Weston previews FY26 budget changes after health-insurance uncertainty and lower special-education reimbursement

The Weston Board of Education heard a budget update Tuesday that narrows its proposed FY26 spending increase after staff factored in alternative health-insurance scenarios and a lower-than-expected state reimbursement for special-education costs.

District finance staff told the board the budget request could fall by about $782,000 — from a 4.75% increase to approximately 3.43% — if the district were to move to the state partnership health plan and adopt several internal savings assumptions. That change would be driven largely by comparing the state partnership plan with other vendor projections and by a projected drop in excess-cost reimbursement from 68% to 59%.

Phil Cross, the district staff member who presented the figures, said the district ran comparisons using three escalation scenarios for premiums, including a 9.99% increase as a more favorable case. Using known rates for the state partnership plan, he said, the district would reduce its initial request by roughly $792,000. Cross also noted that retiree premiums under the state partnership plan would be higher, increasing the district’s request to the OPEB trust from $248,000 to $497,000 — an item that would require board-of-finance approval.

Cross described two additional offsets: raising the assumed savings from turnover and Family Medical Leave (FML) and changes to the projection for excess-cost reimbursement. He said the board is proposing to increase turnover and FML savings by $200,000 (to a total offset of $375,000) based on recent years’ experience, when turnover/FML produced $340,000 (FY23) and $389,000 (FY24) in net savings. He also said the preliminary state estimate for excess-cost reimbursement — which helps pay for special-education services — has moved to about 59% from a historical average near 68%, adding about $210,000 to the district’s FY26 obligations.

Taken together, Cross said, those three items reduce the district’s requested increase by about 1.32 percentage points. He cautioned the board that the outlook remains uncertain until March, when vendor bids and state guidance are clearer, and that Brown & Brown (the district’s broker) and competing insurers such as Cigna may still provide different rates that could change the final decision.

Board members asked whether moving to the state partnership plan could produce short-term savings but negative outcomes later; Cross said the state-partnership numbers are known today and were used as a “worst-case” cost comparison, not as a firm recommendation. Tracy (staff member) confirmed the excess-cost percentage is revisited annually and has varied significantly over the last decade.

Cross and board members said the goal of current adjustments is to present a more informative set of figures for the public forum and the board vote next week. The board also asked staff to provide updated capital estimates before the Thursday public forum so residents can comment with some cost context.

Board members and staff emphasized that, at the projected 3.43% increase, the district has not proposed reductions that would affect classroom instruction.

Cross concluded that work will continue in the coming weeks; the board is scheduled to vote on the operating and capital budgets at its next meeting.