ANSONIA – The board of education discussed a school budget Jan. 14 which would carry a 2.4 percent spending increase.
The school district plans to adopt a $39,535,903 budget for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, according to documents shared by Ansonia School District Superintendent Joseph DiBacco. That’s a $923,004 increase over the current budget of $38,612,089.
The board of education scheduled two more public meetings to discuss the budget. The finance subcommittee is scheduled to meet 5:30 p.m. Jan. 21 at the district central office (42 Grove St) to discuss and review the budget.
Then, the full board is scheduled to meet again 6:30 p.m. Jan. 26, also at the central office.
The budget request could be altered in those meetings.
The spending increases are driven by increases in employee benefits costs (a $1,191,416 increase over last year) and tuition fees for special education students who attend out-of-district schools (a $1,104,220 increase), according to documents shared in the board of education’s monthly meeting.
DiBacco said the district is currently working on bringing more services in-district to save on special education costs – costs which school boards throughout the U.S. have struggled with in recent years.
At the same time, the budget as-is would make a $749,057 cut to salaries. DiBacco said the cut comes from eliminating five administrative positions, and all other staff would be kept at current levels.
The budgeted positions eliminated are director of grants, assistant director of special education, director of communications, director of social-emotional learning, and director of summer after-school programming, DiBacco said.
He said one employee has been laid off under the cuts and that the employee already received their notice.
There is also an $812,318 cut to purchased services in the proposed budget. DiBacco said the cuts involve keeping students in-district for more of their special education needs, saving on costs. There has been a push under Nicole Fenech, the district’s director of special services who was hired last year, to train teachers to meet those needs and reduce the district’s reliance on contractors, according to comments made in recent school board meetings.
“We’re trying to be prudent and judicious, save where we can and see where we can squeeze an extra dollar. We’re trying to maximize every dollar,” DiBacco said in the meeting.
Both meetings are open to the public. The board hopes to vote on a budget request to send to the city at its Jan. 26 meeting, according to school board president Christopher Phipps.
After the budget request is sent to the city, it will undergo review from the mayor’s office, the board of apportionment and taxation, and the Board of Aldermen. Any of those bodies could change the school district’s bottom line.
Transparency Misstep
The Jan. 14 budget presentation was not on the meeting agenda posted publicly and to the city’s website.
The purpose of agendas under state law is to let the public know what the board is going to talk about. It doesn’t matter whether a board is going to take action on the item or not.
Phipps told The Valley Indy the omission was an error and that it should have been included.
“It was strictly an oversight on my part, I take responsibility,” Phipps wrote in an emailed statement. “Because of time restraints, following deadlines set in the City Charter, we did not want to delay discussion of the preliminary budget, particularly since it was informational meaning there was not going to be any action taken by the Board on it last night.”
At the same time, this is the earliest a school budget in Ansonia has been shared with the public since 2019 – and it’s a timeline more in line with neighboring school districts in Derby and Seymour.
The Ansonia Board of Education’s budget process has been murky in recent years, according to past reporting from The Valley Indy.
In 2024, the board opted not to vote on a budget until June. By the time the board voted, the Aldermen had already established a final budget for the city and schools, meaning the school board’s vote was largely ceremonial.
The district at one point in 2024 posted a budget summary to its website, but took it down after The Valley Indy asked about it.
In 2025, The Valley Indy unsuccessfully requested the schools’ proposed budget in January and February. The board publicly discussed and voted to adopt a budget in March that year.
Although the initial budget presentation was not noticed to the public this year, Phipps emphasized that the public is welcome to give input on the budget at upcoming meetings on Jan. 21 and Jan. 26.
“We invite and welcome public input. The Board understands the importance of full transparency and will be certain to ensure that we are. Again, we want and value the public’s input,” Phipps wrote.