Board of Finance-Special Meeting 4/06/09
The Marlborough Board of Finance held a special meeting to discuss the budget.
Primarily the town residents wanted to discuss the School Budget.
I’ve attempted to reproduce the facts of the meeting without taking one side or the other. It is difficult to get the facts from official town sources, evidently the budget is NOT on the town website. It is my intent to cut down on the mis-communication and raise the civility of the public discussion.
Comments are welcome, but you must register and give your email for your comment to be published, additionally for the time being I will review all comments prior to publishing. I don’t mean to censor, I just want to try to avoid comment spammers till I get a feel for this website and it’s traffic.
My rules are:
- No naming of people
- No slander
- No bad language
- Keep it civil
- You must use your real name and a real email address
- I get to decide the above. I will be fair and tolerant, but I won’t tolerate intimidation or mob tactics.
My Notes: Board of Finance-Special Meeting 4/06/09
The Board of Selectmen presented a budget that represented a 6.3% increase over last year.
If all spending was held at a 0% increase the budget would still increase by 3.08% because of increased debt payments.
The Board of Education’s budget proposal represented an increase of 1.45%.
The teachers are slated to receive 4% raises each year over the next 3 years. (I assume it is the same for the town employees).
Both the town employee’s and the teacher’s unions have declined to re-open discussion of their pay increases. (From what I could gather if the town employees and teachers declined their raises and accepted a 0% raise, there would be no cut in the school budget.)
The debt service is 2.3 M$ for the town, of which 320K$ is for the sewers or 14% of the debt service.
The total town budget as it stands prior to cuts is: 7.2M$ for the school system and 4.5M$ for the town.
The Board of Finance has proposed a cut of 350K$ for the school budget and 175K$ for the town budget.
There is no new money for capital expenditures.
On April 27 there will be a Board of Finance meeting open for public comment. At which time the BOF will vote and decide the town budget. This budget will go to the town for voting.
It should be noted the BOF does not deicide how the monies are spent in the school and town budgets but only the over all level of spending.
Should the town reject the budget, the BOF will adjust the budget DOWNWARD and re-submit the budget for approval to the town. The BOF can only DOWNWARD adjust the budget after rejection by the town, it CAN NOT adjust the budget upwards. However how the over all monies are spent can be adjusted from one account to another.
Public Comment was held. It should be noted that this was a working meeting for the BOF and public comment was not required. However the board felt it was appropriate to allow public comment.
I did not attempt to record all the comments or points, but what I found interesting.
A resident attempted to get a copy of the budget, she was told by the town, 50 cents a page and 28 days. The budget is not on the town website.
The Board of Education presented slides on the impact of various levels of cuts. The BOE presented the cuts in 4 stages representing increasing levels of reduced spending. Also please note that not all the items listed will be cut, the BOE will pick and choose within the categories. So while the Extreme Category may have layoffs of 2 teachers and 2 paraprofessionals the BOE does not have to pick that option and may choose to cut other items. Or it may cut the teachers and not eliminate the enrichment programs.
Low Risk: 200K$ in cuts.
- Minimal impact.
Moderate: 15K$ in cuts (additional).
- Reduction in Superintendent’s salary. Dr Menzo announced he is leaving for Wallingford.
High: 57,285$ in cuts (additional).
- .5 Paraprofessionals
- 1 custodian to .5
- Close or reduce the building to town activities
- Cut AHM
- Reduce contingency funds
- Cut instructional supplies from 300 to 100$
- Library books
Extreme: 93,556$ in cuts (additional).
- Cut enrichment program and paraprofessional.
- Cut math specialist paraprofessional
- Kindergarden to 4 sections from 5
- Cut reading specialist
- Cut 2 teachers and 2 paraprofessional.
These total up to 365K$
However as I said, not all these items will be cut, these are possibilities, any combination may occur. The BOE decides how to implement what monies they receive. Worst case scenario for layoffs is 2 teachers. Not 10.
A motion was made to not cut the school budget by 350K$, it was not seconded.
A motion was made to cut the school budget b 250K$ and not 350K$, it was seconded. But failed to pass on a 4-2 vote against.
Discussion was had and sometimes “heated” however the vote failed and as it stands now, the BOF is going to cut the school budget by 350K$. However at the April 27th town meeting the BOF could increase or decrease all budgets.
The 350K$ is not set in stone at this point.
Posted from an email with the sender’s permission. Thanks Jane!
On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Jane Boston wrote:
Hi Bob, what a great idea – thanks for creating and managing this public forum. I agree with you that not only the town budget, but all of the related documents, multiple presentations, etc. should appear on the Marlborough town web site so residents have full access to what’s being discussed in these many meetings.
Just to clarify: I was able to obtain a copy of the budget at no cost at town hall. However, when I requested additional information to further dive into the budget details such as town hall employees’ and Board of Education’s salaries, raises, health care benefits, other benefits, class sizes, etc., that is when I was told by the First Selectman that it’s considered a FOIA request and would cost me $.50 a page and there would be a long delay in providing it to me. So, I paid $15 to copy some info at the town clerk’s office.
The raises and the contract periods for the Marlborough BOE and the Marlborough Town Employees are different and the contract periods are different.
The BOE contract was recently signed on 11/5/08 and allows for raises that include:
7/1/2009-10 4.1%
7/1/2010-11 4.1%
7/1/2011-12 4.0%
The Town contracts were signed on 6/28/07 and allows for raises that include:
– Hide quoted text -
7/1/2007-08 3.50%
7/1/2008-09 3.75%
7/1/2009-10 3.75%
7/1/2010-11 3.75%
As I mentioned at the meeting, Dr. Menzo was very accomodating in providing the information he had available. Attached is a document concerning class size in Marlborough that you may wish to post for informational purposes. Additional detailed comparisons of class size by grade and town are on the CT Dept. of Education website. Not sure if you want to include links to other sites on your site or not.
Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you.
Jane
jboston01@sbcglobal.net