “We need to hear from you.”
Also at Monday’s meeting, Bridgeport Board of Education members Joseph Sokolovic and Willie Medina testified during the meeting’s public comment portion.
Sokolovic emphasized that New Haven has similar issues as Bridgeport, like facing potential staff cuts due to financial struggles and “the public coming at you not understanding that it’s not us that actually are enforcing the cuts — we are obligated by law to balance our budget,” he said.
He continued that the state does not do its part to properly fund Alliance Districts like New Haven and Bridgeport. He noted that next year, Bridgeport is looking at $37 million of increased financial need.
“The ECS has remained flat funded for the base ratio amount” since 2013, Sokolovic said, and the state spends on average $11,575 per student with no special needs.
Meanwhile, he continued, “costs rose everywhere else in the world in 2013,” though the ECS formula has lacked inflation adjustments.
The Bridgeport members are calling on fellow Alliance Districts to ask the state to increase the ECS base funding amount by $2,000.
Instituting the $2,000 increase per pupil, Sokolovic said, would bring in an additional $38 million in ECS funding to New Haven. “We need to start advocating like never before,” he concluded. “What we lack now is not money, [it’s] the will to make changes.”
Medina, who is in his first four-year term on the Bridgeport Board of Ed and is also a NAACP member, said similar districts to Bridgeport and New Haven will only benefit from building bridges.
“We’re tired of what our state is doing to bring our towns and districts against each other,” Medina said.
He also thanked New Haven’s community for its proud advocacy over the last year to push the state to properly fund ECS. He said like New Haven, Bridgeport also wants to prioritize financial responsibility, accountability, safe school buildings, and a functional education system and community.
Medina and Sokolovic said they plan to go to other similar school districts to invite them to stand together for improved district finances. They have a goal of hosting several board chairs and superintendents for an advocacy trip to the capitol in the future.
Bridgeport native and Board of Ed member Willie Medina: State is holding $6 billion hostage from schools support.