Taxpayers in Guilford are shockingly being asked to approve a proposed 2026-2027 budget of $129,413,203 on April 21st at the Town Budget Referendum. This proposed budget represents an increase of $6.86 million, or 5.3%, over the current Guilford 2025-2026 budget. The lions share, or 65%, of this proposed Guilford budget, is comprised of the education budget. This year, the proposed budget includes a 5.84% increase in the Guilford Board of Education operating budget. For the past four years, the Guilford Board of Education annual operating budget increases have been 5.3%, 6.1%, 5.9%, and now 5.84% respectively. To illustrate the unsustainability of continuous annual town wide budget increases at an annual rate of 5.3% per year, everyone’s taxes in Guilford would double every 13.58 years.
Why then are our Guilford property taxes so high? A close analysis of educational expenditures in Guilford exposes a system that is out-of-control and the result of bad decision-making, poor planning, a lack of research, and a failure reevaluate failed learning strategies, as follows:
Union negotiated teacher and staff salaries and benefits now comprise over 78% of the BOE budget. In Guilford, the average annual teacher’s salary (not including benefits) is $93,680.
Guilford Superintendent of Schools Paul Freeman annual compensation according to his contract is $325,608 ($277,468 salary, $26,073 tax sheltered annuity, $3,767 reduction in vacation time from 25 to 22 days, $8,500 leadership stipend, $8,000 car allowance, and $18,000 Teachers Retirement Board contribution).
Four Central Office “certified” employees who make an average salary of $234,500 each.
18 School Administers (Principals, Assistant Principals, Director of Pupil Services, Special Education Coordinators and Athletic Director) who make an average salary of $185,474 each. Guilford High School alone has five School Administrators including a Principal, three Assistant Principals, an Athletic Director, and a Coordinator of Special Education, all of whom make an average salary of $192,240. Why do we need three Assistant Principals at the High School?
Historically low student-teacher ratio and class sizes with little or no increased benefit. The average student-teacher ratio in Guilford in 2026 is 11.6 to 1 whereas the national average is 15.4 to 1. According to the Education Endowment Foundation, lowering the student-teacher ratio below 15 to 1 results in diminishing gains that are “modest” and “hard to detect”. Bringing Guilford up to a reasonable 15.4 to 1 student-teacher ratio could potentially save Guilford taxpayers $8 million annually. Analyses document that switching to phonics in the early 2000s would have produced twice the benefit of these lower class sizes, but Guilford didn’t follow the science.
Chromebooks, a staple in Guilford schools since 2013, and the accompanying software, licenses, repairs and IT staff cost an estimated $1.5 million per year and have been a net negative to student learning where 24% (724) of students are not proficient in reading and 34% (1,026) students are not proficient in math, according to state SBAC tests. According to 162 research studies, a 1:1 Chromebook program has a documented effect of only 0.12 as opposed to a direct instruction effect by teachers of 0.56. Another glaring reflection of administrative incompetence is that phonics was not embraced soon after the National Reading Panel declared it to be the superior reading methodology in 2000. Instead, Guilford only switched to phonics when it was mandated by the General Assembly in 2021. In the intervening 21 years, thousands of Guilford students graduated reading and doing math below proficiency. More effective interventions like “Core Knowledge” could raise student proficiencies dramatically in K-6, and beyond, for a fraction of Chromebook spending.
Bottom line, it’s not the amount of money spent that results in improved learning, it’s how that money is directed. And now it’s being misdirected. Nothing will change until we demand fiscal discipline and better results in our Guilford education system. We must send a message now.
Please vote no on Tuesday April 21st at the Town Budget Referendum, and please share this message with all your neighbors, friends and family.
