Norwalk Schools' Budget Request Approaches $200 Million for 2017-18

NORWALK, CT — For the 2017-18 school year, Norwalk education officials are seeking $193.9 million to operate the city's school district, an increase of more than $17.7 million over the current year's expenditure.

Driving nearly half of the proposed increase is more than $8 million for a hike in district health care costs, which Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Adamowski, PhD, refers to as a "crisis."

"Unfortunately, an unprecedented increase in employee health insurance costs totaling $8.6 million, or 4.9 percent, overshadows the entire budget process of the School District and City," wrote Adamowski in a statement. "To place this increase in perspective, the additional cost is the equivalent of funding 86 current teaching positions."

The large increase in health insurance costs, he goes on to write, "is due to a spike in claim costs of approximately 16 percent, compounded by one-time reductions made to the Board’s appropriation for health insurance in FY 2016-17."

Those reductions were possible "because the District had previously accumulated a surplus in its Insurance Fund from favorable claims experience in prior years. These one-time reductions reduced the amount of money that the Board was required to deposit into the Insurance Fund in FY 2016-17, and in an agreement with the City they were used to fund the Special Education Development Fund for 2017-18."

To help address the exploding costs, Adamowski is proposing the district and city consider combining employee pools to become a self-insured entity; the city assume all employee health insurance costs; or the city, the district or both join the Connecticut Partnership Plan 2.0 for potential joint health care savings.

To view Adamowski's proposed 2017-18 budget request, click here.

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