SEYMOUR – School Business Manage Salvatore A. Bucci told the Board of Education Thursday that the district’s $839,000 budget shortfall has since been reduced to $594,000.
The revenue shortfall is due to a mistake made by the district’s former business administrator, current officials have said.
Still, Bucci said the district will have to reduce staff numbers if it wants to lower the amount of money needed to operate the school system next year. Currently the schools are asking for a 6.9 percent ($2.4 million) increase in funding. Of that 6.9 percent increase, 2.4 percent is the budget blunder.
“Really, the only solution is going to be a recommendation (to the school board) for reducing staffing and the associated employee benefits because that’s really the only area where you can make significant progress in reducing the budget,” Bucci said during a school board meeting Feb. 10. The complete meeting video is embedded at the top of this story.
Superintendent of Schools Susan Compton concurred.
“That’s truly the situation, and we have no choice but to make a reduction in personnel because nearly 80 percent of your cost is personnel cost,” Compton said. “The reality is we have to look how we can provide the same programs and the same delivery of service to our kids, but we cannot continuously have the same amount of staff. These are not easy times.”
Board of Education Chairman Christopher Champagne said he’s encouraged the shortfall is being whittled down, and favors attrition, or not replacing retiring staff, over laying off teachers and/or staff.
“For the 2022 – 2023 budget perspective, I think that first looking at attrition is key so that people who have a job on June 30 (end of the fiscal year) will also have a job on July 1 (beginning of new fiscal year),” Champagne said. “But that comes with its own set of challenges of moving staff around to meet the needs of the district or simply not filling positions we have currently this year, for next year. The Board of Finance asked us, and all departments, to go through next year’s budgets with an even more fine-toothed comb, so that is what we are going to do. I do not want to see any programs cut, and I hope that we can all come to an agreement first through attrition. After that, I believe something more drastic will have to occur. ”
Compton had said there are five employees retiring this year, and three of those positions, if not replaced, amount to about $300,000.
The school board budget is under review by the town’s finance board.
Board of Finance Chairman Bill Sawicki had asked the board to take another look at the budget in hopes of coming back to his board with a reduced bottom line.
The largest chunk of the proposed school budget for next year includes $23 million in employee salaries and $7 million in employee benefits. Health insurance costs are increasing about 12 percent and a new teachers’ contract, reached through arbitration, accounts for 3 to 3.5 percent salary increases, Bucci said. There are no new staff, programs or initiatives included in the proposal.
Over the past five budget years, the school budget has received increases of 1.2 percent in 2017 – 2018; 1 percent in 2018 – 19; 2.3 percent in 2019 – 20; 1.5 percent in 2020 – 21 and 2 percent in 2021 – 22.
The Board of Finance will be working on next year’s budget throughout February and begin deliberations in March. They will approve a budget and mill rate by April 1, hold a public hearing, and set a townwide referendum later this spring where voters get the final say.
