Council Budget Hearing Set For

March 30 At Middle School

By John Voket

Braving a driving torrent of heavy, wet snow, town and education officials went before the Legislative Council Wednesday evening to make final appeals and answer questions related to their respective budget proposals. After being passed on by both the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance, this week’s meeting was the final opportunity for council members to hear about budget concerns from the experts who crafted the proposals as they currently stand.

Next Wednesday, March 30, at 7:30 pm in the Middle School auditorium, the public will have its final turn to speak about the budget proposals before council members deliberate and set the final package to be presented for taxpayer approval in April. Before passing it on for council consideration, the Board of Finance finished its phase of work on the package, voting to cut $400,000 from the school’s $4.7 million proposal.

Factoring in more modest municipal-side cuts, the budget passed on to council members Wednesday represented a $90 million-plus proposal. If the numbers remain unaltered by the council, and the proposal is subsequently approved by a majority of eligible taxpayers, it will increase local taxes by 4.8 percent, raising next year’s tax rate to 26.1 mills.

A mill represents one dollar in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed property value.

During this week’s meeting, council members heard an abbreviated presentation by School Superintendent Evan Pitkoff that detailed education budget issues and reviewed an extensive list of items that have been frozen in order to reallocate school board funds for other current budget shortfalls.

As in past presentations to selectmen and the finance board, one major point of contention was a $216,000 commitment school leaders made to cover approximately 15 percent of expanses related to an accidental fuel oil spill at Reed Intermediate School December 30. Dr Pitkoff clarified that commitment was just one of a number of unanticipated expenditures that have left schools scrambling for supplies and forcing the postponement of much needed building repairs and improvements.

“Other underbudgeted areas include transportation, particularly special education transportation; heating fuel which we budgeted at $1.20 per gallon and is at more than $1.60 today; diesel fuel, natural gas we needed when we switched over from oil at the Reed School; and legal expenses that were also higher than anticipated,” the superintendent said.

Near the end of his presentation, Dr Pitkoff was joined by Assistant Superintendent Alice Jackson explaining the need to find additional funds to complete the most vital repairs, including replacing exterior and interior doors at the middle school.

“It’s become a security concern,” Ms Jackson told the council. “These doors are so old they have to be replaced, and we’re better off replacing all the doors at once.”

“We’ve said you either pay now or pay later,” Dr Pitkoff added. “But in some cases we’re at the point where we can still pay relatively little now, or a lot more later.”

He reminded the council that more than $120,000 in repairs approved by voters last year have been frozen and not completed, and that these repairs are not currently budgeted in the 2005-2006 proposal either.

“I believe the budget I presented to the Board of Finance is a budget that adequately addresses our needs,” Dr Pitkoff said. “We’re also suffering because of enrollment increases. I prepared a lean budget, but perhaps it is too lean considering we had to address these unexpected underfunded items this year.”

Council member Richard Recht told school leaders he had been questioned by taxpayers about the overall teacher-student ratio, which he understood was seven to one.

“I realize there is excess personnel needed besides just teachers, and that class size increases and decreases without a lot of advance warning, but if a taxpayer asks me to explain how it makes sense to fund a seven to one ratio, it just doesn’t pass the ‘reasonableness’ test to me,” Mr Recht said.

In response, Dr Pitkoff held up a worksheet he had circulated showing breakdowns of every new staff position in the current budget proposal, and where those staff members were needed.

“This is the detail on each and every position,” Dr Pitkoff said. “This is the ‘reasonableness’ test. We also have to defend to people why we spend what we spend.”

After several more minutes of discussion, council chair Will Rodgers clarified his impression of the data.

“What you’re telling us is if the student population growth for next year was zero, you would still be looking for most of these positions,” Mr Rodgers stated.

At that point Board of Education member Thomas Gisson told the council the data is much more appreciable when positioned against other neighboring communities.

“When I consider the ‘reasonableness’ test, it’s not really fair to make comparisons over a one to two-year period [exclusively within our district],” he said. “When you look at neighboring towns, we have fewer teachers, fewer administrators, we’re doing more with less than other towns. We’re still lagging behind but we’re doing a lot more with what we’ve got and I believe we’ve been very fiscally responsible.”

School board member Andrew Buzzi added that the numbers should not be viewed exclusively as a teacher/student ratio.

“We have many ends we’re trying to meet. If you really look, it’s not just about teachers. We have more responsibilities than just putting teachers in classrooms. It’s all about a total package that most efficiently gets us to where we have to be as a community,” he said. “If we want to educate as well as take on other problems like drug use and discipline, we have to fund for these issues.”

Although he was unable to attend the council meeting, Finance Board Chair John Kortze told The Bee by phone before the meeting that his board voted to fund a significant amount of what the town and education officials requested.

“Disregarding the price of oil, the economy, interest rates, and their environmental emergency, this budget provides for better than 99 percent of what everyone asked for,” Mr Kortze said.

Mr Kortze reasserted his expectation that the school district officials would remain true to their word in covering the $216,000 they committed toward oil spill expenses. He said last year’s resounding endorsement of the budget was not an automatic mandate to pass this year’s budget without question.

“Last year, the community didn’t vote the budget in knowing there would be an environmental emergency,” Mr Kortze said. “Remember that Evan [Pitkoff] came up with that number and we simply adopted it in good faith. To go and ask for it back is wrong, and the town is already bearing 85 percent of the cost for that spill.”

Mr Kortze also said that in the event a full settlement was reached through claims or legal actions, he would support giving the $216,000 back to the Board of Education at that time.