Seymour Board outlines roughly $1.5 million in proposed cuts; music, STEM and student supplies affected

The Seymour Board of Education reviewed a package of proposed reductions to the district's 2025'26 budget during a public meeting, saying the adjustments total roughly $1.5 million and would reduce staff and programs across the district if local funding does not increase.

Meeting materials presented at the session showed cumulative reductions of $1,617,054 since the start of the budget process and a current set of cuts that the board said bring the district to about $1.5 million in reductions from the original budget. Those cuts include eliminating a middle-school science teacher position through attrition, reducing a shared music position between the high school and middle school, ending a middle-school French offering, and removing the district-provided student-supplies allotment.

The changes were described as driven by a failed budget referendum and subsequent reductions imposed at town meetings. "We have cut, cut, cut," said Dr. Compton, Seymour School District superintendent, describing repeated personnel and program reductions over recent years. Compton said the district is using a districtwide English-language-learners (ELL) teacher and repurposing staff as a temporary, "band-aid approach" to meet state ELL mandates while staffing levels fall.

Attorney Douglass, legal counsel to the board, told the meeting that the district must meet Connecticut's minimum budget requirement under Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-262 and that falling below minimum funding can trigger penalties to the district's Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant. "For every dollar you fall short of your MER, you lose $3 of ECS," Douglass said, as reported in the meeting. He added that the charter contains a provision about adopting a budget in the event of repeated referendum failures that meet debt and legal obligations, and that special-education and contractual obligations must be considered when determining a lawful budget.

Board members and staff explained specific program impacts: the middle-school STEM teacher position would be reallocated to a science classroom because of a retirement and resulting reallocation of personnel, a music teacher who splits time between buildings would be transferred to fill a vacancy elsewhere, and the district would stop supplying basic classroom materials such as crayons and notebooks to students (parents would receive school supply lists and be expected to provide items). Board member Kristin Bruno, who also identified herself as the district preschool coordinator and a special-education coordinator for Fairfield School District, said the preschool program has been enhanced but that additional cuts would force program staff to absorb more responsibilities.

Several board members urged community turnout for the next referendum and town meetings and described outreach steps taken earlier in the budget process. One board member summarized the recent referendum as roughly 465 yes votes to 748 no votes, as reported during the meeting; the board said it lacked detailed data on voters' reasons. Staff warned that further cuts could force fees for extracurriculars such as sports, reduce extracurricular offerings, limit facility availability on weekends and evenings to avoid custodial overtime, and put the district closer to only meeting statutory "minimum basic requirements."

Votes at a glance: the meeting referenced a recent budget referendum that rejected the proposed budget (tallies reported in the meeting: 465 yes, 748 no) and referred to a prior board vote to eliminate the middle-school French offering (the board said that elimination was previously approved and that it reduces costs by about $55,634). Dates and formal motion/second attributions for those votes were not specified in the meeting record.

The board did not adopt additional cuts at the meeting; members said the proposed list would be the plan going to voters if local funding levels are not restored. Attorney Douglass and district staff said they would continue to monitor legal obligations, ECS calculations and potential supplemental-appropriation options if the district faces a deficit at fiscal year end. The board scheduled the next budget referendum vote and encouraged absentee voting and community participation.