WESTPORT–The Board of Finance unanimously approved on Monday the Westport Public Schools’ budget request of $157,863,623 for the next school year, but not without reservations.

Board member Jeff Hammer vowed that the finance board would use a “sharper eye” in subsequent budget cycles after green-lighting the 2026/27 spending plan, which would increase district funding by 4.98% over the current year’s budget of $150,371,920.

“We are not going to take the same approach (next year),” Hammer said. “We are going to dig in further, examine further . . . [and be] more zealous about keeping costs flat.”

Hammer said that the 2027/28 budget review process will begin “not two months before [it needs to be approved] but the moment we get out of this meeting.”

The school district is by far the largest expense in the town. The request for next year amounts to almost two thirds of the total proposed town budget of $266,416,614. 

The issue causing the “alarm,” according to Hammer, is ongoing affordability. The continuing upwards march of the town’s school budget has outpaced a number of benchmarks. Without intense scrutiny, and  “lowering or bending down the cost arc,” he said, increased school spending could make a relatively expensive town unaffordable for many more residents.

The townwide property revaluation further complicates the issue, as some homeowners face “upward tax revisions” as a starting point, creating a double hit when exacerbated by any increase in town spending. As Westport’s financial overseers, the Board of Finance members must “redouble our efforts to help the Board of Education achieve a budget that is much closer to flat . . . without cutting into muscle or bone,” Hammer said. “I’m sure creative eyes can probably do that.”

Finance Board Chairman Danielle Dobin said she appreciated “the long collaboration” among the Board of Education, the Westport school system and the Board of Finance during this budget cycle. She recognized that the school budget has “limited discretion.” Future budgets, she said, may entail “hard trade-offs.”

Addressing Thomas Scarice, Schools Superintendent, and Elio Longo, Schools CFO, Dobin said that limited discretion “squeezes where we can find the extra dollars. So let’s start early, we have 365 days, let’s see what we can do to move forward together.”

After the meeting, Scarice told Westport Journal, on behalf of the Board of Education: 

“I can confidently share that collectively we are very proud of an incredibly open and transparent budget process. In fact, numerous Board of Finance and RTM members have indicated their support for our process on the record over the past few years.

I opened with comments to the Board of Finance last week, thanking the Board and the community for the generous support for our schools, while also acknowledging the rate of increases over the past few years.

As we have shared in public meetings, the entire budget, with the exception of health insurance costs, has increased year over a year approximately 3%. Yet again, our health insurance costs are a primary driver that bring that increase closer to 5% year over year.

That said, over the past four years, the Board of Education has worked closely with the Board of Finance and RTM to avoid millions of dollars of costs through the collaborative management of our health insurance program.

We will continue to do the same work that we do every year, looking at every program, and every cost center, to ensure that we are maximizing the funding provided to our school district and prudently using those resources.”

To learn more about how the board works and how it makes decisions, the Board of Finance holds monthly “office hour” meetings. Upcoming meetings will take place in Westport Library’s Room 213 on March 19, April 16 and May 21 from 10 to 11 a.m. and from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m.