By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice and his team have built a case for a district operating budget with a 5.33 percent increase for the next fiscal year.

The $136,406,718 request for 2023-24 is nearly $7 million more than the current budget of $129.5 million, but $3.8 million less than the $140.2 million requested by administrators and central office officials.

 “Our challenges are profound, but within and across those challenges are opportunities,” Scarice told the board and more than a dozen members of the public — most of them parents — who spent much of a rainy Friday in the Saugatuck Congregational Church’s Hoskins Hall to hear the presentation.

Some PTA members took shifts, trading spots as the detailed presentation was made.

The spending plan is scheduled to be formally presented at the Board of Education meeting set for 7 p.m. Monday, Jan. 9, in Staples High School cafeteria B.

Scarice said the proposed budget, which will undergo four to five months of scrutiny, represents the values and aspirations of the school system. It maintains and advances valuable and relevant programs while also initiating efforts to confront challenges and opportunities, the superintendent added.

“There were hard decisions and there were trade-offs,” said Scarice, but school administrators are collectively behind the plan.

A current services budget would have cost 4.94 percent more based on inflation and contractual agreements. Some 80 percent of the budget is made up of salaries and benefits.

Teacher salaries alone in 2023-24 will cost nearly 4 percent more than they do now.

On top of that, additional staff will have to be paid to handle increased enrollment and to retain four intervention positions previously funded by COVID grants.

This is the third consecutive year the district has experienced a consequential influx of new students, according to a budget narrative contained in three-ring binders distributed at Friday’s meeting. That has required additional staffing whose salaries will be rolled over into the new fiscal year. A good chunk of the increase is tied to these positions, according to Scarice.

It is anticipated there will be 5,434 students next fall, split between the town’s eight schools and a pre-school.

Technology also factors into the spending increase. Grant funds used to replace computers during the pandemic are gone. It is proposed that the general budget pick up that expense.

Enrollment in special education continues to increase. Thirty-two of those students are out-of-district placements, a number expected to hold steady in the new year.

 Cut from administrators’ wish list

Overall, there are five new positions in the budget proposal. That compares to 21.4 additions proposed by administrators this fall.

Among the cuts were those for an additional part-time psychologist, an occupational therapist and part-time speech and hearing therapist, an additional secretary dedicated to transportation and eight additional regular and special education paraprofessionals.

What’s different?

Beyond new staff to handle anticipated enrollment increases, as well as the operating budget assuming the cost of some staff previously funded through short-term pandemic relief grants, the proposed budget calls for creation of a facilities project manager position.

During the discussion, board Vice Chairwoman Liz Heyer said it is important that district officials explain what the project manager would do versus Colliers International, the district’s hired construction consultants.

“I feel it will get some attention,” Heyer said.

In the 2023-24 fiscal year, building projects handled within the operating budget are expected to double, from $515,235 to $1,029,519.

Offsetting the new proposed staff is a reduction of one teacher support position and one custodian. Instead of 56 custodians to maintain the district’s 1,224,605 square feet spread between eight school buildings there would be 55. The cut would be made at Staples, which would be left with 17 custodians.

Other proposed budget offsets include the recommendation of a parent-funded model for all intramural programs, instead of district funding. That would save $89,000. There would be a $179,000 reduction in Chromebook funding, a $100,000 reduction in textbook funding and a $50,000 reduction in litigation settlement funding.

The plan also holds unknowns. The transportation budget is penciled in $7.78 million — the current budget figure — because a new transportation contract is out to bid. Insurance rates for the new year are also uncertain.

Thinking big

Urged by town officials to focus on big picture rather than line items, the budget document points out that funds spent on curriculum development and teacher training were maintained at current levels to implement action steps of the district’s strategic plan, equity study and technology plan.

Scarice said the budget proposal responds to the learning and social/emotional needs of students most affected by the pandemic, while advancing forward-thinking plans and accommodating new students.

Sitting through the presentation, Representative Town Meeting Education Chairwoman Lauren Karpf, who praised what she heard.

She urged the school board to emphasize the portion of the budget that is beyond its control.

Parent Michele Carey-Moody thanked the board for preserving the student support services in place at Staples High School.

Becky Martin, co-chairwoman of the district’s Special Ed PTA, also cited efforts to extend that support to the middle schools as the district continues to wrestle with pandemic-related mental health challenges.

Scarice said the board will work on the budget proposal every Monday in January, starting with a follow-up presentation Jan. 9.

The budget proposal eventually adopted by the board goes to the Board of Finance in February.

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.