Llodra Testifies In Hartford Supporting Small Town School Districts

By John Voket

Before being elected Newtown’s first selectman, Pat Llodra worked and volunteered in and around school systems for most of her life. So she may be uniquely qualified to advise state lawmakers who authorize where taxpayer dollars should be spent about why they should not withhold certain funding to small towns that want to keep their school districts independent.

Mrs Llodra was among the representatives of two contingents of public officials in Hartford Wednesday, March 7, testifying before the powerful legislative Appropriations Committee.

Members of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM), the state’s largest organization of city and town officials, were scheduled to appear at a forum organized by the committee. Those leaders urged state lawmakers to support most of Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed budget, pleased it increases education aid.

According to the Associated Press, the legislative panel is reviewing Gov Malloy’s revised $20 billion budget for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1. The CCM has praised the Democratic governor’s budget plan because it increases the state’s Education Cost Sharing (ECS) grant by $54.5 million.

CCM is also concerned about his proposal to reduce aid to small districts that do not regionalize.

That is where Mrs Llodra comes in. She told The Bee on the eve of her testimony that she was heading to the capital on behalf of COST — Connecticut’s Council On Small Towns — an agency similar to CCM, that was also in Hartford Wednesday.

A Little History

In her testimony, Newtown’s top official outlined her background, which includes 30 years during which she held various roles in public education in Connecticut. Beginning her career as a teacher, she then spent 15 years as a high school principal.

Mrs Llodra then served as the leader in residence and executive coach with the School Improvement Unit of the state Bureau of Education.

“It is in that latter role that I had the opportunity to work closely with school principals and district superintendents of our most challenged districts, mostly in urban settings,” she wrote in a draft of her testimony, which was provided to The Bee. “So, I am wearing two hats — one as an educator and the other as a municipal CEO as I share my perspective and COST’s position with you on critical educational policy and budget issues.”

Mrs Llodra said Newtown, like most other state towns, struggles to meet the growing costs of educational programs, often at the expense of other aspects of needed community supports, such as roads, parks and recreation, public safety, programs for seniors, and more.

“In Newtown, for example, ECS support has decreased from a level of 7.4 percent of the total education budget in 2004 to 6.3 percent of the total in 2011,” she stated. “And, today, 89 percent of the town’s annual operating budget is funded through local property taxes, up from 85 percent just three years ago. The gap created by dwindling state support is made up by increasing property taxes — a burden our citizens are unable or unwilling to accept.”

Bridging Achievement Gap

Mrs Llodra said she appreciates Gov Malloy’s proposal to target an additional $50 million in funding to the ECS grant and efforts to increase the foundation level, a component of the base aid formula primarily targeted to the state’s neediest school districts.

“We understand the need to provide resources to address the achievement gap that persists in these districts,” she wrote. “As an educator, parent, grandparent, and leader…I am fully supportive of efforts to reduce that achievement gap. I am not proud that we in this state of relative affluence hold title to the largest achievement gap in the nation.”

But Mrs Llodra said that any effort to “rob Peter to pay Paul” will do a disservice to the entire state.

“We value that the governor’s proposal is expected to provide 130 towns with more education funding than in 2011 and hope that this ensures that small towns will receive their fair share of education funding this year and in the future. But it is important that these additional monies not come out of some other fund that has in the past provided grants to towns,” Mrs Llodra stated. “Moving money from the left pocket to the right pocket has other consequences and does nothing to move us toward more equitable resourcing of public education.”

The first selectman said she would point out to the appropriations members that the ECS grant continues to be woefully underfunded by an estimated $700 million. She says Connecticut needs to begin phasing in increases to the ECS grant with the goal of fully funding the program to provide adequate fair share funding to all towns.

Relief From MBR

Mrs Llodra said she appreciated provisions in the bill that allow towns that realize “new and documentable savings” through increased efficiencies or collaborations to reduce the Minimum Budget Requirement (MBR) by an amount determined by the Commissioner of Education. But she wants to see lawmakers develop language that provides greater certainty as to how much relief from the MBR can be expected under these circumstances, as well as greater flexibility to reduce spending where they have been able to achieve savings from other types of initiatives.

“School districts pursue cost saving measures through consortiums to purchase oil and gas, revamping bus routes to reduce transportation costs, offering early retirement incentives to reduce personnel costs and utilizing technology to reduce paper and printing costs, and by cross-district sharing of certain functions, such as building and grounds maintenance and IT support,” she stated. “Unfortunately, the MBR undermines such efforts because towns do not have any flexibility under MBR to reflect such cost savings in the education budget.”

Mrs Llodra also testified that she is against forcing small district consolidation. She said the governor’s proposal includes provisions that would penalize school districts with fewer than 1,000 students by reducing aid if the district’s per pupil cost exceeds the state average per pupil cost from the prior fiscal year.

“There are currently 31 school districts in Connecticut with fewer than 1,000 students, although only 18 of those districts have expenditures above the state average,” she stated.

And while some school districts are voluntarily pursuing consolidation because they recognize that it may produce savings, others have explored consolidation options and concluded that it would not benefit their town either in terms of cost savings or educational quality or both.

The first selectman is concerned that students forced to travel longer distances to reach consolidated facilities in rural areas may result in less time in the classroom and more time on the bus.

“Small towns are also concerned about the impact of district consolidation on their communities, where schools are often the heart of the community,” she wrote. “Residents of all ages attend school functions such as plays, concerts, athletic events and come together as a small community to support the students.”

Special Education Component

Mrs Llodra also said any discussion about education funding must include concerns about the level of special education funding the state provides to towns.

“The local share of special education is almost $1 billion, accounting for almost 15 percent of all education spending in Connecticut,” she stated. “For a number of years, COST has recommended fully funding special education and lowering the reimbursement threshold from 4.5 times the per pupil expenditure to 2.5 times or lower to more adequately reimburse towns for such costs. The state must begin to reimburse towns for a greater percentage of the costs of special education to better meet the needs of these students and property taxpayers.”

She also thinks a proposal requiring schools districts to pay $1,000 for every student that attends a charter school may divert resources away from traditional public schools. In addition, the proposal transfers funding for the charters schools into the ECS line item.

“Although ECS funding has been increased overall, it is unclear what the policy goal is in moving charter schools under this line item,” she wrote in the draft. “We are therefore concerned that this proposal will pave the way for a ‘money follows the child’ funding scheme that will create unpredictable disruptions in funding from year to year for school districts.”