Superintendent Kevin Smith‘s proposed school budget for 2025-26 came in unofficially on the money at Thursday’s night, (Jan. 9) Board of Education meeting, with a 4.00% increase that exactly meets the guidance recommendation from the Board of Finance.
The $96,968,334 budget request for fiscal year 2026 is a $3,730,175 increase over the current operating school budget of $93,238,159.
The Board of Education had minimal comment following Smith’s 30-minute presentation at a short regular BOE meeting. [Editor’s note: a PDF of the slides that accompanied Smith’s presentation appears at the end of this article.]
“This budget reflects the district’s commitment to sustaining excellence, addressing growth objectives, and balancing fiscal responsibility with community priorities,” Smith wrote in a memo introducing the full 396-page budget document.
The bulk of the budget is for staff costs, with 65%, or $63.2 million, allocated for salaries, and 15%, or $14.5 million, allocated for benefits, totaling $77.7 million, or 80% of the entire budget.
Based on existing contracts, salaries are expected to increase by $2.6 million next year, and benefits by $900,000.
“We assume enrollment will be stable,” Smith said, with a total projected enrollment of four students, though numbers are projected to increase at the primary schools and decrease at the secondary schools.
New budget requests include:
- $143,336 for two additional teachers at Cider Mill School
- $71,168 for an additional kindergarten teacher at Miller-Driscoll School
- $79,725 to expand the district’s LLC/technology administrative position (director of digital learning) from 0.4 full-time equivalent (FTE) to full-time
- $39,477 for a new kindergarten paraprofessional at Miller-Driscoll
- $30,875 to partially cover the salary of a social worker at Wilton High School that was fully grant-funded this year
- $2,200 for an SAT coordinator stipend at WHS
The category of Contracted Services, which accounts for 10% of the proposed budget at $9.6 million, represents an increase of $450,000 over the current appropriation.
“This is driven by an increase in the technology lease line, increases to facilities maintenance contracts (and) the transportation increase is captured in that category … and the increased use of language interpreters for our non-English speaking families,” Smith said.
The Property Services category, requested at $1.1 million, is up $166,000 from the current budget.
“Property Services reflects an increase in the facility repair lines and there’s also $45,000 on that line to replace a divider in the gym at Middlebrook,” Smith said.
Purchased Services, requested at $3.2 million, is down by $500,000 from last year, while Utilities, at $1.6 million, is down by $100,000.
Supplies are requested at $2.3 million, up $170,000 from the current year, while Equipment is requested at $713,000, an increase of $40,000 over the current year.
“You recall our early forecast was close to 6%,” Smith said of the preliminary budget he presented in the fall, which he had said was an overestimate at the time. “We carefully reviewed all the requests and, as we do annually, we prioritized.”
“Some of the requests that we reduced include materials for security,” which he said are now being totally covered by grant money to total just over $100,000.
“We reduced some other lines,” he said, “including library books, digital resources, some supplies and lines of contracted services. We deferred some requests for added staffing, including a dean at the high school, an additional special educator at Cider Mill, an additional maintenance staff person, a humanities coach at Middlebrook, an LLC paraprofessional also at Middlebrook.”
Smith reported that there were around $640,000 in deferred requests.
“We’re trying to meet competing demands,” Smith said, explaining that he had met with administrators to discuss priorities and that some items, while not necessarily eliminated, are for the moment deferred.
“I took the Board of Finance very seriously,” he said. “They unanimously adopted a four-percent guidance number.”
In his presentation Smith highlighted that, except for last year, Wilton has seen relatively small budget increases over the past 10 years, averaging 1.75%.
He also pointed out that compared to the comparable Fairfield County towns that with Wilton make up the District Reference Group (DRG) — including Darien, New Canaan, Ridgefield, Weston and Westport — Wilton is showing smaller numbers.
“This is the far-lowest growth rate in the DRG,” Smith said, noting that Wilton also currently had the lowest per-pupil spending rate.
BOE Chair Ruth DeLuca expressed thanks to Smith and his staff, calling school budgets “a monetary expression of a district’s values and missions.”
“Given we are a people business and the majority of our money goes into our people and our teachers and our staff, and given what those contractual increases are, the ability to kind of budget around that and maintain our programs and our services at the level that we expect them all to be, is not an easy feat,” she said.
BOF Chair Matt Raimondi, who was also in attendance, shared a brief public comment of praise at the meeting’s end and remarking on the recent history of collaboration between his board and the BOE.
“I want to speak to you on behalf of the Board of Finance and just say thank you for all the hard work,” he told Smith.
“I can’t promise that the Board of Finance won’t ask a lot of questions,” he said. “I know the Board of Ed will, but I’m looking forward to working together.”