By Linda Conner Lambeck
WESTPORT–Schools Superintendent Thomas Scarice has proposed a 5.48% increase in the school district’s operating budget for the 2026-27 school year.
The ask, outlined during a daylong budget session conducted by the school board on Friday at the Saugatuck Church’s Hoskins Hall, would represent an $8.2 million increase over the current $150.3 million operating budget.
Included is the equivalent of one additional staff member after the reduction of a few regular education teachers and additions to add an assistant facilities director, some administrative restructuring, an additional middle school special education teacher and two new board certified behavior analysts to handle the growing behavioral challenges of some students.
“Our budget is more than spreadsheets and budget accounts,” Scarice said in a foreword to the inch-thick budget proposal. “The school budget is a representation of the values and aspirations of the school system.”
The goal, Scarice added, is to maintain and advance services that will keep Westport public schools safe and maintain its status as a premiere school district.
Time was spent in the beginning of the presentation going over some of the budget reduction ideas rejected before the request was made by the board.
“Many of these we think are not great ideas,” Scarice told the board.
Even so, Scarice was asked to provide some dollar amounts to some of those ideas–which include instituting an early retirement incentive for staff, changing school start times to save more on student transportation, a pay-for-play option and offering the district’s special education programs to other districts as a revenue generating source.
Scarice will offer details at subsequent meetings of the Board of Education.
Scarice’s proposal is $282,035 less than requests made by district administrators last fall. The bulk of the cuts / adjustments were to equipment and textbooks. A a proposed part-time financial literacy teacher also did not make the final cut.
Added to the budget, however, in addition to the behavioral analysts, were athletic uniforms. Scarice said the district, not parents, should be picking up the collective $95,000 costs.
It was pointed out during the presentation that nearly half of the proposed increase is due to projected healthcare cost increases.
The district now spends about $22.5 million to provide health insurance to about 1,000 employees. Next year it is initially projected that cost will be $25.9 million, nearly a 15 percent increase. The impact on the budget bottom line is 2.24 percent. Without the health insurance increase, the administration’s proposed budget increase would be 3.24%.
The district switched to the State Partnership Plan a year ago to save money. More definitive insurance costs for 2026-27 won’t be known until March. In most years, the projected increase goes down somewhat. Elio Longo, the district’s chief financial officer, said it is unclear if that decrease will occur this time.
More than 80 percent of the district operating budget is spent on staff and benefits. The district is proposing three fewer classroom teachers not because of enrollment decline–it is expected to go up–but because of where the numbers fall, grade- and school-wise, at the elementary level. It is projected there will be 71 more students next year, including 16 at the elementary level, which is most impacted by enrollment fluctuations.
In the new school year, it is anticipated there will be 5,251 students.
The board’s budget proposal to the town is to be finalized by the end of January. Town bodies will begin their deliberations after that. Several members of the Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting were in the audience on Friday along with several PTA representatives.
Yikes.
Here’s out-of-the-box thought. Being a most affluent community, I suggest all extracurricular programs go pay-to-play. Town taxpayers can foot the bill for academics and special needs; everything else is pay-to-play.
Households that are financially vulnerable would not have to pay. All others foot the bill.
The average income in Westport is well above national, even state averages. Not every household has children in the schools. The town just approved millions to build a new stage and add outdoor restrooms to the athletic fields. They are about to add game lights everywhere. The budget is getting ridiculous.
Give the girls some equitable locker facilities and then end this blank-check spending. The town needs to find ways to reduce spending, not increase.
As a DTC member, do you see the DTC putting any pressure on BOE Chair Lee Goldstein and, by extension, Tom Scarice, to show a little more discipline in budgeting? Our property taxes are going up about 3% this year because of the BOE. And this would probably account for a similar increase, next year.
While I know you don’t speak for the DTC in total, do you think that DTC leadership has any problem with these kinds of increases? While I’m an unapologetic lefty, I see the DTC leadership as benefiting from a wildly unpopular GOP in Westport, I don’t see that they are especially concerned with representing the interests of those constituents who simply are averse to Republicans. They take those votes for granted.
Chris
As a private and active citizen, I am on a crusade to represent unheard voices on school budget matters, among other town spending issues.
Some examples: I am researching state legislative roles to better define who pays for school services. I am pursuing a “wildly unpopular” Freedom of information complaint on the still-hidden costs of the new Long Lots school. And as budget hearings gear up, I hope to attend or watch as many as I can and generate discussion.
As a DTC member, I throw a lot of ideas to our leadership, and platform ideas will be among them. As you know, Westport Dems just elected the 2026-28 membership, and in March we will be seated, will elect leadership and committees will be assigned. I am very encouraged by the enthusiasm and commitment of our District 9 contingent.
Based on the DTC bylaws and mission statement, our role is largely to recruit and support Democrat candidates in local, state and federal offices, and to support Democrat Party principles;
Here is the Mission;
“To select party-endorsed candidates for municipal offices and delegates to state and district conventions of the Democratic Party of Connecticut
“To support the principles of the Democratic Party
“To promote the candidacies of the nominees of the Democratic Party for municipal, district, state, and national elective public office
“To provide for Democratic election campaigns in Westport in support of these nominees
“To ensure all Westport Democrats the opportunity to participate fully in the electoral process, by affording them information and assistance in the exercise of their voting rights.”
Keep your ideas coming.