Good afternoon Jessica,
Danbury plans to spend approximately $114,000,000 on teaching staff salary…Read More and benefits for the next school year per the school budget here - http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/bbadmin/Budget/2012-2013%20budget.pdf the total budget is $121,000,000.
Teachers, administrators, contracted professionals, staff enrichment programs, staff insurance, and the rest comprise about 95% of the school system budget. See staff cost summary on page 8 of the report. You'll also note our board of education plans to spend a bit more than 3 million dollars on supplies and materials plus a million on equipment.
The budget represents a 5% increase from the prior year. On our district home page - http://www.danbury.k12.ct.us/ it says Danbury has 10,300 my calculator tells me that's about $12,000 per child in the district.
With $12,000 per child, why are teachers paying for supplies? Hmm ... let me think ... 95% of the budget goes to staff salary and benefits for the long 185 day year .... I have a guess where the money goes. Do you?