Submitted by Doug Fenton, Riverside
As a financial analyst, parent, and member of the RTM’s Budget Oversight Committee, I have spent several months analyzing Greenwich Public Schools: enrollment trends, staffing, contractual obligations, grant funding, and the overall budget. Based on my work, I strongly believe that the BET should fully fund the BOE’s approved operating budget.
Last year, a bipartisan majority of the BET funded the BOE’s approved budget, a decision applauded by much of the Greenwich community that has paid dividends in our schools this year. In December, the BOE approved its FY ’26 budget on a 7-1 vote, with the Republican BOE Budget Chair stating “Of the four budgets that I’ve been involved with, this is probably the most straightforward and least controversial one.” However, the Greenwich Sentinel reported last week that BET Chair Harry “Fisher said Republicans on the BET plan to push for additional reductions, particularly in the Board of Education budget, though he declined to specify an amount.”
Recently, the BOE provided an update that Kindergarten pre-enrollment is running well ahead of its initial forecast, writing “it appears that kindergarten will be the largest class we have seen in a decade at around 700+/- kids”. This reflects the rising local birth rate post COVID and the continued bump from families that moved into Greenwich during the high housing turnover of 2021-2022. All else equal, this suggests that district-wide enrollment should grow next year, particularly in our K-5 schools.
Even if the BOE budget is fully funded, the total number of K-12 General Education teachers will have been reduced by 30 (~4.3%) since the 2022-23 school year, a combination of proactive cuts by the BOE and a reduction in Title I and other grant funded positions. In the approved budget, our GenEd student / teacher ratios are expected to rise again next year, with K-5 classrooms having their largest average class size since 2019.
Greenwich Schools already run relatively efficiently. Compared to Darien, New Canaan, and Westport, we already have fewer total staff per student. Greenwich also has fewer administrators per student and fewer paraprofessionals per student than these districts. While Greenwich currently has a comparable number of certified teachers per student to these districts, a meaningful cut to the BOE approved budget would put us behind peers in this metric as well.
Special education is the one area of GPS that has seen meaningful headcount growth, a reflection of the rising prevalence and/or identification of children with special needs. This is particularly acute for pre-K, where Federal Mandates require Greenwich to provide services for our growing 3-5 year old SPED population. It is important to note that a Pre-K classroom has much higher staffing intensity, with 3 staff per classroom (1 teacher and ~2 paraprofessionals) vs a K-5 classroom with just 1.
In January, I presented my findings to the RTM Budget Oversight Committee. In addition to the points above, my conclusion was that the BET Guideline for our School budget understated contractual cost increases and grant funding reductions. Thus, a material cut to the BOE budget would require a meaningful reduction in programs and teachers that is unwarranted by modest changes in enrollment.
According to Connecticut’s District Performance Index (DPI) data, Greenwich students perform well. GPS is one of a small number of comparable districts with a higher average DPI across subjects than pre-pandemic, and our students continued to see academic growth over the past school year. Please do not put these outcomes at risk. I ask the BET to again invest responsibly in our children and schools and fully fund the BOE’s operating budget.
Thank you,
Doug Fenton
Riverside
PS: There will be a public hearing on the School Budget on March 26th (7:00pm) at Central Middle School. Alternatively, contact information for the BET can be found here.