By James Lomuscio
With laurels of praise for the Board of Education, Westport’s Board of Finance tonight unanimously approved a $111,471,756 proposed school operating budget, a 2.08 percent increase, for the 2015-16 academic year.
Finance board member after finance board member lauded the school board and the administration, plus the entire budget process. Each said the school board had incorporated Board of Finance input making it fiscally sound and transparent.
“This is the best of the four budgets I’ve seen in my time on the board,’ said John Pincavage, finance board chairman.
“A lot of lessons were learned and learned well,” he added, referring to last year’s budget bungles on health insurance benefits. “So, I feel very good about this.’
Finance board members Janis Collins and Jennifer Tooker agreed, both praising Elio Longo, school business administrator.
“I want to thank the Board of Education, Elio and the PTAs that took a leadership role in educating us about the priorities,” Collins said.
“What I applaud very much is the process,’ said Tooker, a former Board of Education member. “It was so much more transparent than we probably have ever seen. Our confidence was restored.”
Even Tom Lasersohn and Michael Rea, who both said they had some concerns with the budget, praised it and the process overall.
“You’ve presented a fine budget,” said Rea, noting he was pleased the school board was focusing on facilities maintenance that had been deferred in past years. Rea was head of the Bedford Middle School Building Committee 15 years ago and is well versed in school maintenance issues.
Lasersohn, for one, expressed concern that personnel “head count was going up with enrollment going down.” Still, he had only good things to say about the budget process.
“This is my fifth budget, and this is unprecedented,” he said.
Finance board member Brian Stern agreed, saying both sides were not involved “in a game of chicken.”
“The (school) board and everyone else involved listened to us,” Stern said.
