Trumbull schools brace for rising health care, utility costs in 2026-27 budget

Dec. 15—TRUMBULL — When it comes to the school district's 2026-27 budget, Superintendent Martin Semmel said he has some "significant concerns" about rising costs.

In particular, Semmel told the Board of Education during its Tuesday night meeting that utility and staff health insurance costs are expected to increase next year, which in turn will impact what he proposes as the 2026-27 budget.

When it comes to health care coverage, Semmel said that rates for the Connecticut Partnership Plan 2.0 is increasing for Trumbull Public Schools between 13 and 15%. Some district employees, including teachers, are under this plan by contract. According to its website, the Partnership Plan is a low/no-deductible health coverage plan for non-state public employees who work for boards of education, public libraries, municipalities and quasi-public agencies.

Semmel said that due to the increased health insurance rates, the district may need to include an additional $2.5 million or more to the budget.

"That's an increase that we get really nothing additional for, but it's a lot of money," he said, adding that the district is planning for the maximum increase "because we don't want to be surprised to the negative."

For utility costs, Semmel explained in a recent newsletter to families that the increase in their own utility bills similarly impacts schools "in a significant way."

At the meeting, he told the members that for Trumbull, a lot of this has to do with the fact that many of the school buildings are on the older side, "which means they're drafty and they're less efficient, so we spend more on utilities than, say, an efficient building would be spending," Semmel said.

Semmel did not respond to a request for additional comments.

School budget priorities

In the newsletter to families, Semmel wrote that he hopes to address three issues in the 2026-27 budget.

First, he said, some district school buses are jam-packed with students and many Trumbull families have reached out about this.

Last month, Semmel told the school board that he intends to fix this and has two proposed ways to do so. One way would be adding two school buses to the district's fleet, which would cost around $200,000. The other would be by redoing the district's busing schedule, which Trumbull Public Schools paid a transportation consultant $24,000 to look into. The consultant's study is expected to be completed in February.

Second, Semmel said parents have also asked about keeping elementary school classroom sizes below Board of Education guidelines.

In September, he told the school board that at each of Trumbull's six elementary schools, at least one grade that has classes that meet or exceed district guidelines.

At that time, Semmel said that he plans to add "an appropriate number of (class) sections to the budget, which are going to come at a cost" to get all classes below the guidelines.

Finally, Semmel said families have been asking for many years for the district to get rid of the elementary schools' strings/band fee, which is $125 per student, according to the district's revenue document.

The Board of Education has historically wanted to eliminate this fee, but hasn't had the money to do so. When school board members were working to set the 2022-23 budget and had to eliminate more than $2 million, they chose to keep the fees.

What's next?

The Board of Education will meet Jan. 6 and Jan. 8 to review the superintendent's proposed budget, then vote on it Feb. 10.

The budget will then move onto the Board of Finance, which will make a recommendation to the Town Council in March. Finally, the Town Council will set the budget in April.

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