Westport selectmen send pared-down budget to Finance Committee

WESTPORT — The School Committee last week approved a budget for next year that is $1.1 million less than its original proposal.

Selectmen on Monday also approved that budget, which could result in staff layoffs, school officials say. However, they are still hoping to avoid that option.

“We are still meeting and negotiating for the best possible results,” School Committee Chairman Antonio Viveiros said in a prepared statement at last week’s committee meeting. “We are still meeting and negotiating for the best possible results.”

In January, Superintendent Gary Reese proposed a budget of $19.5 million. Customarily, the district and selectmen do not agree on initial numbers, leading to what Viveiros calls, “fighting over a few thousand dollars.”

Viveiros and School Committee members instead approved the town administrator recommended budget which is $18.4 million — more than $1 million less than the original proposal of $19.5 million.

Town Administrator Timothy King asked school officials to reduce their proposed fiscal 2021 budget to $18.3 million — $or $70,000 less than what selectmen and school officials had recently voted on.

School Committee member Nancy Stanton-Cross, who is on that negotiating committee, said that the town found an excess of $70,000 and transferred it to the school line item. As a result, the committee is now able to work with a budget of around $18.4 million.

Stanton-Cross stressed that she is still working with the Westport Federation of Teachers but said layoffs could still be coming.

Based on the initial number of around $18.3 million, Reese mentioned in an email that there could be up to 10 layoffs

School officials last week and selectmen mentioned that the district is in a difficult quandary because approximately 85 percent of its budget consists of payroll expenses. Many of those payroll expenses are contractually obligated ones, leaving no flexibility within the budget, school officials have noted.

Selectmen on Monday debated the budget at length before agreeing to a budget that is being passed on to the Finance Committee.

Selectmen on Monday did agree to take $30,000 from certified free cash — or surplus funds — to help the town clerk’s office, which has been swamped with additional duties and a short staff.

The selectmen also agreed to reduce selectmen stipends by 50 percent.

Selectmen Vice Chairman Brian Valcourt recommended that the town use more money from its certified free cash and from stabilization — a type of savings account — a financial move that state and local finance authorities say should not be done to balance a budget.

Noting the stress of the current times, Valcourt said stablization and free cash are meant for averting a financial crisis.