Ridgefield schools eye $100M budget
RIDGEFIELD — If recent statements by the schools superintendent and first selectman are any indication of how budget deliberations will go this year, things could get contentious.
Interim Superintendent JeanAnn Paddyfote said she is working to keep her budget below $99.7 million — a 5 percent increase over this school year — for the 2019-20 school year.
“My goal obviously is to get that budget down be- cause I felt 5 percent was just too high,” Paddyfote said.
First Selectman Rudy Marconi, meanwhile, said in his state of the town address that he wants no budget increase at all.
“Our budget’s $32 million, so a 2 percent increase is about $600,000. If we can look at bringing those costs and balancing one against the other, we’re hoping that we can deliver that zero,” Marconi said. “Bottom line: We want to try to keep any tax increase at a minimum.
I think absolutely under 2 percent — [we do] not want to exceed, but it’s really going to be dictated by the Board of Education.”
A work in progress
A 5 percent projected budget increase would push Ridgefield’s public education costs close to the $100 million threshold for the 201920 school year.
Paddyfote plans to present her official budget proposal to the Board of Education at 7 p.m. Monday in the Town Hall annex.
“I’m striving to get it below 5 percent, absolutely. And I’m hoping that we have some better numbers locked in before (Monday),” Paddyfote said.
Paddyfote said she gets closer to releasing the budget, “your numbers usually improve” as final costs are locked in by the district.
Costs for heating oil and electricity have not yet been met, she said.
While the schools signed a new, three-year contract with the teachers’ union, which sets the cost of those salaries, three other agreements have to be reached with the custodians, secretaries and paraeducators unions.
If agreements are not reached, they may roll into the next year, Paddyfote said.
The estimate of a 5 percent increase includes a reduction of four teachers from East Ridge Middle School next year.
While Paddyfote will present the budget, she will no longer be superintendent when the board finally votes Feb. 25.
William Collins will take over as the district’s permanent superintendent Feb. 19.
Striving for zero
Marconi said the zero-percent increase for the town’s budget would mostly be funded for by about $600,000 in reductions from salaries for town employees, after 13 employees accepted the town’s incentivized retirement offer.
Three other town employees were laid off.
The bonus paid 75 percent of a worker’s annual salary if he or she retired by Aug. 31, 2018.
“We had enough money in the salary line to cover that,” Marconi said.
The town is proceeding with plans to move the Board of Education offices from the the town annex into the Richard E. Venus building — the old high school — next door.
Doing so will accommodate two of the town’s tenants: the Ridgefield Playhouse, which will expand into the Board of Education’s former space, and Chefs’ Warehouse, which will expand into the second floor of the Venus building.
Expanding Chefs’ Warehouse will net the town around $600,000 in increased rent, Marconi said. “They are a great corporate partner” for the town, he added.
Another element that could affect the overall budget is an increase in health insurance costs — for both school and municipal employees.
Paddyfote has said the district’s insurance carrier could increase costs by as much as 20 percent — $4 million, Marconi said.
“Insurance is a big, big issue for all of us,” he said.
One possibility could be to combine the town’s insurance plans with the 17 other communities in the Western Connecticut Council of Governments, which would give the town more leverage with health insurance providers than it has on its own.
The group spans the western side of the state, from Sherman to Greenwich and over to Westport.
The council put out to bid “to have companies come in to begin looking at forming a COG health insurance program that all municipalities can be a part of,” Marconi said.
The town has about 1,000 employees on insurance, he said. Joining with the other towns could create a buying group of around 18,000 municipal employees.