Questions on school budget at hearing

FALLS VILLAGE — Voters heard the details of the proposed spending plans for the Lee H. Kellogg School and the town at a lengthy and sometimes contentious public hearing Monday evening, April 25, at the school.Andrea Downs, chairman of the Board of Education, went through the budget manually, so to speak. (A computer presentation was scratched due to technical difficulties.)Her overall theme was one of frugality. “We worked hard to control costs at the local level and prepare for the increase” in high school tuition. Falls Village is experiencing a sharp rise in the number of students attending Housatonic Valley Regional High School.She added that projections show the number of students going to Housatonic going down in the next two years — from 48 currently, to 42 next year and 37 the year after that.When the current fifth grade gets to high school they will number about 31 students, Downs added.(Note that as of Oct. 1, 2010, the town had 53 students at the high school. The assessment is based on that figure. Each town pays a portion of the regional education budget based on the number of students at the high school in October of the previous fiscal year.)Other cost-cutting measures include: a two-year contract with certified staff that has a 1.1 percent pay raise in the first year and a 1.9 percent raise in the second; removing one bus route; limiting the number of new computers purchased; fewer cultural programs and assemblies; asking the staff to be conservative with supplies “and making do with what we have.”Significant savings have been realized by using a program that shuts down computers and electronics when the building is empty. The budgeted figure for the 2011-12 electricity bill is down $4,550, from $25,550 to $21,000.The Board of Education has made health savings accounts available as an option for faculty and staff; new hires have arrived at lower salaries, contributing to a net decrease in teacher salaries of .8 percent ($6,287); and hours are slightly reduced for the assistant custodian.An addition of $4,000 for after-school progams was explained by Downs: “Dom Caiati has been running them with 35 kids. That tells us there is a real need for this kind of programming.” (Kellogg’s current total enrollment is 83 students.)One change is that Kellogg is pulling out of the Region One summer school program in favor of running its own three-week course. Downs said that transportation to Cornwall Consolidated School had been a negative factor, and Kellogg Principal Maria Bulson added that in previous years Kellogg has never had more than three students for summer school, but with the change of venue 12 have already enrolled.The Kellogg spending plan’s total is $1,737,584, down 2.9 percent ($51,135). However, with the increased Region One assessment of $1,361,216 (up 32.9 percent, or $336,943) the proposed total for education spending in the 2011-12 fiscal year is $3,098,800, up 10.2 percent ($285,808).The Region One budget referendum is Tuesday, May 3.Downs said that any additional savings at Kellogg would necessarily involve cutting programs or reducing staff, and stated that the Board of Education feels that “further cuts would have a negative impact.”Downs noted that the board did offer an early retirement incentive for veteran teachers at the higher end of the salary scale, but there were no takers.And she stressed that there are additional pressures on the faculty as the Scientific Research-Based Interventions (SRBI) progam is implemented. The program is in place throughout the district, and is mandated by the state.Another difficulty in reducing staff is that teachers hold a wide range of teaching certificates, and the school cannot place a teacher with a K-3 certificate (for instance) in a middle school classroom to fill a gap.Questions and comments from the audience were fairly brief. Roberta Scott wondered why so many students were involved in the SRBI “interventions” (additional help and instruction on specific academic or behavioral difficulties).Downs said the program has been well-received at the high school, and Bulson said that in the first year of the program she has seen a decrease in referrals to her office, for either academic or behavioral reasons.Moderator Fred Petersen read a question given to him by someone unable to attend: Why should the taxpayers, not the parents of the children involved, foot the bill for summer school and the after-school program?Downs said with the after-school program the goal was to allow any child to participate regardless of the family’s means, and that summer school is part of the school’s overall responsibility.First Selectman Pat Mechare said that while she admired the after-school program she thought financing it should be up to the parents.Municipal proposalMechare was up next, going through the selectmen’s proposed spending plan, which calls for $1,537,790, down $5,000 or .324 percent.Mechare noted that Town Hall employees had voluntarily agreed to no salary increases. “This is two of the last three fiscal years they’ve done this.”The major issue with the municipal spending plan is the moving of $3,500 from the Recreation Commission to Line 1023 — Fund for Non-Municipal Public Benefit Activities.Mechare said that, based on a search of past minutes of meetings of the Recreation Commission, the $3,500 had gone to the Falls Village Children’s Theater Co., and the Board of Finance had decided that this was a grant.Rec Commission Chairman Doug Cohn disputed this, as did his wife, Denise, speaking from the point of view of the theater group.What followed was a reprise of a discussion from a Board of Finance meeting earlier this month, with Doug Cohn arguing that a newly energized Recreation Commission needs the money, and Lou Timolat from the finance board holding fast to the decision that the funds should be treated as a grant.At one point Timolat said, “What is it you want? Half put back into winter sports and leave half where it is? If that’s what it is then say so.”The discussion was, ultimately, inconclusive.Denise Cohn questioned the selectmen’s bottom line from the current fiscal year, where there is a $64,388 difference between the estimate of expenditures for 2010-11 and the amount budgeted. Mechare said that at the end of the year the selectmen might ask the finance board to put unexpended funds into the town’s various capital accounts.And Downs said that when she first started dealing with budgets, she was counseled that a budget with specific figures is easier to support than one with round figures (which is true of much of the selectmen’s plan).In wrapping up, Petersen reminded the audience that at town meeting voters can do only two things — approve the spending plans as presented or reduce the amounts.