[User:]

The Budget Committee will be meeting on Tuesday's and Thursday's for the next three weeks to review and vote on the 2010-11 School Budget. Meetings will be at CHS at 7:00 and will include the Department heads. The reviews will be by major location codes. The schedule is as follows:
Dec 1st. Review the School board and SAU budgets.
Dec 3rd. Review the GMS budget and vote on School Board budget.
Dec 8th. Review the LMS budget and vote the GMS and SAU budgets.
Dec 10th. Review the District Wide budget and vote the LMS budget.
Dec 15th. Review the CHS budget and vote the District Wide budget.
Dec 17th. Review separate Warrant articles and vote the CHS budget.

Major cost areas that will be discussed include Health care costs (Dec 1), SPED costs (Dec 3, 8, 10, 15) and teacher head count (Dec 3, .

[User:]

In was stated this week by Dr. Cutler that this was the deepest cuts she has ever had to take in any budget she has ever submitted.....I do believe she said in 41 years.

As proposed it was a decrease of 1/2%. or 0.52%

Now while I do not point any fingers at Dr. Cutler at all, I thought it was a very interesting statement about how this proves what I have been saying in that School Budgets very rarely ever come down. It is a four barrelled, gas hog, that burns through tax dollars every time the gas pedal is pushed. No one's fault necessarily, but as the drivers of this car, we must ease up and coast sometimes.

[Name:]

In was stated this week by Dr. Cutler that this was the deepest cuts she has ever had to take in any budget she has ever submitted.....I do believe she said in 41 years.

As proposed it was a decrease of 1/2%. or 0.52%

Now while I do not point any fingers at Dr. Cutler at all, I thought it was a very interesting statement about how this proves what I have been saying in that School Budgets very rarely ever come down. It is a four barrelled, gas hog, that burns through tax dollars every time the gas pedal is pushed. No one's fault necessarily, but as the drivers of this car, we must ease up and coast sometimes.

[User:]

This is Dr. Cutler's second budget in Litchfield....

She was a Superintendent in Windham and Florida before she came here.

[User:]

Windham just built a mega fortress of a school. A beautiful monument to the power of campaigning.

Now let's see their property taxes.

Second budget in Rich - Field. ( Litchfield )

Deepest cuts = 1/2 % ( to the bone folks ! )

[User:]

Windham has a history of planning for school constructions, fire station construction, police, library ... any major construction ... rather than dumping a complete new item on the taxpayers, they have planned for a period of time and added something to the tax rate each year for a period of years, say 5 as an example and designated it specifically for the project ... that way when the new project is ready to go a vote of the towns' people they have a substantial portion of that money already set aside and it doesn't come as such a shock in the wallet ...

[User:]

But you have to see this place. An extremely long access road worthy of formula 1 race cars,,, ( and I see accidents on the horizon too! ) multiple ball fields,,, and VIEWS ! OMG the VIEWS,,,ample parking for all of the presidents of all the organizations and the staff and student body. Out buildings and back up generators and what looks like groomed / paved bike paths,,,recreation / lunch areas outside complete with park benches.

I think there is an 18 hole golf course too

[User:]

That's what forward planning can do ... although they did run into problems with the access road ... it was built on someone else's land and the town did pay thru the nose for that land ...

I haven't seen forward planning here in town ... the planning comes when the town is in crisis mode or right before it goes to a warrant article ... and the taxpayers pay thru the nose ...

Wasn't the town hall complex positioned wrong and no one noticed until after construction was started?

[User:]

[User:]

Frank are you telling me that the town sets money aside each year in anticipation of a future build of some sort, be it on the town side or the school side? That's what I'm telling you Windham does ... if the town does that, then how much do we have set aside for future construction projects?

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[User:]

Actually, we discussed this, this week.

We have roughly $53,000 in the reserve fund and we bantered around the idea of adding more to it each year.

Personally, while this is a good idea, in down years, we should be very careful to minimize the tax rate and in up years, be even more careful....yes...I said up years. Its easy to go "hog wild" and a moderate approach should be used.

[Name:]

Actually, we discussed this, this week.

We have roughly $53,000 in the reserve fund and we bantered around the idea of adding more to it each year.

Personally, while this is a good idea, in down years, we should be very careful to minimize the tax rate and in up years, be even more careful....yes...I said up years. Its easy to go "hog wild" and a moderate approach should be used.

[User:]

The BC completed it's review of the proposed school budget last night and is recommending a bottom line budget of $19,156,743, a reduction of $354,694. The default budget is $19,539,083. Using the Schools revenue and tax base numbers, the school tax rate will go from $10.59 to $10.50.

There are no changes in any staffing levels (teachers, trainers, etc) as proposed by the School Board. The money for the track was removed by the School Board and replaced by a smaller amount to pay for a study to determine what is causing the water problem that has caused the damage to the track and high school rooms.

In my opinion, this is a tight but reasonable budget. If the School Board and Teachers Union don't reach agreement on a new contract by mid January, then there should be no more school money requests for the 2010-11 school year.

The process the BC followed this year by reviewing by location and having the Department heads participate, resulted a much better understanding of the budget requests and the resulting BC changes. With the reductions that have been proposed, I have no problem supporting this proposed budget.

[User:]

Bill....in the final sum game.....after all of the talk about how deep the cuts were in this budget......how much less are we spending this year than last year?

[Name:]

Bill....in the final sum game.....after all of the talk about how deep the cuts were in this budget......how much less are we spending this year than last year?

[User:]

Bill.....perhaps the more appropriate question would be.....Had the budget presented to the BC been approved as submitted by the SB, how much would the tax rate have been?

[Name:]

Bill.....perhaps the more appropriate question would be.....Had the budget presented to the BC been approved as submitted by the SB, how much would the tax rate have been?

[User:]

Jason

Like Cindy, I put my books away. But, for you, the budget as presented by the School Board would have raised the school portion of the tax rate for next year from $10.59 to $10.84 using the School Boards assumptions of revenues and tax base increase. Using the same assumptions, the budget recommended by the Budget Committee will reduce the school portion from $10.59 to $10.50.

As you know, we are all concerned about a possible cut in State aid for the 2011- 12 school year. If it is anywhere near the $2 million number that has been talked about, then that's a $2 increase on the local tax for that year. Something for the new School Board and Budget Committee to worry about next year. I believe both the School Board and Budget Committee did about all that was reasonable to hold down the spending for 2010-11.

The next big question that needs to be answered is if we will have Teacher contract to review and reasonable enough to support.

[User:]

Bill Said

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[User:]

In the end....call it offset or "returned" money, we have ended up at roughly the same place, so while we can claim we 'cut' the budget, we have not given the taxpayer any relief.

Please do not twist this around either, however, I do believe this may not have happened had we not begun to discuss this to the level it has been over the last year. We are NOT the only town in this country facing budgetary issues. Every day I read of districts across America facing the very same issues.

Lets all be thankful we could come to an agreement without to much animosity.

I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that while the process was a boatload of work, I wan't to thank everyone involved. My first year has ben interesting, and I wouldn't have changed it a bit.

[Name:]

In the end....call it offset or "returned" money, we have ended up at roughly the same place, so while we can claim we 'cut' the budget, we have not given the taxpayer any relief.

Please do not twist this around either, however, I do believe this may not have happened had we not begun to discuss this to the level it has been over the last year. We are NOT the only town in this country facing budgetary issues. Every day I read of districts across America facing the very same issues.

Lets all be thankful we could come to an agreement without to much animosity.

I can say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that while the process was a boatload of work, I wan't to thank everyone involved. My first year has ben interesting, and I wouldn't have changed it a bit.

[User:]

[User:]

Interesting to note that the Bow SB recommended cutting 7 teachers to bring their avg High School class to student ratio from 17 to 20 kids per class. Apparently they were able to make the tough decisions and let the voters decide if they went too far.

http://www.wmur.com/education/22031896/detail.html

[User:]

Cindy said

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Chris

It gets pulled out once in a while. Unfortunately, we are not finished with the Town Budget, so that book is still hot.

Regarding the School budget. If I back out the Self funded and Kindergarten costs from both years, then the budget proposed by the School Board was about $18,000 less than this year's budget. Next year's budget includes several major increases for health care and tuition of over $600,000, so that alone says the School Board was able to reduce by at least $600,000 in next year's budget. Some of that reduction would have happened anyway, without School Board action. $172,000 came from lower utility costs, no capital reserve funding and lower costs of the CHS bond. $355,000 came from lower salary costs, most of which would have happened anyway. As I saw where the salary cuts came from, I doubt that the "level of service" will be affected from those cuts.
I agree completely that the School Board did a good job at reducing the budget for next year, but let's be realistic about the amount of the "hard cuts". The real point is that everyone worked real hard to bring in a tight budget for next year without changing the level of service and the bottom line, depending on what happens with the teacher contract, is a reduced school tax rate. We don't really need to debate who made what cuts and by how much.

[User:]

Thanks for clearing that up Bill. Some are REAL cuts, and some are cuts that would have happened anyway, regardless of who was sitting in the school board chairs. The bottom line is........not counting the teachers contract we are spending almost exactly what we spent last year, AFTER the cuts, PLUS the added expenditures. The process as far as the administration, school board, and Budget committee is concerned is over. Yes, they did a good job and worked very hard on the budget. It's time to move on, and any civics geek out there can start thinking about next years budget process.

AFTER the Christmas recess, of course!

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[User:]

Cindy, just out of curiosity is the number posted strictly teachers or does that include administrators as well?

I am just curious, if it is both teachers and administrators (which I suspect it is) then we would really need the breakdown of both numbers to get a good feel, nonetheless you do bring up a good point regarding the ratio.

[User:]

Wonderful job on the budget. But, gee, that pesky money for overtime for the high school office workers was not cut. What is that $6500? I watched every school board and budget committee meeting and not one person even questioned it. In this economy, that much overtime is unreasonable for one school office.

Yeah, great job with your cuts there, budget committee. That must have been the one that got away.

[User:]

This is what they say about the charts:

[User:]

Michael

Overtime can always be questioned. Take a look at the Police budget for example. It was on my list, but the written explanation seemed reasonable and to be frank I was looking for major reductions that I felt the BC could support. My suggestion is if you feel that the $6500 is unreasonable, come to the Deliberative session to discuss it and reduce it if you feel it should be. The more the merrier in discussing the budget.

Bill

[User:]

There can be "facts" to support whatever point anyone is trying to make.

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[User:]

Thanks Frank.

Michael, maybe I'll see you there.

[User:]

Chris,

I would have loved to have attended a meeting and weighed in, but my work schedule is very irratic. I work odd hours and I record the meetings I don't want to miss.

Perhaps I will see you at deliberative or the budget hearings if my work schedule permits.

[User:]

Michael, I know that you and I may not agree on everything, but in all seriousnesss, if you really do care about some of this stuff (and apparantly you do care) you HAVE to MAKE the time to get to these meetings. If not, you are the best friend to the status quo.

You have heard some school board members say "nobody comes to the deliberative", and "people don't care". Well, they are partially correct. And the "problems" that we are discussing are due partially to them (school board and SAU) and partially to us (the people that really do care, but do not take the time to let them know our opinions)

Please try to find a way to get to the budget hearing and to the deliberative. Also, bring friends and neighbors.