Joint BOE/BOF FY’25 Budget Review Elicits Heartfelt Support from Superintendent, Parents and Students

With members of both the Education and Finance Boards striving to keep emotions in check, school officials defended the current budget proposal to the BOF Thursday night (Feb. 8) in a joint meeting.

But that didn’t mean strong convictions and stirring support for the budget weren’t in the room, as both Superintendent Kevin Smith, as well as a handful of parents and students, spoke passionately about keeping the proposed budget as presented intact.

Smith’s proposed budget of $94,140,103 for 2024-25 is a 5.56% increase over the current $89.1-million budget. However, based on anticipated expenditures facing the town over the next 10 to 15 years — primarily upwards of $150 million in school and town building maintenance costs that need to be addressed —  Wilton’s financiers indicated they didn’t want to see the mill rate rise by more than 4%, thus providing Smith with unarticulated “guidance” to keep any increase below that 4% mark in this year’s budget.

While Smith said he was well aware of the BOF’s hope, he said that owing to escalating salary and benefits costs he could not come forward with a smaller number without adversely impacting the goals of the district.

“A lot of our budget choices are values choices,” he said, explaining that quantifying the value of staff members and programs at large was very difficult, maintaining that his is a barebones budget as proposed.

Both directly and indirectly, however, BOF members probed the possibilities Thursday, with one questioning Smith to the point where he snapped back.

BOF member Rudy Escalante sought to verbalize the town’s fiscal situation, calling what the town faces a “perfect financial storm” with challenges related to the town’s Aaa Moody’s rating, catching up to significant mounting building maintenance costs, and a revaluation that signals higher taxes for residential property owners.

“We are kind of approaching a perfect financial storm here in the town. We have several factors, Moody’s changing its rating so for us to keep our triple-A rating we have to make some changes in our budget. We’re up to $180 million in maintenance expenses, which is a significant expense…. About $30 million of that will be covered by the state, but that still leaves $150 [million]… the number keeps growing on a daily basis of what we need to spend. And we can cover some of that, but not all — not even most. … we’ve underspent over the last 10-15 years on building maintenance,” he said.

Along with the recent property revaluation, Escalante continued, homeowners will face “significant” tax increases — “even if the town didn’t spend a penny more from last year to this year.”

“And so when you add all of those up, the potential is there. That and if the Board of Ed spends over what we’ve anticipated, the potential was there that people will see double-digit tax increases,” he warned.

“Over the next few years we could see some extraordinarily high property tax increases and that’s something you need to be aware of,” Escalante told Smith before the superintendent summarily interrupted.

“Why does the Board of Ed need to be aware of that?” Smith said. “We’re all aware of it, Rudy.”

BOF Chair Matt Raimondi gently interceded in an effort to keep mended fences firm between two boards that had butted heads at points during last year’s budget process.

“No one is suggesting you don’t understand that,” Raimondi told Smith.

“I really want to understand what the tradeoffs are … The role of the Board of Finance is to kind of marry everything we hear,” he said, explaining that Escalante was voicing points that loomed large on the minds of the financiers.

Tradeoffs

Smith had delivered what he said the tradeoffs of any reductions would be, in a memo he had prepared for an earlier BOE meeting. After years of paring what he said were already lean budgets in prior budget cycles, Smith felt his only options for areas to trim — including freshman sports, clubs and activities, and certified teaching staff and administrators — could no longer be found in just non-labor areas.

“It’s not a recommendation by me. It’s not a plan,” he said, batting around a range of areas that would have to feel cuts, including elementary, physical education, world language and music teachers, as well as instructional coaches.

Instead, his budget as originally presented is what he strongly felt the district needs. “None of the choices are good. All of the choices have ramifications. But again, that’s that’s where we are today,” Smith said.

Smith took the opportunity to highlight to BOF members several ways in which his team has practiced “cost avoidance,” saving the district money with a variety of practices and programs.

“We have done some significant squeezing over the years,” he said, including hiring an in-house electrician to save money on contracted services, solar and natural gas investments, and most recently the investment of sending one of the maintenance crew to school to get his HVAC license in order to save money on outside vendors.

While Smith said he hopes to see potential savings through transportation and technology changes that could lead to reductions, if the BOF wants to see further cuts they would have to involve personnel.

In light of declining enrollment and the fact that 76% of the proposed increase was attributable to staff salaries and benefits, BOF members broached the subject of reducing the number of class sections — by lowering staff count — something Smith advised against.

“Even though our total population is decreasing, the number of kids with more complex needs is increasing,” he said.

He said that the number of students with IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) has gone from 14.2% in 2019 to 17.6%, with varied and complex needs required to be met.

“School today is not like when you were in school, or when I was in school,” said Smith, who himself has four children in the district. “It’s a very different place.”

Other needs, Smith said, including more state-required professional assessments of teachers, and legislation requiring that schools meet certain curriculum standards, put a larger burden on them. Among these are trying to meet a variety of emotional and intellectual needs within a diverse classroom, such as providing challenging materials for higher-performing students and working with students who bring social-emotional needs into their day.

“Given all the increased stressors … that kids are bringing into our building … a teacher needs to be able to accomplish more in the classroom with their kids,” DeLuca said.

Raimondi and other BOF members noted that 62% of Wilton’s residents did not have children in its public school system, though agreement was voiced that those same residents support the schools as a valuable amenity that boosts property value.

“It’s clear that it’s a draw,” Escalante said, noting that another amenity was low taxes and that the BOF’s function was to “represent the whole town.”

Escalante also took exception with a comment he attributed to BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca, wherein he quoted her as saying “guidance is just guidance” referring to the BOF’s message to keep any increase below 4%, “which I guess means you can ignore (it).”

DeLuca defended her position, pointing out that the Grand List numbers and other budget elements haven’t yet been set.

“There’s still a lot of unknowns,” she said.

“Guidance is not ignored or not looked at … We’re all mindful of the tax implications of the school’s current needs,” she said, noting that the BOE’s job was to put forth a budget based on the district’s need.

“That might not always align with the Board of Finance’s understanding of what they believe the town can afford from a tax perspective … and that’s a conversation that then moves its way to the town,” DeLuca said.

She added, “I don’t think that low taxes is a product that people come to this town to buy.”

Public Support

Several members of the public chimed in about the budget at the end of the meeting, most of whom spoke in favor of the funding, including resident Stephen Hudspeth.

“My children graduated in 1990,” he said, but still wanted to see money made available for the district’s students.

“They’re the future not only of our town, but of our country, and they need the best from us … We should not be looking at cost as an expense, but as an investment,” he said.

David Tatkow — who ran for the BOF in November but lost by just four votes — said he calculated^* the likely difference in what taxpayers would pay annually if the budget increase came in at the superintendent’s proposed 5.56% vs. the 4% suggested by the BOF.

For someone with a home assessment value of $750,000, Tatkow said the difference was $292 a year — or $24 per month; at a $500,000 assessed value, that drops to $280 a year, or $17 a month; and at a $300,000 assessed value, Tatkow said the difference was $125 a year, or $10.50 a month.

“I ask you to look at the kids in the town in the eye and tell them that they may have larger classes, they can’t have full sports or clubs and other support outside of the classroom for maybe $10 to $24 a month,” he said.

Parent Aaron Jacobson, who has four children in the schools, suggested that the district could perhaps be more prudent regarding the quality of its personnel.

“I certainly don’t want to cut any staff that care … but if there’s a way to hold more people accountable,” he said, citing some teachers in his experience not caring about their jobs.

“The teachers here are paid a lot of money … and I’m disappointed in some of the teachers that I’ve been paying for,” he said.

Other parents spoke in support of the budget, but it was a quartet of high school students who rose to beseech the officials to support Smith’s budget — and explain how reductions in the current fiscal year have impacted them in the form of cuts to clubs and activities.

“For students who don’t do sports or theater, who just do clubs, it’s a greater impact on their lives,” WHS senior Kate Rusin. “For students applying to colleges, it doesn’t look good on their resumes when they do half as many hours as kids in neighboring schools… Schools are about developing active citizens and clubs go a long way in doing that.”

That was echoed by WHS Senior Class President Sean Gregory. He talked about the real-world experience and learning outside the classroom that being active in clubs — in his case debate and model congress among others — gives students. He also warned such a move would impact students’ academic success.

“When you limit clubs…, when you aren’t providing students that ability to explore their outside interests, you’re severely hindering their ability to get those close, interpersonal skills or outside-academic skills that clubs are invaluable for students,” Gregory said.

“What that looks like is that Wilton High School won’t be doing its due diligence in preparing students for the outside world. The Portrait of the Graduate is a really big in school — we talk about socially aware citizens, about active helpful human beings, how do we provide that when we’re cutting a major portion of student life here at Wilton High?” Gregory asked.

He ended with a plea to the adults at the board tables: “Hold our students in your mind when you’re talking about the budget for next year. All I hope is that freshmen, sophomores, and all incoming students can accomplish the same amazing things and experiences as I have.”

^* Tatkow said his estimates were based on the 2018 housing valuations, not the current revaluation reassessments.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of the story referenced the town’s AAA credit rating from Moody’s as being in jeopardy next year. While the town is not at risk of failing to meet Moody’s new higher requirements for what it needs to maintain in reserve funds, BOF member Rudy Escalante called the new requirements a factor in “the perfect financial storm” that Wilton is facing. The story has been updated to clarify this and spell out the other significant challenges Escalante said Wilton faces in FY 2025.