By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT – Petitions to collect signatures for a referendum to cut the town appropriation for the new Long Lots Elementary School by just over $13 million are circulating in Westport with a deadline of June 26.
By that date the petitioners must collect 2,015 signatures to force a referendum vote, according to Town Clerk Jeffrey Dunkerton.
The number of signatures required reflects 10 percent of 20,151, the number of residents registered to vote in the last election, he said. The goal, according to Toni Simonetti, who is leading the petition effort, is not to stop construction of the school, but to reduce the cost from $103,190,124 to $90,000,000.
Simonetti, who said she is not against building the school, just the cost of it, still believes petitioning for the referendum is the right thing to do, she said on Tuesday.
“What I’m doing is very important,” she said. “The people do have a right to know, they do have the right to referendum. I believe the town has withheld important information and financial details about this very large appropriation. I’m still trying to get that information. That’s the reason for doing it.”
She figures the cost of the new school will hike taxes by about 4%. “If nothing else, I hope to bring awareness to our taxation here in Westport.”
Dunkerton said that only official petitions, with the wording chosen by Simonetti, the lead petitioner for the referendum, would be accepted.
The official petition question is “Shall an appropriation of $103,190,124 along with bond and note authorization to the Educational Facility Improvement Fund Account for the construction of the new Long Lots Elementary School be decreased to the sum of $90,000,000?”
Success of petition is in doubt
Dunkerton, Long Lots Building School Committee member Don O’Day, and even Simonetti herself said they are not optimistic that it will succeed, partly because of the short time frame. If it does succeed, the reduced appropriation would have serious consequences, according to O’Day.
“It would mean many things. It would add at least another year to the project – at least,” he said, with students remaining even longer in a school that needs to be torn down.
“We would have to completely redesign the school. A 12.5 percent reduction is a significant reduction,” he said. The new school’s size would have to be reduced, and some of the amenities planned in the building, which will house not only the elementary school but also the Stepping Stones pre-school program, would have to be eliminated.
If the old, decrepit school has some serious problems in the next year before the new one is built, then the cost could be even more, O’Day said.
“The expense of remediating [the current] Long Lots would be very expensive. You never know just how bad something like that could be.”
Despite the dire consequences for the school project, O’Day said he still believes that Simonetti has the right to pursue the referendum, even though he hopes it doesn’t pass.
The Long Lots School project has been passed unanimously by boards required to approve the project including the Representative Town Meeting on June 12, and the Board of Finance on June 11 with the Planning and Zoning Commission approving a new positive “8-24” municipal use report, considered a major state-mandated hurdle to overcome in order for the project to move forward, on June 9.
“Every single board and commission voted unanimously without exception for this project – every single elected and appointed town official voted for this school,” O’Day said.
Referendums in Westport are nothing new
Velma Heller, the moderator of the RTM from 2001 to 2021, said she only remembers once in the past 50 years that a referendum was held in Westport. That referendum, in the early 1970s, she said, was also about education costs. The referendum was held to reduce the Board of Education budget by about $800,000, “a large amount at that time,” she said – and the referendum succeeded.
As a result, Bedford Elementary School, now Town Hall, was closed, she said. “There was some indication of declining enrollment at the time. [The referendum] happened quite precipitously.”
She definitely does not support the current move to hold a referendum on the Long Lots School project, she added. “That would be a very serious move, I think … The school has been a very long time in coming and it’s something that is definitely needed – anything that would delay it becomes more and more of a problem.”
The process to call for a referendum, now in progress, includes “circulators” gathering signatures on the petitions, which have room for 30 signatures on each. The circulators must swear that each person signing the petition signed it in the circulator’s presence and was known to them or presented them with satisfactory identification. The petition also has to be notarized. All petitions “have to be back in my hands by June 26,” Dunkerton said.
Simonetti said that she has distributed the petitions to several circulators, but she would not say how many she had handed out nor identify the people circulating them. She also said an estimate of how many signatures are currently gathered is not available, because circulators are turning their petitions in to the Town Clerk’s office independently.
When the petitions are turned in, then the registrar of voters would verify every signature to be sure that the signer is a registered voter in Westport, Dunkerton said. If enough signatures can be verified to meet the required number, then the Board of Selectwomen would set a referendum date and the process to set up a special election would begin including creating a ballot, and setting up voting machines, he said.
Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman and has taught journalism at New York University and Southern Connecticut State University.
The Town Registrar reported that 18,572 active registered voters voted in the last election on Nov. 5, 2024. That should be the number used, according to the charter
Active: 18,572
Inactive: 3822
The Town. clerk provided to me 70 petition pages, which I distributed to others to circulate as I knew I would not be able to gather many myself due to my travel schedule.
The Town Clerk said more petition pages are available from him, and any citizen can go ask for more. Further, the petition pages may be copied exactly as is. So I did not refuse to say how many petitions are circulating. I said I did not know.
I am extremely happy with the supportive response I am getting to not only this petition but the questions I am raising about this project and the governance of it. People are reaching out to me unsolicited to lend support. I may be disparaged by some as the “vocal minority” but I believe I am speaking for the Silent Majority.
Further, 35 members of the RTM voted to raise our taxes 4% but nearly half of them did so without having reviewed the financial details provided in secret meetings. Those who voted for this appropriation without due diligence should be impeached.
And one more thing. Of the 24 RTM members who did review the financials and vote in favor of the tax increase, two were challenged by another RTM member as conflicted and at the meeting were asked to recuse themselves from the vote. They declined to do so.
The two are Don (16%) O’Day and Jay Keenan, ruling members of the Long Lots building committee who are appointed agents of the Selectperson’s office, otherwise known as the applicant requesting the appropriation.
This is akin to Ms. Tooker, the applicant, having two votes on the RTM, not to mention one on the BOF ((I previously challenged Liz Heyer, a former member of the committee, as conflicted).
Westport is no longer a democracy, it is ruled by autocrats who find the voice of democracy to be obstructionist and annoying quite frankly.
Nobody is against a school rebuild. Nobody is trying to delay ANYTHING here.
But if there is nothing to hide ? Why is it being hidden ?
Why was it so important to hide the details?
I’ve looked at the numbers and they are OUT OF CONTROL !
This is not a union job.
Tax payers are entitled to know why the numbers are 1) being hidden, and 2) as high as they are.
This is not about delaying a school, it’s about transparency.
In Connecitcut, an inactive voter is still considered on the voter registry. The town charter for the petition (see below) is referring to registered voters (both active and inactive voters), and does not specify solely active voters.
C.Petition Procedure.
(1)Any ordinance or amendment thereof or of any other action or vote described in Subsections A or B of this section may be referred to a vote of the electors of the Town if a petition signed by not less than 10% of the electors of the Town, as of the most recent state or local election is filed with the Board of Selectmen prior to the effective date of such action. The petition must contain the signatures, the dates of signature, the names and addresses of persons who are electors of the Town on the dates they sign the petition. The Registrars of Voters shall verify the petition and certify to the Board of Selectmen that those signing the petition were registered voters at the time they signed. The Board of Selectmen shall notify the Town Clerk and shall forthwith call a special election, to be held as soon thereafter as practicable, for the sole purpose of voting approval or disapproval of such ordinance or amendment or of changing the amount of an appropriation or an item thereof in the manner hereafter provided.
Looks like two people run Westport: Toni and Ciara. Queens?!
Thank you to Westport Journal and Gretchen Webster for this informative, accurate, and well balanced article.
It is very refreshing to see these different perspectives.
This petition is calling for a decrease of the school appropriation from $103M to $90M.
How did the petitioner come up with the $90M number? Does the reduced appropriation really serve the town well, or does it simply hurt the town?
If the appropriation is reduced to $90M, the tax decrease will only be 0.37% of the 3% estimated gross tax increase. At what cost will this be though?
If this referendum passes, the new school construction will be delayed, and the students/staff of Long Lots will need to stay in the current school building for longer. We also run the risk of higher inflation, tariffs, and changes to state/federal reimbursement programs.
We don’t want to be penny wise, and dollar foolish. The can has been kicked for so long, it is time to put shovels down the ground.
Westport has been fiscally prudent, and we have one of the lowest mill rates in the area, and very modest tax increases in the past decade. But, we do need to reinvest in this town.
Finally, the petitioner is promulgating false narratives:
For example, she claims that the tax increase due to this school appropriation will be 4%. According to the town finance director, the gross tax increase will be 3%, while the actual tax increase will be lower because he did not include renewable incentives, debt reductions, or savings from a new efficient school building. The current school has a very high operating cost to keep it safe and healthy and those costs will no longer be needed when the new school is built.
Another example is that the cost details have been kept secret and no reason was given. In fact, a very good reason has been given. They have been kept from being made public because the town will be going out to bid this project and the cost will be higher if bidders have access to these detailed estimates. The RTM members were given access to the cost details in an executive session. This session was made public and is not a secret meeting.
I hope the readers support this crucial town project and don’t sign this petition. We need a new Long Lots school building without any further delays, and the Stepping Stones preschool will serve all of Westport.
4% over 24/25 tax rate.
“The process to determine if a voter should be classified inactive starts with the registrars of voters sending an address confirmation notice to a resident who either has not voted in four years or who data indicates might have moved out of state. If the voter fails to return that postcard within 30 days, they are moved from the active to inactive voter list. Officials also place voters on the inactive list if the notice is returned as undeliverable, according to the SOTS’s website.“
Toni,
The mill rate is going up on July 1st 2025 because of the approved budget, not the Long Lots project. That’s an actual increase to the tax.
The Long Lots project estimated gross tax increase is 3%, but the actual tax increase in future years will depend on future budgets as well as additional reductions related to the Long Lots projects.
So you can’t make this claim: “She figures the cost of the new school will hike taxes by about 4%”.
But the most important question is how a reduction in appropriation to $90M will be better for the town? How do you come up with this number? And what will be the impact on tax increases to the town if this petition/referendum goes your way?
This project will increase the taxes of every Westport resident by 4%, regardless of whether they have children in our schools, much less at Long Lots.
Sports daddies (like Joe Nader and Lee Caney) don’t care about the school, but want the ball fields that won’t even serve the interests of the Long Lots students.
Whatever happens with the petition to referendum, I look forward to the lawsuit from the neighbors who will be negatively impacted by this exorbitant project.
Chris,
Westport has seen a very low tax increase over the past decade. You can thank the schools for that. The demand for Westport houses is driven by the schools and that increases the market value of Westport properties. Also, the real growth in the grand list has kept tax increases lower. Why? Because a property that had a lower assessed value is renovated or replaced with a higher assessed value brings more tax revenue to the town, and hence reduces the share of others to pay. How much did your taxes go up in the past decade? Were they less than inflation? How much did your property appreciate over the past decade?
I am a volunteer in the Tools for Schools committee as a parent at Long Lots. The Tools for Schools committee role is to make sure the indoor air quality in the school is healthy. That should be a real indicator of where my priorities are.
If Long Lots school building fails before a new school building is complete, the impact will be felt in all of Westport, not just the Long Lots community.
Also, the new Long Lots building will also include the Stepping Stones preschool that benefits all of Westport residents, not just Long Lots.
Finally, you are nothing but a troll. You never show up to any public meetings, and you keep posting inflammatory comments. Your actions benefit no one in Westport.
As a member of the RTM that voted in favor of the appropriation, I would like to chime in to say that I would not have done so if I had felt I had an insufficient grasp of the numbers involved. It is true we were in a bit of a rush to the finish line, but in the end RTM members were given the same information and opportunity to scrutinize the numbers as the Board of Finance, which is our due. It’s not clear why residents would trust a $90 million number that has pulled out of thin air over one that was produced by professionals with their fingers on the pulse of current conditions in finance and construction. This process has been guided over several years by experts, both paid and volunteer, including a building committee featuring many of the same members that got the Coleytown Middle School project done on time and budget under extreme circumstances. Long Lots deserves the same treatment – the school is in dire need of replacement.
The projected increase in the mill rate, according to the Town Finance Director, is 2.67%, not 4% — that information was shared in multiple public meetings. That is still a meaningful increase related to a single project, but it is not out of scale with other school building projects the Town has taken on over the years, and I think most people, whether they have children in them or not, view our schools as one of the most important assets of Westport and worth investing in. I believe all Westporters will be proud of the new facility once it’s built – it’s time to get started.
From: Louis Mall RTM D2
To: Friends and neighbors
Date: June 22. 2025
Re: Long Lots Elementary K-5 and Stepping Stones Pre-School
DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION.
The Board of Finance and the RTM unanimously approved a record $103 million appropriation for Long Lots Elementary K-5th grade and Stepping Stones Pre-school children. Furthermore, every elected and appointed Board and Commission in Westport voted unanimously to approve.
Now, one member of the community is seeking a town referendum to cut $13 million and cap the dollar amount at $90 million. No rationale is given for the cut. Nor does she have the requisite expertise to build a school.
Please: DO NOT SIGN THE PETITION.
The Long Lots School Building Committee and every Town body has worked diligently over the last 3 years to get to this point. The referendum will delay the need to replace a 75 year old school that has outlived its useful life. Delays will cost us more – inflation and tariffs are real cost risks. State re-imbursement funds are at risk, too. It is time to get this school built.
The children at Stepping Stones and Long Lots deserve better.
Thank you.