Town, Schools Budget Requests Head to Finance Board

Budget requests from the boards of Education and Selectmen head to the Board of Finance for consideration this week starting on Thursday when a public hearing is scheduled.

Given last year’s , education officials said they tried to put more emphasis on developing the request so that it would hold more promise under the scrutiny that is surely to come.

“We need to be able to stand up and defend it,” Board of Education Chairman Hart said. “I think we have done a better job of this than in the past so we have a better shot of surviving it.”

The Board of Selectmen budget stands at $38,098,157 while the Board of Education stands at $69,201,017. In the former case, the increase represents 2.72-percent more than adopted last year while in the later case, the increase is 2.99-percent.

Taken together, the proposed budget equals about $107 million or 2.89-percent more than what was adopted last year after three referendums. In contrast, the budget adopted last year was .55-percent more than the prior year’s.

Among some of the highlights of this year's budget requests, the selectmen agreed to add $5,000 to the Economic and Community Development department to help jump-start an effort to create a more business friendly environment in town, money that would go toward adding part-time staff hours.

The Sustainable Energy Commission also would receive $5,000 in “operational money” to help pay for materials that the commission produces and other duties it does on behalf of the town in identifying and promoting sustainable energy.

The C. H. Booth Library also would receive a $18,990 increase – although the selectmen reduced the originally requested increase by $3,000. The library, which consists of non-union workers, is seeking a long-awaited 1.5-percent staff wage increase, some of which would be paid for through healthcare savings.

On the education side, officials unanimously nixed a proposal to add full day kindergarten with most saying that while the program is educationally beneficial it was not critical for the upcoming year.

Nearly all of the education board members also said given the economic constraints and the need to set priorities, they favored adding resources to the high school rather than start full-day kindergarten this year.

“We just had the addition, we still have a large population going through the high school and our SAT scores have proven that we still need to focus on the high school” board member Lillian Bittman said during the Feb. 8 deliberations. “I would rather in this fiscal year support the high school, including (the addition of) the assistant principal.”

Hart also said given that a facilities study into space needs was ongoing, starting full-day kindergarten may be better served the following year.

“I strongly support it for next year but not for this year,” he said.

The education board also voted to add $57,256 to hire a new history/social science teacher and $123,323 for another assistant principal, although in the later case, the vote was split with some members saying they would rather use the money to hire an additional teacher and the majority arguing that they wanted to defer to principal Chip Dumais, who listed that assistant principal as among his priorities.

An effort to add another full-time equivalent teacher at the high school for the Flex as well as the English Language Learner program – two specialized programs for students who need more attention – failed, particularly because the addition would have tipped the proposed budget past a 3-percent increase.

At least one board member, Richard Gaines, balked at some of his colleagues' insistence at staying below 3-percent.

“It’s not about education any more, it’s about finance and the dollar,” he said.

Still, Hart said on Friday he attached great importance to staying below 3-percent.

“It’s an artificial line but it’s an emotional line,” he said.

Among one of the differences in preparing the education budget this year compared to last is the board’s starting point. This year, the superintendent and district staff separated the request into two – a so-called status quo budget that shows the cost if services were to stay the same and a second one that reflected add-ons they believed were absolutely necessary.

The board started with the status quo budget, examining the expenses and in some cases decreasing the line items before taking up the requested add-ons, such as the hiring of more teachers.

While the response to that tactic has been positive this year, Hart declined to predict how the finance board and Legislative Council would greet the output.

“I would be a fool to predict,” he said. “My objective this year is to have a civil budget process.”

Hart said he has been pleased with the reaction so far.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “This is a responsible budget.”

Some critics have questioned the education board's financial judgment and accounting practices, particularly in light of an auditor’s report that said the board needed to resume approving transfers to comply with state statutes. The board has yet to make the necessary changes to comply with the audit recommendations, although Hart said he and the board are committed to making the changes.

He said while the district’s business director Ron Bienkowski had put together a revision to the year-end report that was suppose to correct the shortcoming and was to be voted on in January, Hart asked the board delay its review because he wanted changes to the report.

“I didn’t think it was what the Board of Finance wanted to see,” Hart said of the report.

Bienkowski asked for more time to make the revisions due to the impending budget season and Hart agreed, saying it was not a matter of if the education board would follow the auditor’s recommendation but more a matter of timing.

The finance board has scheduled a public hearing for 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 17 at the Municipal Center to take comments on both the town and school requests.