By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — A $130.3 million budget for 2022-23 was unanimously endorsed Monday by the Board of Education, a 3.75 percent spending increase that now faces Board of Finance scrutiny.

The $130,308,646 request for the new fiscal year is $32,964 less than the proposal by Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice and his administrative team, but $4,714,064 more than the current operating budget of $125.6 million.

A delegation of finance board members told the school board in December they hoped the new school budget would have an increase of between 2.25 and 2.5 percent. 

Board Chairwoman Lee Goldstein said Monday she was committed to presenting town officials with a budget that reflects what the school district truly needs.

The approval came at the end of a long meeting at Staples High School devoted largely to the district’s somewhat contentious efforts to make social and emotional learning the bedrock of its strategic planning.

Previously, the board adjusted the budget to add and subtract paraprofessionals in certain areas and scale back Chromebook purchases at the elementary school level.

Potential hike in health insurance costs threatens bottom line

Discussion of the budget Monday focused on uncertain employee health insurance costs.

The school district is counting on no increase in health costs as it negotiates with six bargaining units to lessen expenses, and awaits word from the state on potential cost increases to its partnership plan.

Assistant Supt. John Bayers called recent information from the state — that the district could face an 8 percent cost increase — concerning.

An 8 percent health insurance increase could leave the new budget plan with an immediate $1 million shortfall, according to Elio Longo, the district’s chief financial officer.

Conversely, union negotiations hold the potential for an estimated $800,000 in savings, the board was told.

“Based on the information we have, the budget we are about to vote on is not a real budget,” suggested board member Robert Harrington.

Goldstein said she felt comfortable sticking with the budget as proposed and returning to town bodies if the insurance number goes up or down.

Facilities consultant’s costs debated

The board also wrestled with whether or not to include costs for Colliers International, the manager of the district’s capital projects, in the operating budget or pay the anticipated $50,000 into a district carryover account.

Board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer said her recommendation is to leave the expense in the district’s carryover account — an amount of unexpended funds the town allows the board to carry over to a new fiscal year — for now.

District officials see the consultant as part of its facilities program.

“I am very, very encouraged by it, but it is still a pilot if you will,” Heyer said of the arrangement with Colliers. The expense should eventually be covered in the general budget, she added.

Tami Benanav, one of the only parents to hear the 11:30 p.m. discussion in person at the Staples cafeteria, told board members they should budget for the potential $1 million insurance cost increase and put the Collier’s cost in the general budget.

The Board of Finance “insisted they would not leave the Board of Education in the lurch,” Benanav said. “Why not ask for it?”

The town, she said, annually approves a school budget increase that is less than the amount of employees’ contractual increases, making it next to impossible to allocate money for new initiatives.

Most of the board’s proposed spending increase in the new budget is tied to contractual raises.

The plan next heads to the Board of Finance. A presentation on the education spending proposal to the fiscal body is expected on March 2, with a formal budget hearing set for March 10.

Potential deficit in current budget addressed

Earlier in the meeting the board learned that this year’s operating budget, half way through the fiscal year, is nursing a potential fund deficit of $637,058.

The culprits, according to Longo, are overruns in facilities and special education accounts.

There is still time left to cross over into the black, Longo said, adding that steps are being taken to mitigate the shortfall. He promised a clearer picture by March.