Board of Ed's Budget Request Knocked Back By Quarter-Million Dollars

The Board of Education's requested operating budget for next year was cut by $250,000 Thursday night by the Board of Finance.

The school board sought $98.345 million for 2011-12, an increase of 2.265 percent.

In making his final pitch to the finance board’s members for the full amount, the chairman of the board of education, Donald G. O’Day, said 82 percent of the education budget is for salaries and benefits, and that is where all of next year’s proposed increases would go.

“All other costs have been held flat,” O’Day said, despite increased costs in special education tuition and bus transportation.

O’Day said 878 people work for the school system, the fewest in five years, while the student population next year will be 5,760, the second highest ever.

O’Day said he was “particularly proud” of holding the increase in benefits costs to 1.41 percent. “I think what we did (was) every trick we could pull to get that number lower.”

He also said maintenance projects not related to health and safety have been deferred.

“The point I’ve made before, the point I’ll make again,” O’Day said; “What we’ve done on the Board of Education -- our administration -- we’ve done our best to keep costs in check, to lower expenses where we can, we’ve reduced staff, we’ve changed programs, we’ve altered bus runs. We’ve pulled all the levers we can pull and I believe that we’ve run out of arrows in our quiver.”

The hearing was then opened for public comments. Among those who spoke was Kathy Sharp, a teacher at Staples High School.

Sharp said making further cuts to the school system’s already lean budget would have a devastating impact on the future education of “our” children.

“We’ve all worked together so hard to create an exceptional educational system in Westport,” Sharp said. “Think about this as an investment – this is an investment in our children’s future.”

The program then returned to the finance board, and member Avi Kaner said that last year the panel made a “massive cut” to the town and school budgets -- $3.5 million – to pay for pension plans and other retiree benefits, “which are now mostly remaining out of control.”

Kaner said “out of the box” thinking on controlling their combined budgets is consolidation and efficiency between the town and the schools, including the “backroom” operations: purchasing, accounting, information technology, financial management and human resources management.

“All these things do not affect students directly, they do not affect class sizes directly; there should not be a difference whether we generate a teacher’s check or a policeman’s check,” Kaner said.

Kaner concluded by making a motion to reduce the school system’s proposed 2011-12 budget by $250,000, which, he said, still results in an increase of over $2 million from last year.

After seconding Kaner’s motion, chairwoman Helen Garten said the members of her board are acutely aware of how “lean” the proposed school budget is.

Garten said joint purchasing by the town and schools should be pursued, and suggested school facilities could be rented to “responsible organizations” for dance recitals or symphony performances, providing a revenue stream for the school system.

“I think this year is going to be key to determining whether we can actually work together toward solutions,” Garten said. “So what we ask from you is your patience, your support, your ideas and your involvement in the process.”

Finance board member Thomas D. Lasersohn said he does not support any cuts to the instructional budget – “I would rather pay higher taxes” – but believes an examination should be made looking for additional savings from administrative costs.

Finance board member Kenneth Wirfel shot down the idea that substantial savings could be had by the town and school system consolidating their purchases.

Wirfel said when he joined the board he was assigned to an “efficiency committee.”

“We spent two years … discussing all these issues,” Wirfel said, “and what we found, simply, were a series of reasons why it couldn’t be done.”

There were personality issues, egos involved, and turf battles, Wirfel said, while Westport’s obligations to retired employees means it has “a knife to its throat.”

We have pressing financial obligations, Wirfel said. We cannot afford to allow this to continue; we must find savings wherever we can.

The vote to approve Kaner’s motion to cut the school board’s request by $250,000 was 7-0.

Garten then called on the finance board to vote on three additional accounts for the town’s schools: aid to private and parochial schools, long-term debt service, and debt service on bond anticipation notes; all of which were approved unanimously.

At the conclusion of the votes, the total approved school system budget for next year amounted to $112,425,806.

The finance board then voted unanimously in favor of the town’s total proposed budget for next year, amounting to $178,643,110.

The operating budget would be $178,134,575; and the capital budget $518,535.