Westport BOE endorses $136 million budget request
WESTPORT — The school board has adopted a nearly $136.3 million budget recommendation for the upcoming school year, which is 5.24 percent more than the current budget.
It was approved in a 5-1 vote, with little change to the original proposal presented by Superintendent Thomas Scarice.
Board member Robert Harrington opposed and member Christina Torres was absent.
“The school budget is a representation of the values and aspirations of the school system,” Scarice wrote in his proposed 20232024 budget. “The budget functions as a guiding document for the school year, endeavoring to continue to maintain and advance current valuable and relevant programs, while also initiating efforts to confront challenges and opportunities.”
Scarice’s original request was for about $136.4 million, which would have been a 5.33 percent increase over the current budget.
A facilities project coordinator position was removed from the budget for a savings of about $119,000, with Vice Chair Liz Heyer abstaining and Chair Lee Goldstein voting against the cut.
The project coordinator position would have been parallel to a support staff position, reporting to the facilities director, according to
Chief Financial Officer Elio Longo.
Some of the position’s responsibilities would have been scheduling and preparing materials for meetings, which Scarice called “time consuming” for the facilities staff currently doing that work.
“I’m just trying to understand the justification for doing this now with, seemingly, all the needs that our students have, versus waiting a year to institute the position,” Board Member Kevin Christie said.
Scarice said that the board has been criticized in the past for not “keeping the eye on the ball with maintenance and facilities.”
Throughout January, board members discussed potential changes to the budget. On Jan. 30, board members decided to not include several of those possible changes, which included adding intramural programs for $89,000 instead of keeping it parent funded, adding back an instructional coach cut from the high school for $151,000, switching to a “bring your own” device model at the middle schools to save $257,000, increasing parking fees and raising building rental facilities since they haven’t been done so in five years.
Longo said they could adjust the rental fees, as long as they’re competitive with other building rental facilities.
Harrington proposed reducing the transportation budget by $471,000, though it did not receive a second.
“It’s predicted that we’ll spend approximately $450,000 less than we budgeted for, for this year,” he said.
He proposed a total $7.3 million for transportation for fiscal year 2024, which would be about 6 percent less than the proposed transportation budget, but two percent more than the 2022-2023 budget, which he said the district appears to be underspending.
Longo said he advised against Harrington’s decrease while having a full fleet of buses, as “current market pressures exceeded two percent.”
The budget next is expected to go before the Board of Finance in March, and then the Representative Town Meeting.