An image from Monday's school board meeting in Seymour.
SEYMOUR — The Board of Education on Monday (Jan. 31) unanimously approved a $37.8 million budget for the 2022 – 2023 school year that carries a 6.9 percent spending increase.
During its second budget workshop meeting held at Seymour Middle School (and streamed live via YouTube), the board was unified in its budget approval, yet members had very little to say.
Very little was mentioned about an $839,000 budget deficit that Superintendent of Schools Susan Compton and Business Manager Salvatore A. Bucci publicly revealed during the board’s first budget workshop held Jan. 24. It was at that meeting, held at Central Office and also streamed live via YouTube, that Compton said a “miscalculation” of employee benefits by the district’s previous business manager was discovered by Bucci.
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Neither Compton nor Bucci were working for the Board of Education when last year’s budget was crafted and ultimately approved by voters last May.
According to Bucci, who began work here last November replacing former Business Manager Sherry Holmes, the budget approved last spring contained old, outdated dollar amounts for health insurance and pension costs. The actual costs were more expensive than budgeted for, resulting in the $839,000 short fall.
Bucci had said employee benefits — which include health insurance, employer payroll taxes and pension contributions — were “underestimated” in the 2021 – 2022 budget.
Compton and Bucci told the board during Monday’s (Jan, 31) meeting they’re looking at ways to fill the budget hole, including cutting staff or not replacing retiring staff members.
In talking with First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis and Board of Finance Chairman Bill Sawicki last week, Compton said an “immediate freeze” on all school spending was enacted.
“We will review all grant monies, Title 1 grants and consider attrition as a Plan B,” Compton said. “It hurts, it’s not easy, but it may be what we have to do. We must maintain the high excellence of our academic program, it’s a balancing act. It’s going to take a team.”
Drugonis spoke during the board’s public comment portion of the meeting and said she’s here to help the board not only figure out, but overcome, the deficit.
Both Drugonis and Selectman Fred Stanek said the town would work with the school district.
“This board needs to work together to solve the deficit and the Board of Selectmen will work closely with you to solve this problem,” Stanek said. “We need to solve the present budget deficit and have a plan in place as quickly as possible so the public will know this is being worked on.”
Only one parent in attendance at Monday’s meeting — whose name was not immediately available — addressed the deficit, saying “I’m really concerned there’s such a big deficit, how did we get to this point? I hope in the future this won’t be a continuance.” There were only a handful of the public in attendance.
Bucci said all efforts are being made to find unspent money in the current budget to compensate for the deficit.
“If we can do that in this current budget, then there is no deficit,” Bucci said.
As it is, school officials said with the deficit factored in, the $37.8 million school budget proposed for the 2022 – 2023 school year contains a 6.9 percent hike, or $2.4 million more, than the current $35.4 million budget. Last year’s budget was approved by voters with a 2 percent increase. Bucci said a 4.5 percent increase alone is necessary just to keep the budget at status quo.
Bucci said the driving factors behind the increase – outside of the deficit – include a 12 percent spike in health insurance; 3 to 3.5 percent contractual teacher salary increases (reached through arbitration with unions); a nearly 5 percent hike in utilities and a 12.4 percent increase in special education costs.
The board is scheduled to present its budget to the Board of Finance Wednesday (Feb. 2) via a Zoom meeting.
