WESTPORT — School officials say they will no longer need to request the Representative Town Meeting for additional money since the updated costs of the state health insurance plan will help close its budget gap.
The state health insurance plan, which the schools use, announced revised increases this week showing the district is expecting only about a 2.2 percent or 2.4 percent increase, depending on the plan. This translates to $285,000 that can be taken out of the proposed budget, officials said.
It comes as the schools try to determine how to close the nearly $1 million cut the finance board made to the request when they approved the budget earlier this month.
“I saw this as our solution,” school board member Jeannie Smith said.
The finance board approved a nearly $218.5 million overall budget, which is about $5.5 million, or nearly 2.6 percent, more than the current year. It includes $77.1 million for the town and $135.4 million for schools, once debt service and other expenses are added to the Board of Education’s $125.6 million budget.
This leaves an actual cut of about $975,000 to the Board of Education budget, but still an overall increase of about $3.97 million, or 3 percent.
School officials plan to use federal grants to cover the bulk of that cut, and asked the finance board to restore $235,000 to help close the gap.
But now the health savings should now fill that shortfall.
Board of Education Vice Chairwoman Karen Kleine said they should still ask the RTM for the $235,000 restoration. She had originally suggested the restoration should be $500,000 to help cover the shortfall and technology cuts when the board was first considering what to ask the finance board to restore.
“I would like to advocate for as much money as possible,” she said. “I think the Board of Finance cut too much money out of our budget.”
Several school officials expressed frustration over how the finance board treated the school’s restoration request. The finance board had called the request “frivilous” because the $235,000 came out to about 0.02 percent of the schools’ overall budget.
“The tone was unnecessary,” Superintendent Thomas Scarice said at the school board meeting this week.
The Board of Education adopted a nearly $127 million budget in February, cutting about $1 million from Scarice’s proposal. This budget was about $5 million, or 4.1 percent, more than the current year. New health care estimates from the state health insurance plan brought that budget down to $126.6 million. The Board of Finance then set it at $125.6 million.
Finance members also told school officials that they had their back and would cover any expenses that came up in the middle of the year if needed.
Most of the school board this week said that wasn’t how budgets should be created though and the board is legally not allowed to exceed its adopted operating budget.
“It doesn’t seem like a smart way to go about it,” BOE Chairwoman Candice Savin said.
kkoerting@newstimes.com
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