The Board of Finance held a regular meeting on Thursday, February 28, 2008 in the Meeting Room at Town Hall South, 3 Main Street, Newtown, CT. Chairman John Kortze called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
PRESENT: John Kortze, James Gaston, Martin Gersten, Joseph Kearney, Michael Portnoy, Harrison Waterbury.
ALSO PRESENT: Superintendent of Schools Dr. Janet Robinson, Assistant Superintendent Linda Gejda, High School principal Chip Dumais, Sandy Hook School principal Donna Page, Schools Director of Business Ron Bienkowski, Schools Director of Transportation Tony DiLonardo, Schools Director of Grounds and Maintenance Gino Faiella, Members of the Board of Education and Legislative Council, approximately eight members of public.
VOTER PARTICIPATION. None noted.
MINUTES. The minutes of the regular meeting of February 11, 2008 will be amended to note that Mr. Gaston made the motion concerning police manpower. Upon motion of Mr. Gersten, the minutes of February 11, 2008 were unanimously accepted as amended. The minutes of the special meeting of February 21, 2008 will be amended to add that Mr. Kortze asked Mr. Borst if he met with the department heads individually prior to the selectmen's budget meeting and Mr. Borst responded that he had. Upon motion of Mr. Gaston, the minutes of February 21, 2008 were unanimously accepted as amended.
COMMUNICATIONS: Mr. Kortze noted that he has received emails in support of budget. He received a letter from Ed Marks, Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Commission, requesting that the Legislative Council reinstate into the Capital Improvement Plan: $1 million for facility design of the Community/Senior Center Building at Fairfield Hills and demolition of Litchfield Hall; and $6.2 million in funding previously removed from the plan (Attachment A to original minutes). Mr. Kortze noted that this request is on the Board of Selectmen’s agenda for Monday. He said that Mr. Spragg indicated that there is money in debt service for the architect’s fees and demolition that will probably not be expended and will probably be moved into next year’s debt service.
FIRST SELECTMAN REPORT: Mr. Borst was not present.
FINANCE DIRECTOR REPORT: Mr. Spragg was not present.
NEW BUSINESS.
Board of Education proposed budget for FY 2008-2009. Dr. Robinson distributed “Board of Education’s Proposed Budget for 2008-09” (Attachment B to original minutes). She said that the District will be in a mode of continuous growth and improvement. The fifth and seventh grades are large classes. The teachers’ union accepted point of entry as their base plan which will mean savings for the district. Middle School and Reed School will be above the guideline for students per teacher. Energy costs will have an 18% increase for electric, oil and diesel and 47.6% increase for water. There will be one new bus and 65 parking spaces will be lost at the High School. Twenty Special Education students are being brought back into the District this year and eighteen next year. Dr. Robinson said
there is a new mandate to teach Connecticut history. Also she said that literacy and technology will be our primary goals.
Ms. Fetchick said that technology spending has been erratic in the past years. She said that it is a state mandate that students have competent computer skills by the sixth grade.
Ms. McClure distributed “Components of Requested 2008-09 School Budget” (Attachment C to original minutes). She noted there are aging buildings, higher energy costs and that in school suspension is now mandated by the State but there is no funding from the State for that. Our only new full-time position request is for an in school suspension person. She said that this is the lowest superintendent’s budget in eleven years. She said that the Board eliminated 25 requested staff position, reduced the number of buses requested, and, for the students, lowered activity fees.
Mr. .Kortze asked for questions of the Board of Finance to the Board of Education. Mr. Kearney asked if technology estimates are a guaranteed quote. Ms. Amodeo, head of the Technology Department, said these figures are always based on our current expenditures. Dr. Robinson said that we operate from the State contracts but we try to see if someone will beat that price. Mr. Kearney asked why $143,000 for High School Building and Site Improvements was not put into the High School expansion? Mr. Bienkowski said that $1.3 million was put into a five year plan instead because of funding issues. Mr. Kearney asked weren’t these known; Mr. Bienkowski said that the building project is an addition not repairs and maintenance and contingency funds will be requested for any remaining. Mr. Waterbury asked about the
rental costs at the new Town Hall. Mr. Kortze questioned why we are paying rent to ourselves. Mr. Bienkowski said the rent would be $11,547 per month with a $12,000 lease cancellation fee. He the that the assessment is based on square footage probably to be used to pay utilities. Mr. Waterbury asked why a curriculum change is needed not in view of the cost. Dr. Robinson said that much of this had been put off and a large quantity of old books need to be replaced.
Mr. Kortze asked Mr. Bienkowski to explain how the fee activities are handled. Mr. Bienkowski distributed “School Generated Fees” (Attachment D to original minutes). He said this was instituted in 2003-04. Until then money taken in activity fees was netted out with expenses because it was transferred to where it was needed. He said that we were advised that this money should be turned over to the Town. The Legislative Council added $300,000 back to the budget of the Board of Education. The Board of Education identified $298,00 as a cut but did not cut the lines and turned the money over to Finance. This wiped out the negative line items because we did not make the adjustment. We needed to make up the difference in our budget between the $300,000 and what we took in. Mr. Kortze said that in 2003-04
the budget was raised $300,000 and the Board of Education generated $275,000, and what happened to the other $25,000? Mr. Bienkowski said that this was netted out as an expenditure with a balance of $25,000 left over. Mr. Kortze said that in 2004-05 did your budget start out with $217,000 less the $300,000 or including the $300,000. Mr. Bienkowski said the $300,000 always was included. Mr. Kortze asked that if in subsequent years the budget was raised a certain amount but that amount was not generated in fees would the budget have an artificial inflation the next year? Mr. Kortze said that in subsequent years we raised it but we probably had a similar occurrence.
Mr. Portnoy said that since enrollment in the elementary schools is declining, why not have fewer teachers to raise the ratio of students to teachers but still be under the guidelines? Dr. Robinson said that the goal is to raise test scores and thus to try to keep the grade level size as low as possible. Mr. Kortze said that we are at a period when we have the ability to address overhead which is the biggest problem in the budget. Dr. Gejda said it is critical that third grade be up to goal and that we are bringing more special education students back into the district and they have more individual needs. Mr. Kearney noted that we could still be below these guidelines. He asked Dr. Robinson if there have been thoughts about where to cut. Dr. Robinson said that the guidelines are for minimal expectation and that cuts
would have to be at the elementary level. Mr. Portnoy said that it is a concern that salaries and benefits are 80% of the budget. Can we eliminate some positions? The ratio of teachers in the elementary schools vs. educational assistants is almost one to one and is this normal? Dr. Robinson said that some educational assistants are in the media center, dealing with behavior issues or in small groups.
Donna Page, Sandy Hook School principal, said that individual plans are expected for each child and that if we approach class sizes of 25 what we need to do would be impossible. Dr. Robinson noted that the number of education assistants has not increased though we are bringing back special education students.
Mr. Kortze asked what percentage of the District goal does the technology expenditure of $700.000 represent to which Dr. Robinson said 20% and that this is a five year plan. Mr. Kortze asked why $160,000 was moved out of the Benefits line item this year. Mr. Bienkowski said that one final reduction in the budget was extra buses and that we would have to pay for maintenance for those buses if we did not take the money out of the benefits because the buy up was more than the 15%. A number of people chose not to take insurance. This reduced our costs but we did not know this until September or October. Mr. Kortze asked if the proposed budget reflects that reduction; Mr. Bienkowski said yes.
Timing of the High School referendum was discussed. Mr. Kortze said that there is a concern about having the High School referendum before the budget referendum. He asked what the impact on the schools is if the budget fails. Mr. Bienkowski said that is does not pay to have to wait until the debt service is known before having a High School referendum because this cost could be added in to the debt service. He maintains that you should have a referendum as soon as you can He said it could be at the same time as the budget referendum so that the voters don’t have to come out twice. He said that June 2 would be the latest referendum date.
Ms. Frampton, Registrar of Voters, said the possible referenda dates are:
April 22, May 6, May 20 (without a petition after May 6) and June 1. She said that the Board of Selectmen will discuss on Monday eliminating the need for that petition as well as whether to have the Charter Revision questions on the April 22 referendum. Mr. Kortze feels that it would be best to have one referendum for the High School and the budget.
Mr. Gaston asked if there is a new bus for the High School. He noted that the High School buses were half empty and asked if we use a formula. Dr. Robinson said that each bus goes to both the High School and the Middle School and dropped off at the Middle School first. She said that we must allow for each High School student to have a bus. Director of Transportation Tony DiLonardo said that the criteria for High School students is two per seat and that we are operating above that; there is an increase in the juniors riding.
Mr. Gaston recommended that the District publicize its goals as widely as it can.
Mr. Portnoy asked what is the average number of retirees per year for the last five years and how does this affect salaries? Mr. Bienkowski said the average is $100,000 to $300,000 and that $150,000 is in the budget at this time. Mr. Portnoy asked for the rationale for this year’s enrollment projections. Dr. Robinson said that numbers other than K are actual kids (5,655) and that the Bothwell mid and high are in excess of this. For the High School addition we are taking his highest number; Mr. Portnoy asked why. Mr. Bienkowski said that the numbers are based on our own internal data because we did not have Prowda’s or Bothwell’s numbers until November or December. Mr. Portnoy asked if Saturday in school suspension was considered. Dr. Robinson said that this is in conflict with the
statutes.
ADJOURNMENT Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.
Ann M. Mazur, Clerk
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