As Revenue Cuts Loom, Hastings School Trustees Work to Promote Public Participation in Budget-Making

With less state aid and higher pension costs expected, Hastings school trustees want the community to actively participate in the tough issues that will accompany the 2011-12 budget process. 

At Monday night's Board of Education meeting at the district offices on Farragut Avenue, the trustees urged residents to apply for the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee, an annual ad-hoc group. In addition, they began exploring ways to repeat and improve last year's community forum, to give residents opportunities for input they don't necessarily take in traditional budget hearings.

The urgency has to do in part with anticipated financial issues in both spending and revenues.

Interim Superintendent Tim Connors said that the state has raised the contribution rates into the pension system for the coming year. State aid to the district may also change, because though the state Board of Regents has called for the same overall level of education funding, it also plans to change how the money is allocated. Hastings in the past has derived about 10 percent of its revenue from state aid, he said. Federal education funding is also predicted to drop.

"The real challenge we're going to be facing is not our expenditures—we can control those." Connors said.

To make sure district residents can work through all the issues as thoroughly as possible, the trustees want this year's budget advisory committee to represent all facets of the community.

Budget advisory committees provide participants the opportunity to delve into the nuts-and-bolts of their own district's spending and revenue. They also offer the opportunity to act as representatives of the taxpayers who are supporting the operation.

According to a letter last week from the board to the community, many former members are returning; in addition, the trustees want some new voices and new eyes. Read the whole letter with this report. The application is available online here.

Ideally the committee would include a cross-section of the community, including residents with and without children in the schools, district employees, people who have served before and newcomers to the process, said Interim Superintendent Tim Connors.

The trustees also discussed seeking encouraging residents' input in a way that allows discussion of education issues in the district and the finances attached thereto.

"One comment about the budget process as we move forward," said Trustee Lindsey Hicks, calling for a forum similar to last year's, in which the trustees ask the residents what's on their minds instead of just making "one-way" presentations on the budget. 

Trustees Wendy Nadich and Donna Laing said they would share a presentation  which they had attended on creating new and successful structures for obtaining community input. 

"I'm not worried about this," Connors said, saying there would be many opportunities to talk with the full community.

The trustees will return to the topic at their next meeting Jan. 10, when Connors and Treasurer Maureen Carabello will present a budget process calendar.