MINUTES
BOARD OF FINANCE & BOARD OF EDUCATION
April 20, 2016
A SPECIAL JOINT MEETING of the Board of Finance and the Board of Education was held in the City Hall Auditorium on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.
Present were Mayor Elinor Carbone and Board of Finance members Chris Diorio, Laurene Pesce, Mark Bushka, Frank Rubino, Joshua Ferreira and Christopher Anderson. Board of Education members present included Kenneth Traub, Fiona Cappabianca, Jessica Richardson, Ellen Hoehne, Daniel Thibault, William Knight, Armand Maniccia and James Lamoin. Interim Superintendent Lynda Reitman and Business Services Director Jerry Domanico were also present.
Mayor Carbone called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. starting with the Pledge of Allegiance. She explained the process for the Board of Education to present their spending plan for Fiscal year 2016/2017 to the Board of Finance. Mayor Carbone reminded those present of the State Statutes that govern budgeting authority over the Board of Education.
Board Chair Fiona Cappabianca explained that they worked to get budget down, but have an impossible situation resulting in budget cuts with which even they are not comfortable. She said the needs of students are far different than five or ten years ago, with heavy contractual obligations and significant increases they have no control over. She said the Board took the Superintendent’s 9.95% increase and started to identify
Special Education needs, looked at bringing some services back in house, and looked at an expansion of the Department of Special Education in the Central Office. Ms. Cappabianca said they have a total non-negotiable budget increase of $6,371,060, which includes contractual salary increases totaling $1,460,929, benefits increases totaling $2,339,547, Special Education/magnet schools and school choice increases of $2,235,732, and transportation increases of $334,852. She said that while the student services, special education tuition and benefits increases total $3,883,578, not including contractual obligations, they are coming to the Board of Finance asking for an increase of $3,212,282 or 4.54% which is less than their student services, special education tuition and benefits increases. She noted that while the certified
salary increase is $1,460,929, they are presenting a reduction in certified salaries of $723,024. Ms. Cappabianca said these cuts are significant, and represent a lot of staff.
Mrs. Reitman said that these budget cuts will seriously affect the quality of education provided for our students, including the athletics and extra-curricular activities that are important to providing a well-rounded education for our students. She said every budget site has had a decrease except Central Office, which carries the cost of insurance. Mrs. Reitman described the contractual limitations on class size, saying they need to make sure they are both properly staffing and properly populating classes, and noted that in high school sectioning students have specific needs relative to graduation requirements.
Mr. Domanico highlighted the summary reports saying the certified salaries, teachers, and administrators budget has a net reduction of $743,000 from the current year. He said the two main drivers of this budget are employee benefits and student tuition and noted that most departments or schools have decreases with the exception of Forbes because they are consolidating a program. He added that the Student Services budget is not reduced due to special education tuition needs and the Central Office budget is not reduced due to benefits costs.
Mrs. Reitman said that the Board feels they are doing their best to serve the needs of all of our students, and that they have the staff in place to be able to make it work.
Budget Chair Kenneth Traub noted that the Board of Education budget process had a lot of public participation and, while not being able to meet everyone’s hopes and expectations, they knew as taxpayers and business owners that the City can only afford so much. He said the early retirement benefits had a $750,000 to $780,000 error in last year’s budget and Special Education was underfunded by $1,800,000. A Contingency fund was hoped for, but sacrificed in the end. Mr. Traub said they performed a cost benefit analysis to review each activity and determine what the best value is for the taxpayer dollar.
Mr. Ferreira said the community needs to have this conversation with an extremely high level of practicality because once the mill rate gets close to 50, the type of revenue the City receives will be much less than today. He said we need everyone to be mindful and extremely practical about where we are fiscally.
Mr. Rubino pointed out that the Grand List only went up 1.04% and did not increase the taxable income. He noted that his calculations were off from the Board of Educations by $758,000. Mr. Rubino said the car tax issue will cause the City to lose $900,000 in revenue which would increase the mill rate. He questioned the Pre-K class counts and Ms. Cappabianca replied that those are grant funds and she will find more information for him.
Mrs. Pesce asked if the 25 students per teacher ratio is a hard and fast number and Mrs. Reitman confirmed that it is in their contract.
Mr. Bushka noted that effectively the City has to fund not just the 3.2 mill increase, but also an additional million in lost revenue, as projected.
Mr. Diorio asked if the Board of Education will return next year with the same problems, and stated that we need to put ourselves back into a sound fiscal environment. He said we have to keep this in mind and work on these issues. Mr. Diorio noted that Special Education enrollment is increasing but we seem to be getting less money for it. Mr. Domanico said it is the same in every other district with everyone getting less.
Mayor Carbone noted that the historical grant awards revenue numbers do not match up, with a $475,000 difference.
Mayor Carbone asked the two Boards if they would like a follow-up joint meeting and asked the Board of Education to show the Board of Finance the cost allocations to the Pre-K program.
Mr. Domanico explained contractual obligations such as retiree insurance and tuition reimbursement.
Ms. Cappabianca noted that they will continue to review the budget and look for efficiencies and program consolidations because they are uncomfortable with the level of cuts presented.
While noting that the Mill Rate will not be set until May 17th, Mayor Carbone encouraged the two Boards to meet again and to also review the capital budget.
Mrs. Pesce noted the importance of a Board of Education budget that is closer to a zero increase, saying it is better for the City of Torrington.
Ms. Cappabianca said the problems are the costs they have no control over, and where they must continue to strip from a small percentage of our population to pay for everything else. She said it is unfair to continue to take from the regular education students and higher achieving students to pay for all of this. Ms. Cappabianca said that another system flaw is the City’s approval of teachers’ contracts that the Board of Education negotiated in good faith. She said those contracts contain increases and they are approved by the City when there is no money to be had, and then the Board of Finance asks the Board of Education to produce a zero-increase budget. She said that closing a school is the only option because they cannot possibly get to a zero increase without drastic measures that are going to hurt and
likely cost us more in the end. Ms. Cappabianca said that when the high school is decimated, there will be more and more parents opting for school choice, which will cost us more.
Mr. Traub recommended the Board of Education have a Board of Finance liaison once again. He also recommended the City Council and Board of Finance meet with them during the year to try to get ahead of Special Education costs. He said the Boards are being reactionary, not being pro-active, and recommended they meet with other schools in our area to see how to make this better.
Mr. Ferreira urged the Boards to be mindful that hovering close to a mill rate of 50 is going to drastically decrease revenue. He said these are especially difficult decisions because they involve children but 70 million dollars to educate 4200 children should cause us to change the way we do things. He said the community has to come together and understand both battles being fought.
Mrs. Pesce pointed out that Torrington does a great job with education. She said we are not treated fairly because we are not an alliance district. Mr. Traub agreed and said that Torrington students are accepted to Cornell, Penn State, and Boston University but Torrington is still portrayed as a bad school.
Mayor Carbone said she welcomes the opportunity to sit down with City Council and the Board of Finance to strategize what our message to the State is, as it relates to these mandates. Mr. Rubino said that we already talked to our representatives and said we want the money following the child. Mayor Carbone noted that Torrington is not alone and other towns may join with the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and us in an effort for radical change in legislation and mandates. Mayor Carbone noted that the City also has mandates that must be met as well, while facing this very onerous mill rate and proposed revenue cuts.
ADJOURNMENT
On a motion by Mr. Ferreira, seconded by Mr. Anderson, the Board voted unanimously to adjourn at 7:16 p.m.
ATTEST: JOSEPH L. QUARTIERO, CMC
CITY CLERK
Carol L. Anderson, MCTC, CMC
Asst. City Clerk
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