Fairfield, Conn., March 4, 2025—During the Board of Selectmen’s (BOS) Deliberative Budget Session on March 3, the Board voted to restore $2 million to Fairfield’s Public School budget.
The Board of Education (BOE) had initially requested a 6.7 percent increase, one of the highest in the region and in Fairfield’s past two decades. While 4.45 percent of the increase was attributed to necessary teacher and paraeducator salary adjustments, concerns arose due to minimal grand list growth of only 0.24 percent. This meant that much of the increase would lead to higher property taxes.
Selectman Christine Vitale made a motion to restore $2 million in funding, which was seconded by First Selectman Bill Gerber. Gerber’s administration had been actively seeking revenue opportunities and expense reductions to support school funding since early January, when Superintendent Michael Testani first proposed the increase. Both Gerber and Vitale emphasized the potential for cost savings through shared services between the Town and school administration, which could be explored further in the future.
Vitale stated, “The school budget is driven by the needs of the children and how many children are in our schools. If there can be a cost savings in buses or transporting children that can then be applied to resources to better educate children, I think we should look at them.” She added that shared Town and school services could be a viable cost-saving measure if both administrations commit to finding efficiencies.
First Selectman Gerber expressed his discomfort with the original $3.9 million in cuts, acknowledging the financial strain on the town. “Providing an excellent education for our children is always one of my top priorities, and compensation for our teachers is not in question,” he said. However, he emphasized the need for the BOE to make well-considered budget decisions, given that affordability remains a concern for many families in town.
The BOS restored the $2 million through offsets in the overall Town budget, including:
- Moving $928k in maintenance projects to the Capital Plan for bonding
- Adding $1.1 million to the drawdown to the Active Employee Benefits Fund
- Adjusting the reserve from uncollected taxes to $3.35 million by increasing the collection rate to 99.01 percent
- Raising the supplemental motor vehicle assessment assumption from $112 million to $113 million
- Increasing the grand list projection by $32 million, which, with motor vehicle depreciation adjustments, added $921k in revenue
Several small increases totaling $195k were also made to the budget, covering private school transportation, police department expenses, and costs related to the town’s 175th Independence Day celebration, marina software, and Emergency Operating Center expenses.
The BOS approved the total budget of $381,964,286 by a 2:1 vote, with Gerber and Vitale in favor. The decision reduces the Board of Education’s budget cuts to $1.9 million.