SEYMOUR — The school district’s business manager said Monday the district’s budget deficit this year stands at about $512,000. That’s $288,000 less than the dollar amount announced to the public in January.
In January school district officials said the budget approved last spring contained old, outdated dollar amounts for health insurance and pension costs.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 a projected $839,000 short fall in the current budget.
The school board is asking for a $2.4 million funding increase from the town, a 6.9 percent budget to budget increase. School officials have said a 4.5 percent increase alone is necessary just to keep the budget at status quo. The extra 2 percent or so is due to the budgeting miscalculation.
Business Manager Salvatore A. Bucci, who was not an employee when the flawed budget was created, has been going through the budget to find ways to close the deficit.
Bucci updated the public Monday, during a meeting of the school board’s finance subcommittee. The video from the meeting is posted at the top of this story, along with the full school board meeting, which was also held Monday.
During the full board meeting, the school board voted to cut four teachers, one long-term substitute teacher, and three tutors from the district at the end of the year.
Superintendent Susan Compton said the four teaching positions and the three tutoring positions were grant-funded for one year. The grant money is spent and the year is over. The positions had been paid for through the federal “Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund,” a COVID-19 relief program of the U.S. Department of Education. Click here to read about the program.
The school district is not opting to absorb those costs into its operating budget.
The moves are not expected to have an impact on class size in the district, according to Compton and school board member Kristen Harmeling, who pointed to the district’s budget book, which details projected class sizes.
The school board adopted a $37.8 million budget in late January. The budget was presented to the Seymour Board of Finance in February. The finance board suggested the school district take another look at its budget and to come back at a later date.
At this point, while the school district has talked publicly at length about reducing the budget request, the school board has yet to formally vote to change its funding request.
Ultimately voters get final say on the Seymour town and school budgets during a referendum that usually happens in the spring.
