Presentations for the proposed 2026-27 school budget concluded last night, at Staples High School. “06880” journalist John H. Palmer reports:
The Board of Education mulled over $7.63 million in spending plans for facilities and grounds at the town’s 8 schools.
The $7.63 million projection for the 2026-2027 school year is about $134,000, (1.8%) more than the current year’s projection of $7.5 million, according to chief financial officer Elio Longo. The rise owes mostly to electricity costs, which have increased by about 10%.
He said that the town historically negotiates fixed contracts for 2-3 years at a time.
“The Board of Education has managed the risk associated with electricity supply, rate, and volatility by contracting a fixed rate to December 2027,” according to the budget summary provided.
“This mitigation strategy was a group purchase collaboration with the Town of Westport and other municipalities/school districts.”
Longo touted the accomplishments of the previous year, explaining that 211 building and grounds projects were completed in the spring and summer of 2025, and 145 during the winter.
The new fieldhouse floor at Staples was installed under budget, he said, while Saugatuck Elementary School and Kings Highway School both had parking lots paved over.
Moving forward, the district looks to add a new position — assistant director of facilities and security — for roughly $130,000. That person would assist the current director and “strengthen operational oversight, increase departmental capacity, and ensure the district remains positioned to manage both daily facility operations and the growing demands of capital and security initiatives,” Longo said.
Utilities costs, which include water and sewer as well as gas and electricity, have remained relatively steady at a 3-year average of $3.1 million. Costs in fiscal year 2026 were about $3.2 million, while 2027 is projected at just under $3.5 million. General maintenance costs were expected to remain steady at a $1.9 million average over three years.
As for school building maintenance projections for 2026-2027, $85,000 is projected for Coleytown Elementary School to replace an aging and obsolete ventilator as well as a failing sewer ejection pump.
Coleytown Elementary School
Saugatuck School and Bedford Middle School are both slated to receive a JACE main control system. The electronic system connects lighting, security and HVAC systems and provides advanced integration for smart buildings, managing systems, and enabling data visualization through a web browser. The total cost for installation in the 2 school buildings is estimated to be around $555,000.
Staples High School will get $50,000 of updates, including a new dehumidifier in the library for $10,000, and an epoxy floor installation in the field house pool hobby for $20,000.
Westport’s school board launched the 2026-27 budget season January 9. Superintendent of schools Thomas Scarise proposed a 5.48% increase over last year’s budget.
If adopted as presented, that would amount to just over an $8 million increase over the $150 million 2025-26 budget. The budget total represents $282,000 less than administrators requested last year. Most of those cuts were for books and equipment.
Among the notable items in the proposed budget:
- The district expects to enroll about 5,251 students next year.
- Health insurance costs for the district’s roughly 1,000 employees will increase by about 15%, from $22.5 million to about $25.9 million, nearly a 15 percent increase. This expenditure will keep the bottom-line increase to about two-and-a-quarter percent, as opposed to 3.24% without the increase.
- About $95,000 will be allocated for athletic uniforms for sports teams at Staples. In the past, parents or booster clubs generally bore these costs.
If all goes according to schedule, the Board of Ed will vote to approve the budget proposal later this month, or early February. The next 2 weeks of meetings will focus on specific questions that board members will want answered before the approval vote.
“There’s not really many changes to this budget,” said board chair Lee Goldstein.
The Board of Finance then has until late April to conduct workshops and make any changes, before the budget goes to the Representative Town Meeting for final adoption in May or June.
(“06880” — Westport’s hyper-local blog — covers the town budget process, from now through adoption this spring. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
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