School start times in, COVID expenses out of town budget

NEW CANAAN — The Board of Finance has moved forward with a town budget that includes funding for changing school start times, but removed nearly $1 million for COVID-related education expenses.

The $154.4 million operating budget represents a 0.48 percent increase, but will result in a slight decrease in the mill rate.

The largest portion of the budget is the Board of Education’s operation expense of $83.3 million — a 2.72 percent increase — that includes funds for change in school start times.

However, the Board of Finance removed $900,000 the Board of Education earmarked for COVID-19related expenses. The finance board instead plans to fund pandemic expenses through special appropriations as it did last year.

“We can’t move forward unless our budget is fully funded,” school board member Brendan Hayes said. “It hurts in the ability to plan.”

“It is a big deal,” added Hayes, who called the change a “cut” to the education budget.

However, Board of Finance Chairman Todd Lavieri said it was “not really right to classify this as a cut.”

“I don’t think it is fair,” Lavieri said.

Lavieri said the district does not know what the future brings, and how much will be needed for pandemic-related costs.

In 2020-21 fiscal year, the finance board approved $1.94 million in special appropriations for COVID-19 related expenses.

Two days before the vote, more than a dozen parents praised the school district last Tuesday during the finance board’s public hearing on the budget.

Many of the speakers praised the efforts of Superintendent Bryan Luizzi for keeping the town’s schools open.

The majority spoke in favor of the new school times, but some complained they were too early for elementary school children.

The funding needed for school start times was removed from the budget in the 2020-21 cycle.

Under the proposed plan, the three elementary schools would start at 7:45 a.m., the high school would begin at 8:30 a.m., Saxe Middle School’s upper division of seventh- and eighth-graders would commence at 8:35 a.m. and Saxe’s lower division with fifth- and sixth-graders would hear the first bell at 9:15 a.m.

On the town side, the finance board approved $29.3 million in operating expenses — a 2.57 percent increase.

The library is expected to receive $2.4 million — a 2 percent increase — for operating expenses for 2021-22.

If the budget passes the Town Council, the amount needed to be raised by taxes is $139.8 million, down 0.61 percent. The Town Council is expected to vote on the final budget on March 31.

“Through careful spending and planning, we have funded our schools, important social programs, the police, emergency, and fire budgets, while keeping taxes flat for the fourth year in a row,” Lavieri said.