The Legislative Council was joined by members of the Boards of Finance, Education, and Selectmen, as well as school officials, for an annual session to hear about and discuss upcoming local budget issues. That meeting, January 3, came a few weeks earlier than in previous years.

Municipal details were sketchy because not all department heads had completed meetings and department budget reviews with First Selectman Dan Rosenthal and Finance Director Robert Tait. However, district officials were poised to present their initial budget proposal to the school board and ended up providing a "sneak peek" at some of those details under questioning by the council.

That school district budget presentation was scheduled for Thursday, January 5, but was postponed on Wednesday evening to Tuesday, January 9, because of the anticipated snowstorm, according to Board of Education Chair Michelle Ku.

Acting School Superintendent Dr Lorrie Rodrigue and district Business Manager Ron Bienkowski were on hand, and distributed a handout with a plan to touch on some high level points, but pointed council members' questions prompted them to respond with a few details not yet available to school board members.

One of the unique points, which was supported vocally by council member Judit DeStefano, was a proposal to explore creating some type of contingency account in the event the district experiences a sudden, unanticipated or costly influx of new special education students.

That prompted concerns in the current budget year, as school officials were also grappling with delayed and reduced state funding to support special education services. But Mr Bienkowski was able to report that a current deficit in the district's current special education spending plan had been reduced to $165,000.

A Collective Mission

Ms Ku opened the district's part of the budget session stating that as in years past, school officials' collective mission should drive decisions of the school board. She also supported and hoped to see open cross-board communication continue among officials gathered for the meeting.

She said the district anticipated that state and federal financial support "will be a challenge"; that continuing safety and security measures would be supported through the budget; that staffing will continue to be adjusted based on enrollments; and priorities are to support appropriate class sizes.

Dr Rodrigue said keeping the district on track while maintaining controlled spending "is a collective effort," and that earlier that day, she had met with district administrators "to review the big picture" with a goal of "creating a fiscally responsible budget."

The acting superintendent said her "top priority is sustaining quality programs," adding that she believes that is why "people move here and stay here." At the same time, Dr Rodrigue said she plans to pursue new initiatives including new technical and curriculum advances, bringing in new important programs, and ensuring appropriate support services remain available to students and staff who may need them.

She said compensation for "many staffing positions" is coming off grants every year, and warned that some will need to be continued and supported through the operations budget. She noted the district plans to pilot a NGSS (Next Generation Scientific Standards) curriculum in 2018, and will request funding to support the necessary staff training for curriculum writing.

Dr Rodrigue noted that the latest teacher contract awarded 2.65 percent average increases in salaries, and that payroll and benefits will likely represent 78.3 percent of the district's total budget.

She said the district is seeing a slight increase in elementary school students, countered by a slight decline at the middle and upper grades. The acting superintendent said the five-year transportation contract with All Star will see no increase this year, but was negotiated providing for a three percent increase each year going forward.

Council officials questioned Mr Bienkowski about anticipated federal subsidies for converting more district buses to LP gas, but the business manager said under the Trump administration, that federal program was not funded.

In closing the formal part of her presentation, Dr Rodrigue said she had already reduced preliminary budget requests by more than $2 million prior to her planned presentation to the school board.

Shared Purchasing Agent

Finance Board Chairman James Gaston asked about whether the town and district would move forward pursuing the addition of a shared purchasing agent. First Selectman Rosenthal confirmed that the shared position would be included in both the district's and town's spending plans for the next fiscal year. Dr Rodrigue said a shared computer network specialist is also part of both budget requests.

Responding to a question from Ms DeStefano about the district's level of success at bringing more special education students back from out-of-district placements, Dr Rodrigue said the district requires resources but the appropriate investments could still produce cost savings, as out-of-district placements could run as high as $60,000 per student or more.

She added that any mediated settlement affecting new students receiving previous out-of-district services are evaluated through individual PPTs, and that the hiring of special education supervisors has been a benefit to that end.

Councilman Ryan Knapp asked about the process for determining staff in relation to reduced or exhausted grant revenues supporting those positions.

"I keep telling staff to look at what we need and what will service our students," Dr Rodrigue responded. "Do we still need those services? We need to look at where we are now versus five years ago and decide. Some services are important but not needed."

School board Vice Chair Rebekah Harriman-Stites said the district plans to use a NOVO grant for research, and use any data gathered to justify new and added ongoing grant funds.

In closing out the pre-budget meeting, council Chairman Paul Lundquist reminded officials that voters process information differently that officials who engage in operational and budget work regularly, and taxpayers need to better understand why certain spending is happening.

"They need to understand the storyline driving increases," he said, "We can do a much better job of that."

Councilman Dan Honan, who was just elected chair of the council's Education Committee, said he hopes to have a liaison at every district budget meeting, "so we have a full understanding as budgets develop."

The Municipal Side

On the municipal side, Finance Director Tait was able to share that the average increase in currently negotiated salaries is 2.25 percent, costing an additional $273,000 in the coming fiscal cycle, and that on June 30, Town Hall employees, Public Works, and Emergency Communication Center workers' contracts will be up for renewal.

Mr Tait said current positive experience in Newtown self-insured medical benefit fund is tracing at a 7.5 percent decrease, which could end up yielding a $238,000 decrease in costs. That savings, he said, will be used to offset planned increases in pension contributions that are budgeted at $290,000.

In terms of municipal operating expenses, Mr Tait said he plans to recommend a "same services budget for the most part" with increases "close to inflation." He added that any savings from a planned February refunding of qualified municipal bonds would be applied to offset interest on debt service.