Salary costs drive ed budget request
NORWALK — New staffing and contractual obligations account for more than half of the budget increase recommended by the superintendent of schools for the 2022-23 school year.
Superintendent Alexandra Estrella presented her recommendation to the Board of Education on Tuesday with the help of Tom Hamilton, the outgoing chief financial officer for Norwalk Public Schools, and Kristin Karczmit, the district’s budget director.
The superintendent is requesting an increase of 4.5% to next year’s operating budget. Her recommendation also included a 0.9% increase to fund the incubation of a new South Norwalk neighborhood school.
The 4.5% increase would add nearly $9.4 million to the budget, bringing the total request to almost $218 million. Nearly a third of the increase would go toward fulfilling contractual obligations — increasing salaries by 2.2%.
“Now, given what we’re all reading about with inflation, I think the fact that we’ve locked in these contracts several years into the future is actually a very good thing from a financial standpoint for the district,” Hamilton told the board.
Another 12% of the budget increase is tied to mid-year adjustments, which is staff added during the current school year which need to be funded in the future. These hires are due mainly to IEPs, or other legal mandates the district must adhere to, according to Karczmit.
New staffing would account for 8% of the increase. The district plans to add four new multilingual learner teachers to make up for a shortage for the underserved student population, according to Karczmit.
Overall, salaries and employee benefits account for more than 78% of the district’s operating
budget.
“The services we provide are all driven by our staff and our teachers,” Hamilton said. “If you want to know why you can’t cut
things without cutting programs, that’s really the answer.”
Other major factors driving the budget increase recommendation for next school year include a $1 million increase for out-of-district tuition and an increase of nearly $645,000 for utilities based on projected rate
increase for water, sewer, natural gas and electricity.
The district also had to account for bringing Jefferson Elementary School back online next summer in regard to utilities, custodial services and adding two pre-K classrooms at the school. Jefferson’s operating
costs were taken out of the current 2021-22 budget while the cost of operation for the lower campus at Ponus Ridge School had to be added.
“That was a sort of a swap, if you will,” Hamilton said. “When Jefferson comes back online, we’re really picking up one additional building in our portfolio that we need to fund.”
The board will continue its discussion of the superintendent’s budget recommendation at its regular business meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m.