Fairfield schools look to make budget cutbacks

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield school district will be making some difficult budget decisions in the coming weeks.

In an email Monday, Superintendent Dr. Laurie Noll explained that several factors will force the district to find ways to reduce spending.

“The fact that our district has experienced declining enrollment in recent years, the impact of recent legislation, and the anticipated funding available in the future has created a need for us to either spend less or generate more revenue,” Noll wrote. “The responsibility to avoid more drastic changes by considering increased efficiency of current assets, reducing positions through absorption, better utilizing available resources, and managing areas of high spending is a heavy burden.”

Noll expressed concern that the potentially “tough decisions” could divide the community.

“As we have weathered other challenges over the years together, some of the concerns expressed by a vocal minority in our school community have shed light on areas and opportunities for us to improve,” she wrote. “Communication is one area. We encourage the FCSD community to review our fiscal projections and allocation of current resources. We welcome creativity as well as criticism.”

She added that another area that received lots of feedback was internal support of all staff in all buildings.

“We know we ask a lot of our educators, and we do so because we are confident that collaboration for the benefit of all FCSD students will continue to be a focus for staff even in difficult times,” Noll wrote.

She noted the continued need for new facilities for the district.

“We can reach this goal with support of the proposed bond issue and further community conversations,” she wrote. “To build on the communication, this is the second opportunity for our community to support the bond referendum. We can pass this bond issue and the resulting funds will allow us to generate the revenue for needed facilities for our students and staff.

“We can continue to grow this community and address areas where inefficiencies are creating repair and maintenance costs, while simultaneously continuing to build a modern and desirable place to learn and work.”