NORWICH – The Norwich City School Board offered district residents first glimpse of its $39.7 million budget for the 2014-2015 school year at a regular board meeting held Tuesday.

Despite five consecutive budget increases and an average tax levy increase of 1.26 percent since 2010, the district proposes a zero percent tax levy increase this year while still maintaining class size, extra curricular programs and student services, and refilling several support positions.

“Over the past couple years, we were just trying to maintain those items,” said Norwich Superintendent Gerard O'Sullivan. “Now, we are able to turn a corner to strengthen and increase some of our academic programing and extra curricular programming.”

While the district continues battling the same challenges as previous years, including skyrocketing costs for pension and healthcare, the growing academic needs for students warrant more investment in academic programming, said O'Sullivan. The district proposes bringing back summer school, providing more speech therapy services at Gibson Elementary, adding a secondary music position, and growing academic intervention services for math at the middle school and Perry Browne Intermediate.

“We have to put more resources back in the classroom, more resources back into the buildings,” he added.