Facts About Next Week's Vote

I am thinking of those impacted by the horrific events in Boston yesterday, and sending our thoughts and prayers to those affected by this tragedy.   I cannot possibly put out a blog post today without acknowledging the tragedy and sharing my concern with all those receiving this email.

That being said, Monroe has two very important topics to vote upon in just seven days, and I want to share with you some important facts to help you make an informed decision.

So: Honeywell?

• Project size is $3,803,204.
• $655,417 of this is being paid by utility rebate dollars – no extra cost to the tax payers!
• $400,000 of this is being paid through a 4 year interest free loan from CL&P and then the balance remaining is being paid through a 10 year tax exempt municipal lease at an effective interest rate of 1.45%.
• The guaranteed energy savings are $411,289 which covers in full the annual debt on the CL&P loan and the tax exempt municipal lease - no extra cost to the tax payers!
• There is no bond issuance for this work – no extra cost to the tax payers!
• The scope of work includes necessary exterior and interior door security work at ALL of the schools.

The Bottom Line On Honeywell:

The BOE utility budget stays exactly as it is today and all of the work highlighted above gets completed with no extra cost to the taxpayers. If you vote no you still have the same utility budget to pay for ($1,321,523) yet none of this needed work gets completed!

So: The Budget?

We often hear that the Board of Education is spending our way to larger budgets.  But the BOE budget currently stands 1.56 %.  The last two years' increases were 0 %.  The BOE has worked strenuously over the last few years to contain costs.  Some of strategies that have been implemented include*:

• Closed a school
• Reduced staff including administrators, teachers, and non-certified staff
• Had each union agree to a contract that had at least one year with a 0% increase
• Moved to an HSA medical plan, changed items in the retirement plans
• Reduced the number of buses and restructured the bus tiers
• Put out the bus contract for competitive bid (which I think was one yr early)
• Rebid the medical plan, are rebidding the food service plan
• Put forward the idea of an energy service contracting (now known as Honeywell)
• Converted Monroe El to natural gas
• Installed building monitoring systems to reduce the need for staff to physically check buildings each weekend
• Participates with other districts in a consortium to purchase utilities and general school supplies at discounted rates,
• Implemented shared staff between the school system and municipal departments,
• Implemented electronic and distance learning for some class offering
• Eliminated and/or restructured and/or merged course offerings
• Reduced the approval times for bill payments to reduce or eliminate late charges (or the time spent getting refunds)
• Eliminated much of the paper that was sent via use of electronic systems
• Reduced the travel for pre-seasons games
• Used shared transportation with other districts for special education students where possible

*Thanks to Steve Kirsch for compiling the above information.

The Bottom Line For the BOE Budget:

The BOE has averaged a percentage increase in budget of just 1.03 %  over the last five years.  The average rate of inflation for the same five year period is roughly 2.2 %.  The declining enrollment, coupled with cost containment measures, have greatly reduced costs on the BOE portion of the budget. 

Please think about it, and share this information with others you know who are voters in Monroe.   Thank you.