Danbury School leaders outline $195.4 million budget request, cite staffing, special education and new DHS West campus as drivers

Dr. Casimiro, superintendent, Danbury School District, and Michael Weaver, chief financial officer, presented the districtbudget to the Citywide PTO on Zoom and answered parentsquestions about staffing, grants and next steps.

The districtis asking for $195,410,000 for 2025-26, an increase of roughly $34 million or 21.5% from the prior year. Dr. Casimiro said the request is driven by multiple, cumulative needs rather than new initiatives: restoring about 29 of 68 positions cut last year, making paraeducator pay competitive, meeting rising special-education and out-of-district tuition costs, increasing benefits costs and staffing for the districtAcademies (DHS West) opening next year.

"Our multilingual learner number is at 38%, so not only are we the highest number across the state, but we are the highest percentage wise in the state, so we have the most amount of multilingual learners in the state of Connecticut," Dr. Casimiro said, citing multilingual learners and rising special-education enrollments as sustained cost drivers.

The presentation listed the major buckets behind the ask: a competitive paraeducator staffing model ($4.9 million), contractual increases (~$4.5 million), restorations of positions (~$3.2 million), special education increases (~$2.8 million), benefits increases (~$4.4 million), multilingual-learner needs (~$1.1 million) and IT/security offsets due to one-time ARPA funding. The district said it received $7.5 million in ARPA funds directly for schools and that the city received about $12 million in total ARPA funding that was used in part on capital and one-time items.

Weaver said the budget was built by location to improve transparency and that the Board of Education had already approved the superintendentbudget at a January workshop and that a presentation file is posted on the district website. "A version of this presentation is on our website currently," Weaver said.

Parents asked about how to help and where revenue comes from; Dr. Casimiro urged attendance at board and city budget hearings and said the district will publish the full budget book to share revenue and grant detail. He said the district receives significant grant funding (the presentation cited a large "Alliance" grant totaling roughly $30 million) and that grants supply a substantial portion of staffing costs but that general-fund needs remain high.

Specific clarifications during the Q&A included: paraeducator openings (about 40to 50 openings), a stated paraeducator starting wage of roughly $16 an hour compared with higher starting rates in neighboring districts, and a projected DHS West staffing plan sized initially for about 800 students though the facility can hold more. The district identified transportation as a substantial operational cost for opening a second high-school campus and estimated needing additional buses depending on routing.

Dr. Casimiro encouraged parents to attend the public budget hearings and to contact city leaders. He said the superintendent and CFO had begun preliminary discussions with the mayor's office and that the next steps are allocation discussions at City Hall, mayoral review and then city council public hearings and votes.

The PTO meeting itself did not vote on the school budget; it heard the district presentation and asked questions. The board-level action Dr. Casimiro referencedwas the Board of Education's unanimous approval of the superintendent's proposed budget at a January workshop, which the presenters said had already occurred.

Ending: The district said it will post the full budget packet and a recording of the presentation on the district website and invited parents to upcoming school and city budget events where they can comment to the mayor and city council.