By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — Skyrocketing health-care costs have pushed Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice’s 2024-25 budget request to $148.3 million, nearly 9 percent higher than this fiscal year’s spending.

The budget proposal includes $25.8 million for health insurance expenses alone — $8 million, or 45 percent, more than this year.

A projected 36 percent increase in out-of-district special education costs accounts for another $1 million of the increase.

If not for those two-line items in the budget request, Scarice told the Board of Education and an audience of about 20 parents and school officials Friday that his request would have “a reasonable” 2.9 percent increase.

The school district this year has a $135,287,710 operating budget, a 5.24 increase over the year before.

The proposal for the next fiscal year includes one new teaching position at Bedford Middle School to handle a growing number of students receiving special-education instruction. Several teaching positions were trimmed — tentatively at Saugatuck Elementary School — because of enrollment shifts.

Scarice’s spending recommendation also does not include staff requests for 8.9 additional positions that the superintendent said he would have endorsed were health-care costs not so high.

A large portion of the day-long workshop held in the basement of Saugatuck Congregational Church was spent outlining those eliminated requests, which would have added another $1.1 million to the budget’s bottom line.

Not making the cut were:

• Restoration of two full-time assistant principal positions cut in years past from the elementary schools.

• A math coach at the secondary level.

• Part-time teaching positions for health education, a television/radio course and academic support.

• Restoration of a paraprofessional position.

• Two additional permanent building substitutes.

• A proposed communications specialist for the school district’s central office.

• A facilities project coordinator. The facilities coordinator job didn’t make it into last year’s budget either.

“If health care had come in normal, every single position on here would have been recommended by me,” Scarice said. “Every single one.”

The superintendent said his proposed budget supports the school district’s desire to uphold its reputation, maintain current services, keep students and staff safe, respond to a master plan facilities study and meet all state and federal mandates.

It also supports year two of the district’s strategic and equity plans, and will help update world language and social studies curriculums.

Health-care costs

Board Chair Lee Goldstein asked administrators to explain why health insurance costs are significantly higher.

Scarice called it a perfect storm.

The district recently switched from a state partnership insurance plan to a high-deductible plan. This year, the district also recorded very high claims that had an impact on costs, said Assistant Supt. John Bayers.

Including employees and dependents, the plan covers roughly 2,000 individuals. Some claims exceed $100,000, the board was told.

This year, there was a cap on health-care costs that shielded the district from some of the increase. That shield won’t exist in the new fiscal year.

The district is seeking advice from a consultant on how to stabilize health-care costs who will make a presentation to the board later this month. 

In the meantime, the district is trying to shield the rest of its operating budget request from the anticipated $8 million increase for health care.

Budget casualties

The 8.9 proposed positions that did not make the cut in the proposed budget include two elementary assistant principal positions that would give each of the district’s five elementary schools three administrators: a principal and two assistant principals, one who would focus on special education.

Currently, only Long Lots, Westport’s elementary school with the largest enrollment, has two assistant principals. The other four schools have 1.5, with two assistant principals split between two schools.

Scarice called it a compromise model that forces principals to take time from their instructional leadership role.

Assistant principals supervise and evaluate staff, oversee special education and investigate issues like bullying.

Demands have increased, the five elementary school principals, appearing together at the meeting, told the board.

“Being present and visible to students and staff is one of the most important aspects of the job,” Greens Farms Principal Brian Byrne said.

Several board members supported restoring the assistant principal jobs in the budget request before it is forwarded for review by the town’s funding bodies later this year.

“I remember when there were two,” said board Vice Chair Dorie Hordon. “For me, it was what made Westport stand out.”

She called the positions’ cost a drop in the bucket to make families feel safe.

“I’d be fully in favor of restoring this,” added board member Jill Dillon.

In support of the rejected request for a 0.4 health position, Christine Wanner, coordinator of health and physical education, said it is a logistical challenge to deliver all programs, particularly when it comes to teaching gender-specific curriculum in the fifth grade with current staffing.

“It becomes more condensed,” Wanner said of the instruction. “It adds a layer of challenge for both the teacher and the students.”

Under academic support, rejected proposals included a part-time reading interventionist at Long Lots and full-time math coach at the secondary level.

There is an increasing number of students who need intervention programs, the board was told.

Math coaches were recently supported at the elementary level with COVID-era funding, which has since been cut back.

Math coordinator Stefan Porco said adding one at the secondary level would help provide professional development for teachers and support them in the classroom.

The request for a facilities project coordinator, made for the second year in a row, comes as the demand for maintenance and capital issues in the district grows, Scarice said. That said, existing staff are making it happen, he added.

The communications specialist, Scarice said, would have helped the district respond to an unrelenting demand to communicate on the website and through social media, help explain district initiatives to the public, and provide community outreach.

“We are doing some great work in our district and people need to know about it,” Scarice said. “We need an engine to get our information out there in a powerful, proactive way.”

Some board members seemed open to adding some kind of communication position part-time.

Public weighs in

Members of the public who spoke during the session also advocated for one or more of the eliminated items.

Jodi Harris, co-president of the Staples High PTA, said there is a need for more full-time substitutes.

Nat Smitobol, co-president of the Saugatuck PTA, said he fully supports each elementary schools having two full-time assistant principals.

Lauren Karpf, deputy moderator of the Representative Town Meeting and chair of its Education Committee, wants the district to focus attention and funding on the rough transition some students experience between fifth and sixth grades.

Slight enrollment bump projected

Overall enrollment in Westport’s public schools is projected to increase by 59 students in the next academic year, largely at the elementary level. If that holds, enrollment next fall would be 5,386 students compared to 5,327 this year.

Despite that, the two-section decline in elementary school classes — to 121 — is based on where the numbers fall.

The proposed 2024-25 budget calls for 268 regular classroom teachers, 394 teachers in specialty subject areas and 60 special education teachers.

Some 14.6 percent of the district’s students — or 773 — this year receive special education instruction. Of those, 38 are projected to be placed in out-of-district schools next year, costing Westport $3.8 million. The average out-of-district tuition next year is expected to be $100,447.

The special education numbers would be higher if the district had not introduced a new program at the middle and high school levels to contain costs, Assistant Supt Anthony Buono said.

“It’s a cost containment and really good for kids,” Scarice said of Effective School Solutions, a mental health and behavioral support program that offers clinical, professional learning and consulting services in the local district.

Throughout the workshop, board members peppered administrators with questions. Answers were promised when the board meets over the next three Thursdays on the budget proposal. At its next meeting, the board will get a presentation on transportation costs, which were not discussed Friday.

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.