Members of the Seymour Board of Finance.
SEYMOUR — The Seymour Board of Education reviewed its $40 million budget proposal with members of the Seymour Board of Finance last Wednesday. The budget includes a $2.8 million spending increase over the current, $37.2 million budget. That is a 7.5 percent budget-to-budget increase.
In Seymour, the finance board analyzes budgets before the budgets are sent to voters in the spring.
School officials pointed to a $915,000 spike in employee health insurance as the primary driver of the overall increase in the 2023 – 2024 budget.
The $2.8 million increase includes that 22 percent jump in health insurance, along with a $596,000 increase in salaries (2.25 percent raises for certified staff); a $416,400 increase in special education tuition and transportation, and; a nearly $200,000 increase in utility costs.
The school board unanimously approved the budget Jan. 17. Seymour Finance Board Chairman Bill Sawicki said the proposed increase is sizable.
“$2.8 million — it’s a big number, it’s 2.8 mills,” he said. “We have to digest these numbers now that we’ve seen it, and we’ve got to balance what the taxpayers can afford with the needs of all the (town) departments. You’ve given us our homework and you can trust we will be talking to you again.”
Superintendent of Schools Susan Compton said the budget contains no fluff.
“It’s just trying to maintain what we have,” Compton said. “I never thought I would be coming forth to anybody to present a 7.5 percent budget. We’re not crazy, we’re just dealing with true, factual numbers, and the health insurance is really what is inflating this budget.”
Last year’s budget contained a nine percent increase for health insurance. Compton said the district will work to get the premiums down.
The budget contains no cuts to current staff, Compton said, but without the full 7.5 percent, she said the board will have “to cut into the heart and soul” of the school system.
The biggest chunk of the overall school budget, or 77 percent, goes to staff salaries and benefits. Certified and non-certified staff salaries, per their contracts, will increase by $596,000, which contributes to 1.6 percent of the overall 7.5 percent spending increase, Compton said. Raises for staff per contract negotiations were 2.25 percent.
New items included in the budget are $82,150 for a pre‑K teacher at Chatfield-LoPresti School which Compton said is state-mandated; $145,000 to continue the district’s five-year Chromebook replacement program for students, and $62,730 for three permanent substitute teachers, to help with a continuing struggle to find daily substitutes to cover teacher absences.
Seymour Board of Education Chairman Chris Champagne noted some savings have been realized in the budget, including not replacing the former associate superintendent of schools, and instead implementing a curriculum director.
“There is no fluff in this budget, there is no cushion that will handle increased special education costs should they arise next year, and there is nothing in the budget that would cover any catastrophic facility issues inside the buildings themselves,” Champagne said. “If this budget is not approved, we will then start having those uncomfortable discussions about what to eliminate that has a minimal impact on students’ educational journey.”
The finance board kicked off its annual series of budget workshops earlier this month, where it meets with each department head to review their individual budget requests. The board will begin budget deliberations Feb. 27, and meet throughout March before voting on a budget and presenting it to voters at the annual budget referendum later this spring.
All the budget workshops and deliberations (which are held at 7 p.m. Mondays and Fridays at Town Hall) are open to the public.
