SEYMOUR – School officials presented their $43.3 million budget to the town’s finance board during a public meeting Monday (March 9).

The school budget carries an increase of $1.9 million over the budget currently in place. That is a 4.7 percent increase. Click here for a previous Valley Indy story.

What’s Driving The Spending Increase?

District leaders spent the meeting walking the finance board through that increase.

Seymour Board of Education Chairwoman Kristen Bruno said the increase includes $738,069 in pay increases for certified staffers, and $183,669 in pay increases for non-certified staff.

Teacher salaries and benefits comprise 79 percent of the budget.

The school board approved a three-year teachers’ contract in December 2025 with 2.5 percent raises in each year of the contract.

Employee health insurance is increasing by $772,187. The budget forecasts transportation spending increasing by $81,299.

Reaction

“It’s really sad, it’s what we call a status quo budget,” Superintendent of Schools Susan Compton said. “In my four and a half years here, we’ve done a lot of cutting. We try to do the best we can with what we have, and we don’t try to be outlandish in what we ask for.”

The budget includes several new positions: a library/media specialist for Seymour High School, which has been without a librarian for several years, and a speech and language pathologist for Bungay and Chatfield-LoPresti schools, to meet an enrollment increase. 

It also includes three special education paraprofessionals, which Compton said are necessary to support program enrollment growth.

While those positions are new to this budget, Compton said they are not causing an additional monetary impact. She said funding for the positions will come from attrition – with two teacher retirements whose positions are not being replaced. She also cited some savings through the return of some outplaced special education students to the district. 

Finance board member Andrew North said in looking over the budget, he doesn’t see much wiggle room, with the majority of spending going to salaries and benefits.

“There’s not a ton of discretionary spending in here,” North said. 

Finance board member Quinn Levey asked the board where it could reduce the budget if necessary.

“We’re very thin as it is, and I don’t know what the answer is, because there’s not a lot of places to cut,” Compton said. 

Resident Elizabeth White, who has two students in the district, encouraged the finance board to fully fund the school board’s request.

“The board has been very mindful, and I ask that you put forward the budget they gave you,” White said. “It is barebones, and if the budget gets gutted more, it’s going to impact our kids and our class sizes.”

Seymour Board of Finance Chairman Richard Demko said his board will review the budget documentation.

“We’re going to discuss the Board of Education budget in more depth when we deliberate. We’ll digest all of this and send any questions we have to school officials,” he said.

Next Steps

In Seymour, the school board adopts a budget and then sends it to the finance board for review. 

In the spring voters get the final say on both the town and school budgets at the annual budget referendum.

The finance board will wrap up its meetings with department heads this month. First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis will present her budget at 7 p.m. March 16 at town hall.

More information on the school budget can be found on the board’s website.

The budgets being discussed are the 2026-2027 fiscal year. The fiscal year starts July 1, 2026 and ends June 30, 2027.