On Tuesday night’s BET Budget Committee hearing First Selectman Fred Camillo unveiled his $523 million proposed 2026 town, followed by Greenwich Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones’ $201 million budget.
Unlike years in the past, there didn’t seem to be any surprises or angry residents. The room wasn’t even full, although there was the option to watch on cable TV or via GCTV Youtube live, which had about 70 viewers during in the presentation.
Mr. Camillo included proposed funding for renovating the 91-year old Riverside School, good news for the crowd of parents sporting red shirts for the school mascot, the Red Hawk.
The one surprise of the night might have been the average annual cost for the district to outplace a special education student: $168,000.

The BET budget committee – David Weisbrod, Leslie Tarkington, Leslie Moriarty, and Harry Fisher – listened to a resident detail an incident on Shore Road in Old Greenwich where her husband, an experienced runner, was hit and badly injured by a car. Jan 28, 2025

First Selectman Fred Camillo unveiled his proposed FY 2026 capital and operating budget. Jan 28, 2025
The BET guidelines for FY26 included:
• Capital projects at $50 million in FY26
• Capital projects at $350 million for FY26-30
• Mill Rate increase of 3.95%
Estimated Budget Increases without benefits:
– 2.96% for Board of Education
– 2.93% for Town
Camillo said his proposal meant a 4.4% increase for capital spending – $400 million over the next five years.
He said it was difficult to meet guidelines, because although he said the guidelines were fair, when there is a single $50 million project, other items need to “be arranged.”
He said the proposed FY26 capital plan includes:
• Investments in the town’s infrastructure:
– Annual paving ($3.5 million)
– Highway maintenance ($2.0 million)
– Stormwater drainage ($750,000)
• Public Safety Complex Garage Coating construction costs ($1.35 million).
(Deck coating is at the end of its life. Also includes new coating and replacement of deteriorated metal exterior stairwell.)
• Shore Road Sidewalk phase 2 ($1.25 million) (phase 1 was $750,000)
• Greenwich Fire Dept breathing apparatus ($1.2 million)
• Leaf Blowers ($600,000)
– breaks down to $400K for Parks & Rec and $200,000 for DPW
• Replacement of Town telephone system ($550,000)
• Multiple ongoing ADA Compliance projects
School Renovation Projects
• Julian Curtiss School ($2.6 million)
– FY 22-24 $1 million for front entrance ADA compliance
– FY 26 = $2.61 million
– funding to renovate the current undersized cafeteria
– A&E fees: $156,000
• Hamilton Ave School Parking Structure ($2.0 million)
– funding for repairs of the parking structure including the upper-level lot and lower level garage. Includes topping slab and membrane removal and replacement.
• Riverside School ($2.0 million)
– funding for architectural and engineering work
– FY27 = $48 million for Construction
Camillo included a request for funding in FY26 of $950,000 for design work for a project at Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, where today there is a DPW building right on the harbor’s waterfront.
He said it would cost $950 for design and $10 million to relocate the Parks & Trees operation from that DPW building away from the waterfront to the transfer station, which needs to reconfigured anyway, and create a new park gateway, with new green spaces and walking paths.
Camillo, who has proposed this idea in the past, only to get turned down, said there were three foundations offering to help fund the park upgrades and that it was a shame to have lowboy trailers and pickup trucks parked on the water.
He also proposed $1.5 million in FY26 for Greenwich Cove channel dredging, noting the silt decreases the average depths to about 4.5 ft at low tide. The funding would remove and dispose of approximately 20,560 cubic yards of sediment.
“Greenwich Cove is one of our greatest assets,” he said. “We have to keep up with it. There are a lot of permits that are going to expire soon. We’re going to have to re-apply for them, which makes the cost of this considerably more expensive.”
He proposes funding for interior upgrades of the Wallace Center (senior center), where private funding from Mary Louise Wallace’s estate went to rehabbing the ground and first floor restrooms and activity rooms, admin offices, outside ADA access ramp and both a new kitchen and dining room.
He said the building once served as town hall and at one point featured both a jail and a courtroom.
At the Wallace Center, Camillo proposes FY25-27 $2.89 million for the remaining interior renovation and infrastructure upgrades including a chiller replacement.
He said another significant donation from a family was in the works for some of the interior as well as courtyards.
Headcount
Camillo said the FY 25 budget had proposed eliminating 6 existing positions, adding 2 new ones, including a Grants Manager. And while the cuts were accepted, the two new positions were not.
This year he asked for funding to hire a grants coordinator as a consultant rather than a full employee.
Also, he proposed to take two part-time positions – P&Z and Wetlands – and making them full time in order for them to make local inspections.
“We want them out in the field,” he said. “That provides more services to the town and more revenue to the town.”
Camillo said the mill rate would increase from 12.175 to 12.262, for an increase of 0.087, and that a homeowner with a $1 M assessed home value would see a $550 increase in annual property taxes.
Greenwich Public Schools
Dr. Jones said district enrollment was 8,513 students, which was “relatively flat” viewed in the course of 20 years.
“We’re not seeing huge swings,” she said. “Our largest number was 54 years ago, in 1970, with 11,000+ students.”
“Our projection is that elementary (enrollment) will slightly go up. High school will slightly go down,” she said. “We have some larger graduating classes of 700, now they’re 650 or 640, but as a system, relatively flat over the next 10 years.”
Students qualifying for free and reduced lunch benefits are 16.8%, down from 19.6%, but the district continues to collect application forms throughout the year.
Jones said pre-school, which is mandated by federal law for children with special needs, has tripled enrollment in the past three years.
The number of students with special needs has continued to climb with the bulk of them coming in the past 3 years.
Jones said there was an action plan to keep students in the GPS schools.
“We’ve been working really hard about how to contain the cost for outplacement and still doing what’s right for families and children,” Jones said.
Jones said special education out-placement averages $168,000 per student per year.
In 21-22, the total SPED population percentage outplaced at a school outside Greenwich Public Schools was about 7%.
This current this year, 24-25, that has fallen to 2.5%.
“If we were still running at 7% we could expect to see approximately 60 more students, or $10 million,” Jones said. “We have a lot of people working very hard on this issue, including the BOE in supporting us as we’re building programs for our children to be able to stay in the district, which is wonderful families and children to be in the same school with your siblings.”
Full Time Equivalents
Jones said in special education, head count had increased 28.9 full time equivalent staff members, and in general education, head count had decreased 21 positions in K-12 since 2023, along with a slight decrease in enrollment.
“Special education is required by law – these are speech teachers, psychologists, regular teachers for special education – we have to monitor our case loads, these are required positions,” Jones said.
As for the decreased headcount in K-12 general education, she said, “We’re okay with that. We were a little lower in elementary school – maybe you didn’t need a third grade teacher, so when somebody retired, we didn’t replace that person because it wasn’t retired.”
“What you’re seeing is special education is going up – that’s why you’re not seeing huge drops in our FTE, even though enrollment is slightly going down.”
Jones said the district had reduced 18 classrooms since 2016.
Budget Expense
Overall Jones proposed a $201 Million budget, reflecting a 4.4% increase.
“We are a people business, and 76% of budget is salaries,” she said. “Where do our dollars go for salaries go? 92% is right in the classroom where it should be, working with children; 5% is custodial and maintenance and our administration is 2.6%. That is very low for administrative overhead cost.”
Transportation breaks down as follows: 48% is for General GPS transportation, 29% for special education preschool and 15% for private school (providing buses for private school is required by law).
Dr. Jones explained the 4.4% budget increase being requested reflected wages, transportation, special education and “new investments.” A new investment would be, for example, adding a new pre-school.
Budget Gap
She said there was as “budget gap” that reflected two areas: Title I and American Rescue Plan.
She explained the ARP was one-time rescue grant funding during Covid. She said last year the board opted to utilize the last of that grant money to “zero out” the curriculum line.
“But as you can imagine, that line must go back in the budget this school year,” she said.
“Title I was an unanticipated reduction – $620,000 – that has to do with the federal government. Census data in Greenwich is showing that when we look at the age range of children in Greenwich, they are coming from homes where the income is actually going up. Our poverty rate in Greenwich is dropping. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the public schools, because they look at all the children that come from all of Greenwich – public and private – that’s how they calculate the amount of the Title I grant.”
Jones said if the district tried to meet the 2.96% guideline, the budget would need to be decreased just over $4 million.
“We’re a people business,” Jones said. “It’s 40-45 positions across the district. And many of the positions are required by federal law.”
Capital Projects
Jones said capital projects that take multiple years to complete; the challenge is the short window of opportunity where children are not in school.
She listed five major projects: ADA compliance at WMS, Julian Curtiss School cafeteria and kitchen, Riverside School design funds, phase 2 of the cellular project at GHS (split over two years) and A&E for second egress at Cardinal stadium.
Public Comment

John Fisher, the president of the school district’s Parent Teacher Association Council,
John Fisher, PTAC president, commented on $4.1 million BOE shortfall.
“The carefully constructed BOE operating budget is what’s needed to deliver quality education,” Fisher said. “There’s no fat, no margin, no buffer, no sandbagging. All the members of the BOE together could not find even $500,000 in excess costs.”
“The guidelines suggest that the decline in enrollment might somehow translate into a reduction of 12 teaching FTE’s. We all know it doesn’t work that way,” he said. “The enrollment decline is spread over 15 schools. It didn’t happen in a neat little cluster.”
“We’ve heard suggestions to close Parkway, but we all know it doesn’t work that way. Parkway students and teachers would have to go to schools that are already at or near capacity.”
During the public hearing, Janet Stone McGuigan said it was difficult to comment on a budget that wasn’t available to the public in advance.
Budget Committee chair Leslie Tarkington agreed, and said her committee would have liked to have seen the proposed budgets in advance as well.
Teacher Union president (GEA) Lil Perrone talked about “human capital.”
“I call them human beings,” she said, going on to urge avoiding cuts to teaching positions.
“Let me give you some names and faces to what a $4 million cut means,” she said. “Did you know that in some cases we have only one applicant applying for jobs.”
“Teachers are leaving Greenwich, especially in our Special Education and Student Supports Dept, our staff, our SLPs, our psychologists. Our SPED staff are leaving. Greenwich can’t keep or hire paras or subs.”
She said often once they’re hired, paras and subs leave because the pay is higher in Stamford, for example.
Drainage
Tim Busler said he was concerned about drainage in the area around the North Street bridge where a project is in the works.
“The town is expecting a proper bridge, but we’re really being delivered a dam,” he said. “They are reconstructing to the same parameters that came to exist because years of increased water flow under that bridge caused those footings to be damaged and rendered that ‘Critical’ when inspected by CT Dept of Transportation four years ago. In four years we’ve accomplished nothing.”
Mr. Busler asked the budget committee to hold DPW accountable and move beyond continued flood studies to address incremental improvements both below and above the North Street bridge.
He said DPW had studied the area and had incremental plans that included Echo Lane and surrounding streets that flood.
“But they’re not moving on them,” he said, adding that residents don’t even know what the bridge will look like because DPW hasn’t released their engineering design plan.
Sustainability
Ms Stone McGuigan said, “Tonight you’ll hear Greenwich needs to be sustainable in a wide range of areas: climate resiliency, renewable energy and efficiency, storm water drainage, a hardened Grass Island, a re-thought Holly Hill and reduced waste stream, protected open spaces and water resources, sustainable landscaping practices, and better traffic and pedestrian safety.”
She said while Greenwich enjoyed a low mill rate, investing in sustainability would help keep that rate low over the long run.
Julie DesChamps of Waste Free Greenwich elaborated on the town’s waste management system, noting that the disposal capacity was shrinking and investments to waste infrastructure and commitments to zero-waste strategies were necessary now.”
“Forty-two percent of waste is now exported out of state, and costs are projected to rise exponentially. During the last fiscal year in Greenwich recycling rates dropped, while trash tonnages reached an all time high. Cost of waste disposal rose too, the town’s tipping fee included.”
“We should expect more hits to our wallets when the incinerator in Peekskill, NY, where Greenwich burns its trash, closes in just 4 years,” she said. “What’s the town’s plan?”
Riverside School
Riverside School PTA member Betsy McIntyre said the renovation proposal at that school was not about “luxury,” but rather to bring the school up to par.
She said the school had some of the smallest classrooms in the district, averaging 738 sq ft, significantly below the state standard of 850 sq ft for grades 1-5 and and 1100 sq ft for kindergarten.
“In fact, 85% of all of our classrooms, and 100% of grade 3-5 classrooms fall below this state standard,” she continued, adding that the proposed renovation plan would reduce the number of classrooms that fall below the state standard to just 30%.
“This is a reasonable, not excessive, outcome for our school,” McIntyre said.
Further she said, “Riverside has the smallest K-5 cafeteria and kitchen in the district on a sq ft per student basis. These limitations can make lunchtime feel chaotic, exacerbating behavior issues and leaving students with 10 minutes or less to sit and eat their meal.”
Kathryn Bergin Morgan talked about the importance of the renovation to the special education program. Today she said two special education teachers are forced to share a classroom.’
“Two groups of students working on different strategies in the same space at the same time. It is a less than ideal environment. One teacher is even stationed in the media center behind a partition,” she said.
Also, she said the school urgently needed a sensory room where a dysregulated child can be safely removed from a class to collect themselves in a private space.
“Many of our students have moments they need to express their emotions or calm down, but currently they do so in the hallways or other spaces.”
Caitlin Wardell said last year her third grade daughter was in a dangerous classroom situation, dangerous enough that they had to be evacuated at least seven times from their classroom and learning time to avoid the threat of physical harm from a dysregulated child, being repeatedly displaced to the hallway, media center, other side of the room, or wherever else those 19 kids were sent was highly disruptive from both an educational and emotional standpoint.”
Riverside School principal Jason Martin emphasized the urgency of moving forward with proposed renovations.
“Our building forces constant compromises. These compromises effect every aspect of our school, from teaching practices to students’ experiences, and even our ability to present ourselves as a top education choice in Greenwich,” he said.
“When I tour perspective families through the school, I can see the compromises they make in their minds as they compare us to other options. In a neighborhood like Riverside, where families have choices, I want Riverside to stand out as the clear unquestionable choice.”
Electric Leaf Blower Equipment
Svetlana Wasserman from Quiet Yards Greenwich urged approval by the BET of ($600,000 proposed) funding to be in compliance with the town’s noise ordinance, which prohibits the use of gas leaf blowers in the summer months.
“Last year the RTM voted resoundingly with 81% in favor of adopting a summer moratorium on the use of gas leaf blowers. Parks & Rec and DPW will need to purchase new equipment to comply with the law.”
Sidewalks on Shore Rd – Phase 2
Several people urged approval of $1.2 in funding for phase 2 of sidewalks on Shore Road in Old Greenwich.
Kristen Beecher, who was active in advocating for phase 1 said, “Shore Road is and always will be a heavily traveled pedestrian and traffic route because it leads to Tod’s Point –a treasured town park frequented by our entire community. In fact, a half million people go to Tod’s Point just in the summer alone, but the lack of sidewalk puts countless lives at risk, especially to Greenwich’s children. There are 26 bus stops on that stretch of road.”
Dr. Marcie Molloy, primary care physician, said the lack of sidewalks on Shore Rd to Tod’s Point was a major safety issue.
She shared enlarged photos of her husband after he was hit and badly injured while running on Shore Road including injuries to his hips and knees, as well as a severe concussion.
“The construction of sidewalks on Tod’s Point is absolutely less costly than a lawsuit. More importantly, preventing a high morbidity and mortality accident is just the right thing to do.”
See also:
OGA Annual Meeting Highlights Park Protection, DPW Projects, OG School, I-95 Noise
Candace Garthwaite Honored for Advocacy for Preservation in Old Greenwich