Residents Push Back on Town Council’s Proposed $300,000 Reduction to BOE Spending Plan

New Canaan residents took to the podium on Tuesday night to address the town’s legislative body, calling for its members to fully fund the Board of Education’s proposed spending plan for next fiscal year. 

Saying the New Canaan Public Schools team led by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi has a solid track record of responsible spending as well as academic excellence, parents, students and teacher representatives asked that the Town Council—the final municipal funding body to review and approve the fiscal year 2026 budget—approve a proposed Board of Ed operating budget of about $113.9 million. The figure represents a 4.4% increase over current spending. 

Those addressing the Town Council during a final public hearing on the budget asked that the elected body reject a proposed reduction of $300,000 to the Board of Ed’s spending request. In many cases, they pointed to two additional positions—an elementary school classroom coach and high school math interventionist—that district officials have said likely would be eliminated from next year’s plans if such a reduction went through.

One NCPS parent and professional educator, Palmer Metz, told the Town Council that she and her family “moved here for the schools.”

“I’ve always had full faith in the schools,” Metz said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “Dr. Luizzi has proven, to my mind, that the administration and the Board of Education developed a budget that is both fiscally sound and meets the needs of my children and their classmates. It is my understanding that this year the Town Council would like the Board of Education to cut the fiscal year 2025-26 budget by an additional $300,000. This would mean potentially cutting a new position of the high school math interventionist and an additional elementary classroom coach. The Board of Education unanimously voted at their January 21st meeting to add these two positions and I know that they’re very thorough whenever adding anything to their budget.”

Metz said she suspected that Board of Ed members did so because they know children, perhaps their own, who have benefited from the work of a math interventionist.

“This might be because they moved from another town that used a different math curriculum and they have gaps in their knowledge,” she said. “They might have had extenuating circumstances that caused a big gap in their learning earlier in their school careers. Or math just might be the subject that doesn’t come easily to them. But I think we all agree that we want all students who graduate from New Canaan High School to have a sound footing in their math abilities and that is the role that the math interventionist would fill.”

Addressing the position of classroom coach, another school parent, Meredith Tobitsch, noted that the school board “is continuously trying to innovate and be proactive about keeping our schools high-performing and by hiring this classroom coach to help these teachers, it gives them that support.”

“It gives them the ability to stay ahead of the curve,” Tobitsch said. “The classroom coach program proposed has already shown measurable impact by decreasing the transition times between lessons, which is leading to more instruction time for our students. The cuts that the Town Council is proposing would hinder us from providing our teachers with the professional support that they all need and deserve. In the end, I believe this would directly affect our students and their outcomes.”

The Town Council is scheduled to discuss and vote on a final budget for FY26 during a meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at Town Hall. 

On Tuesday, Town Council Chair Michael Mauro noted that he had already called for fellow members to propose any alterations to the budget passed along by the Boards of Selectmen and Finance, and that a $300,000 reduction to the Board of Ed was the only proposal. Preempting the kind of surprise that many in the community felt last year with last-minute reductions to the Board of Ed and New Canaan Library spending plans, Mauro said explicitly during the meeting that the library’s budget would not be altered.

Many of those who addressed the Town Council this week spoke in support of the library, too. 

Michael Telesco, a New Canaan High School junior, said the library opens “the doors of knowledge, culture and learning opportunities to every generation.”

“It is a safe and comfortable place for individuals and families to be, offering a range of resources that help create a sense of wellbeing for our residents,” he said. “As a child growing up in this town, the library was part of my everyday life. My sister and I spent hours there, reading, attending story time and music sessions, learning how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. In fact, if anyone knew me years ago, I practically lived in the library’s print space, where I spent so much time with the 3D printers that the librarians probably considered charging me rent. But most importantly, I was discovering new interests along the way—new passions, new curiosities. Things that, as I reflect upon them now, shape the way I think today.”

Noting that he himself also has organized family activities at the library, helping kids “learn about their creativity,” Telesco added: “Cutting back on the library budget would directly impact its ability to deliver such programs and thus, those opportunities for all of us kids. Our library is more than just books. It is local education and social relationships. I urge you all to think about how much value the library brings when considering budget choices.”

Here are more excerpts from comments made by some of those who addressed the Town Council with respect to the Board of Ed:

• Karen Willett: “While rising headcount, I think, is obviously worth scrutinizing, I’m satisfied that this budget has been questioned and scrutinized by the members of the Board of Education over several months. And some of those guys have a deeper understanding of our schools than probably anyone in town—including, I think, an understanding of what the taxpayers expect. And all of them have agreed that this year’s proposed headcount is important. So in my view, these new positions are a good illustration of why we all live here in New Canaan and we want to live in a town like this, where residents are willing to fully fund what is necessary to send our kids to one of the best school districts in the country. Because a well-resourced system gives us the ability to continuously improve things and not just do the same thing every year. So as residents, I think we expect Dr. Luizzi and his team to always be identifying areas that can be improved. And then piloting evidence-based solutions to any problem that he sees. And then he comes to us, the taxpayers, and asks us to fund the successful solutions. And that’s what he’s done in this case.”
• Tim Klimpl: “It seems to have been established that the amount under debate is not enough to make a meaningful difference to taxpayers. Yet it will reduce the funds available to the district to execute its programs that have delivered us the top schools in the state. Based on that data that have been discussed around ‘returned funds,’ this reduction would also put the schools at needless risk for having to come back to town government for special appropriation, which might sound simple in concept but would assuredly not be a good look for anyone, and certainly not for New Canaan. As you have seen and heard, our public schools are a major attraction for our town, if not the primary attraction. They are our economic engine, our competitive advantage and the crown jewel of our community. They are the reason why families have and continue to live here, and compared with rising costs, you’ve seen that the school district has fantastically delivered and earned your trust. I heard it said here that from the taxpayers’ perspective, the more money that comes out of this budget, the better. From a property owner’s perspective, that is not true. As an investor in New Canaan’s future, it is not true. As a member of this community, it’s not true. In the eyes of our valued educators, of course that is not the case. As the Council weighs its decision about a further reduction, I think it’s important to step back and ask yourselves: Is this what people want? Gauging from public feedback, I believe the clear answer is ‘No.’ ”
• Phil Hogan: “Last Thursday’s Town Council discussion on the time value of money was a fascinating one. Taxpayer money in the right places at exactly the right time is a seductive idea, a principled idea, and if the special appropriation process was as simple as Dr. Luizzi calling up [First Selectman] Dionna [Carlson], [Board of Finance Chair] Todd Lavieri and Mike [Mauro] and saying, ‘We need another $300,000,’ I would be willing to vote alongside you guys. But it’s not a simple process. It’s a complicated one, and more problematically, it’s a noisy one. And it starts with a terrible and misleading premise, that the crown jewel of our town, the schools, have mismanaged our funds. Now I know all of us here know that will not be true, but the lion’s share of people who don’t pay attention to this stuff, won’t. And I can see those terrible headlines … downstream from those headlines, where do individual Board of Ed members go to get their personal reputations back? How about Dr. Luizzi? Can anyone tell me what the career prospects are for a superintendent who mismanaged funds? What about all the families who are considering moving to New Canaan and see that negative headline? Do you think they might reconsider and move somewhere else? What happens to property values if the pipeline of people who want to move here dries up? How will you explain to taxpayers that you saved them 10 or 20 bucks one year but took their property values down 10 or 20%? The fact of the matter is, we’re in ‘blood from a stone’ territory in purchased services, transportation and just about every other bucket in this budget. We can change assumptions regarding turnover savings for the ISF health account but that too is a risky proposition. Those assumptions could very well be wrong, leaving Dr. Luizzi and the Board scrambling at year-end. Cutting the budget and going down this path only makes sense if it leads to a materially better result for taxpayers and families. Not only will that not be the case here, but the collective risk this elected body is taking with the town’s schools and its sterling reputation is incalculable. Any marginal gains derived from this cut pale in comparison to the amount of long-term damage that can be done to this town’s reputation.”

Lauren Connolly Nussbaum in addressing the legislative body identified herself as a 13-year town resident with a child in each level of New Canaan Public Schools, including her youngest, Grace, who is an autistic person.

“I call Grace ‘Amazing Grace’ and there are many reasons that I call her that,” Connolly Nussbaum said. “A lot of those reasons are sitting behind me right now: teachers and administrators of the New Canaan Public Schools system. So lest you think I’m just here to pull on your heartstrings, you are wrong. I have attended or watched nearly every meeting of the New Canaan Board of Education in this ‘24-’25 cycle. I have followed the budget closely. I have watched our terrific Board of Ed members go back into committee and talk and discuss and question the budget that Superintendent Luizzi put forward. I have watched them in live time, and in between meetings I’ve had wonderful discussions with some of them, and I’ve heard how they have gone piece-by-piece and line-by-line, and how they were able to cut somewhere in the order of $125,000 from their capital projects budget, which was remarkable. They were able to find ways to make this budget as lean as they possibly could while still delivering a remarkable product.”

Connolly Nussbaum said that when their daughter was diagnosed as being an autistic person eight years ago, she and her husband, Matt, “didn’t know what to do.”

“What was our next move?” she said. “And that was when New Canaan Public Schools stepped in, and they lit a path. The people behind me light the path for the future of our town, so I’m asking you tonight—and I’m going to borrow the words of a former chairwoman of our Board of Education, a person I admire deeply—who said, ‘It is vital that we lead forward.’ I ask you tonight to lead forward by approving the Board of Education’s budget in full and without reduction.”

Mauro, in leading the Town Council’s own discussion of the Board of Ed budget, noted that all members of the group value the town and respect the work of its administrators, teachers, faculty and staff.

“We are a small community,” Mauro said. “We do respect each other. We do disagree. On this panel, I don’t know, you may not be able to know who the Republicans and the Democrats are. And I think in a nation where everyone is kind of at each other’s throats in that regard, [Town Council member] Hilary [Ormond] and I, we disagree on a lot of things, and I think the world of her. We’re very cordial and professional with each other. We disagree, but that’s OK.”

Mauro added that, in his view, the outstanding performance of the NCPS students must be attributed in part to actively involved parents doing a good job at home.

“A major component of performance rests with the parents and the home, and that’s an unquantifiable measure or data point about how much that impacts a student’s outcome,” he said. “And I think that gets lost in the discussion about the strength of the schools’ performance here.”

Council member Eric Thunem noted that district officials have said the Board of Education over the past 10 years has returned nearly $7 million in unused budget to the town. Removing three outlier years in that decade, the unused funds come to about $500,000 per year, Thunem said. He added that the Board of Finance had sought to bring the district’s spending increase under 4% but wasn’t able to, and projected out what a 4.4% annual increase would mean in 10 years of such a rate sustained (it would up taxes by about $13,000 per household). 

“There are a lot of numbers that we have to consider,” Thunem said. “We were elected and we are the town body that is responsible for ordinances and for appropriations. We are responsible for spending the taxpayers’ dollars in the best way possible, and I hear from a lot of other constituents and taxpayers—other than the ones who have passionately pleaded with us not to do anything at this point—so I hear from a lot of people. And I have looked at the numbers, I would suggest, more deeply than many of the peo-le who have pleaded passionately, and I respect and understand your position. I’m asking you to understand ours, which is to protect and be responsible for the taxpayer spending. That’s what we are trying to do. We are trying to continue the suggestion proffered by the Board of Finance to get closer in line to a 3% or 4% increase. But we’re not even coming up to that yet. We’re trying to move in that direction with this consideration and this proposal.”

In response, Council member Janet Fonss questioned whether it was appropriate to compare the Board of Ed budget to the other municipal departments.

“The Board of Ed, that’s our crown jewel,” she said. “That’s what we’re investing in. And we see that they’ve managed to increase their costs at a lower rate than inflation. So I’m not sure if that’s the correct measurement to look at, that we need to increase it at the same rate as the rest of the town. We need to be investing in our schools.”

Referring to Thunem’s projections from sustaining a 4.4% growth rate over time, Ormond said that any conversation about a 10-year outlook “needs to happen outside of a budget request for next year.” Ormond added that she’s received just one comment from a constituent seeking to reduce the Board of Ed’s spending request for next fiscal year.

Luizzi said during the meeting that the Board of Ed doesn’t build in a “cushion” when it puts together a proposed budget. 

Council member Rita Bettino noted that last year she supported a reduction to the Board of Ed spending plan because of increases to fixed costs in headcount amid rising inflation.

Citing an analysis shared by Board of Ed member Brendan Hayes, Bettino said that when considering the unused funds returned to the town over the past decade, the district’s spending truly has not grown beyond the rate of inflation.

“In a time when trust in institutions is being challenged at the federal level, I really believe it’s super important to demonstrate confidence in the local leaders who have shown fiscal discipline year-after-year,” she said.

Town Council member Tom Butterworth underscored Ormond’s comment regarding a 10-year outlook, saying it doesn’t make sense to break out a single year with a proposed 4%-plus increase when the Board of Ed has no such track record over any 10-year timespan. He added that it doesn’t make sense for the Town Council to view its job as holding the Board of Ed to a finance board guideline when the finance board itself has already approved the operating budget with the 4.4% increase.

“They accepted and approved the budget,” Butterworth said. “They didn’t deny it. They approved it. It’s not our job to be motivated by what the Board of Finance’s opening position was in their negotiations. That’s kind of silly.” 

Butterworth said the upshot of the $300,000 reduction is “cutting core services” in the schools. 

“It’s one thing to have a philosophy that says, ‘Find administrative savings,’ but the important thing is to focus on who actually does the budget. It’s the people in this room. They [district officials] are not going to take $300,000 and put it over here and say, ‘Find administrative savings.’ That’s not the way it works. What they’re really going to do is what they say they’re going to do, which is cut these two positions. And one of the reasons it is credible they would do that is it’s consistent with what they’ve always said the way they run their business is that it’s much easier to remove from the budget somebody who has not been hired yet than to cut people who are already on the budget. It’s easier to remove a program that doesn’t exist yet than it is to remove one that doesn’t exist. So I take this idea that we’re cutting core services here very seriously.”