By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — It’s a big number, but Board of Education members had a hard time this week chipping away at administrators’ request for a 5.33 percent increase in the district’s operating budget request for 2023-24.

“It feels high compared to other years, but I am not sure what to think of it,” board member Dorie Hordon said during an hour-long discussion Monday.

Between rising salaries, rising enrollment, inflation and trying to offset depleting grant funds, Hordon said the spending proposal feels a little painful, “but it is what it is, sort of.”

The $136,406,718 proposal for the next fiscal year is nearly $7 million more than the current budget of $129.5 million and $3.8 million less than the $140.2 million requested by administrators and central office officials.

It might not represent the bottom line, however, as transportation and insurance costs for employees are still unknown.

Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said the budget proposal is in the right spot.

Board member Kevin Christie agreed.

“Something in the neighborhood of [a] 5 [percent increase] is bigger than prior years, but relative to other indicators [like utility costs and salaries] it is not so high,” Christie said.

The session was the second devoted to crafting a 2023-24 budget proposal that will be sent to the Board of Finance in February. Subsequent sessions are planned every week this month.

This discussion had a couple of silent pauses between questions and comments that bounced between attempts to look big picture and sticking with a section-by-section dive into the document.

“I do feel like we need to find savings,” said board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer, who also chairs the board’s Finance and Facilities Committee. “The administration has obviously looked for all the savings that they can.”

Chairwoman Lee Goldstein advocated talking about bigger things, like health insurance and transportation. Bids are out for a new transportation contract, which was called a wildcard.

Late last fall, town officials asked the board to focus on the big picture when presenting the proposed education budget to the Board of Finance.

Heyer said beyond transportation and health care, the board hasn’t identified any other major areas to explore. There may not be anything else, she conceded.

It was suggested a discussion be had with the town about tuition revenue that goes straight to the town instead of to the school district.

Board member Robert Harrington suggested a working group be established to help the Board of Finance “share our pain” with issues being faced.

Last Friday at a day-long budget workshop, questions were asked about out-of-district placements and enrollment versus peer districts.

Questions were also raised about a proposed new project manager position and participation rate for intramural sports. One plan is to shift the burden of funding coaches for intramurals to parents.

On Monday, Goldstein asked if the board wanted to discuss continuing positions created with soon-to-be depleted pandemic relief funds. For now, those positions remain.

Board member Christina Torres said it’s important to maintain paraprofessionals hired to counteract pandemic learning loss.

Board Secretary Neil Phillips asked if there weren’t more efficiencies to be gained by town and district partnerships. The town helps with paving. What about landscaping, it was asked.

Harrington said he struggles with the amount the district pays to transport private school students to their schools. It is a state mandate.

“At what point do we push back?” Harrington said.

Heyer said one strategy in winning support for the new spending plans might be to demonstrate the benefit the new students and their families have on the town and its tax base.

“As much as I would like to have lower increases and find efficiencies, 80 percent of our costs are salaries and benefits and those go up every year … whether we like it or not,” Goldstein said.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.