NEW FAIRFIELD — The Board of Finance made slight changes to the town and school budget requests before deciding on a combined $54.9 million proposal to send to voters.

The proposal, which includes $12.1 million for the town and $42.8 million for the schools, would increase taxes by 2.55 percent next year. The final number decreased the schools’ original request by about $88,000 and increased the selectmen’s proposal by $193,000.

The majority of the changes were made to accommodate additional police presence at the schools next year, which officials already put in place for the rest of this school year after parents voiced concerns following the shooting in Parkland, Fla.

Officials said the added police, which will use overtime hours to add officers to each of the lower-level schools, will serve as a placeholder until a recently-created school safety committee can make a recommendation for long-term personnel changes. The committee plans to commission an audit of the schools’ security protocols.

“When the results of the security audit are completed, if there was a recommendation to add another (officer), we could look at doing that down the road,” First Selectman Pat Del Monaco told finance members last week. “Our resident state trooper feels he will not have a problem staffing these overtime hours (next year).”

The Board of Finance’s adjustments also included eliminating two new safety advocate positions from the schools’ request because of the added police presence.

The towns’ final proposal represents a $1.2 million, or 11.1 percent increase over this year’s spending. Del Monaco has said this is largely necessary to restore $500,000 in paving funding that was zeroed out in this year’s budget to prepare for potential cuts in state funding.

It also includes $129,000 in increased personnel costs, $43,000 to expand emergency medical services, $140,000 for a new roadside mower and $150,000 for bridge repairs.

On the school side, the $42.8 million budget increases spending by 4.68 percent. It includes five new positions — a math teacher, a sixth-grade teacher, two Science, Technology, Engineering and Math coaches and a life skills teacher — and a $366,000 hike in special education costs.

Budget deliberations included a discussion of whether staff or administrator costs should be reduced in response to the district’s enrollment, which is expected to decrease by 53 students next year. But some finance board members felt the positions might be needed to increase test scores.

Finance and school board members said the schools should update the Board of Finance with test score data in the middle and end of the year.

“That will give us some level of comfort that it is a budget well spent,” finance board member Erin Badillo said.

Superintendent Alicia Roy added that 29.8 positions have been eliminated since 2010 in response to the enrollment decline.

The Board of Finance also approved $1.4 million in capital projects, $480,000 for the schools and $931,000 for the town. A date has not yet been set for the budget vote.

aquinn@newstimes.com