Fairfield superintendent proposes $211 million school budget
FAIRFIELD — Superintendent of Schools Mike Testani is proposing a $211 million budget for the 2023-24 school year.
The budget, which calls for a 4.1 percent increase over this year’s operating fund, is Testani’s first since he joined the district late last year. In his presentation, he described the budget as fiscally responsible.
“The framework of this budget is built on multilanguage learners, student well-being, right to read and vertical alignment of literacy and early literacy programming, critical maintenance to our facilities, educational data tools, technology replacement, the ability to sustain class size and utilizing existing and re-purposing resources,” he said. “It is a structurally balanced budget. It funds critical maintenance contracts and insurances.”
The budget calls for $5.1 million more for salaries and $2.3 million more for benefits.
“The vast majority of dollars in the increase ask is in staff salaries,” Testani said. “Those are contractual obligations and in health benefits.”
Testani said that his proposed budget calls for
a $1.8 million increase in funding for paraeducators, an almost 1 percent increase from the current operating year. He said the goal of the increase is to fill vacancies and retain current staff, adding turnover in that area has a profound impact on students’ academic and social-emotional performance.
Speaking to more of the major budget drivers, Testani said adding a classroom to the early literacy academy would cost $102,000 and addressing the needs of multi-lingual learners through mandated services are the result of a
$376,000 increase in that line item.
Testani said the district is looking to find an outside provider to fill substitute teacher roles, as that has become a challenge during the pandemic and lead to critical staff being pulled from their other duties to fill classrooms. He said this would not have an impact on the budget.
“It’s really important that we use a better and more effective and efficient way to get our fill rates up, because, right now, we are struggling just like every other district,” he said. “We need to get more creative in managing our substitute recruitment.”
The staffing line is also increasing by $254,000 to address increasing enrollment. Testani said the budget will increase the number of full-time staff in the district by 7.25, including adding two elementary school teachers, one math coach at Fairfield Ludlowe High School and a sign language teacher. He said it will be offset by cuts elsewhere.
The budget also includes a $1.4 million increase to replace technology equipment. Testani said this includes servers, student Chromebooks and faculty laptops and desktops. He said several maintenance projects on the waterfall chart, including flooring projects and media center at some of the elementary schools, call for $610,000.
Testani said budget drivers and future concerns include rising special education costs, health insurance and per pupil costs.
Board of Education Chairwoman Jennifer Jacobsen said the board will go over the budget more thoroughly in upcoming meetings.