Who’d have thought a public hearing on the Town of Wilton‘s proposed school budget for 2015-16 would end after only 40 minutes? That’s how long last night’s Board of Finance meeting lasted, as town finance officials presented the largest part of the next year’s prospective budget–the education budget–to voters, and received only a handful of questions during the public comment portion of the meeting.
Bd. of Finance chair Warren Serenbetz began by painting a general picture of Wilton’s financial status and explaining the budget process for the small crowd of about 20 Wilton residents at Middlebrook auditorium. This explanation led up to Serenbetz’s proposal that Wilton’s overall FY ’16 budget will be $115,105,000, an increase of 2.56-percent over last year’s budget.
He noted that what’s primarily driving the FY ’16 budget is that the operating funds required are currently budgeted to increase $3.854 million–offset by the use of just under $1 million ($0.983 million) from the Fund Balance to net a 1.75 percent mill rate increase. Serenbetz said that this increase is driven by a request from the Board of Selectmen for a 2.06-percent increase, or $0.655 million; a request from the Board of Education for a 1.98 percent increase, or $1.555 million; and an increase in debt service of 16.63-percent, or $1.514 million.
He also explained the general financial health of the town, starting with where the town gets its revenues. Noting that the Grand List has shown less than 1-percent growth, Serentbetz said that number is consistent with the figures from the last four years. He also said that Wilton has consistently been able to collect taxes at a rate of 99.3-percent; the town will see a small decrease in state grants and funding (due to a decline in BoE grants); and there’s been a small increase in fees and other income.
The factors impacting future sustainability include Wilton’s real estate market, which while improved is still below pre-recession volume and prices; employment data that continues to improve with the town’s unemployment rate at 4.6-percent; and the state budget, which Serenbetz said causes some concern due to state deficits and possible grant cuts in future years.
Serenbetz introduced Bruce Likly, chair of the Wilton Board of Education, to explain the particulars of the school budget, which, as proposed at $79.956 million, reflects an increase of 1.98-percent over last year’s budget ($78.401 million).
Education Budget Details
Likly characterized the budget his BoE was bringing to the town as one that reflected how the district was, “…focused on performance, opportunity and continuous improvement.”
He added it was built to achieve specific goals: “We want to ensure that every child is personally connected with their schools; we want to implement a rigorous and relevant curriculum; we want to recruit, retain develop the strongest possible employees; we want to maintain a mutually supportive and trusting relationship with our community; and we want to develop and implement operational protocols with a focus on continuous improvement, supported by a budget that represents value in the eyes of our community and gains the support of Wilton taxpayers.”
Likly asserted that what the district does is, “…not just simply about educating kids, it’s about building an educational system that people want to move to Wilton to be a part of. What this town built, and continues to build on, is a school district that attracts new citizens, attracts home buyers, and attracts investment in our community. That’s good for all of us.”
The budget, said Likly, reflects priorities the district is working on for the next year; he pointed out a few specific elements that were included in the budget: focusing on opportunities for gifted learners while making sure every student is challenged; developing a farm-to-table culinary course at the high school (to possibly expand to Middlebrook); the reintroduction of world language to third grade; expanding collaboration between teachers; and increasing the amount of technology available for teachers and teaching them how to use it to better serve the students.
It also includes a “significant review of special education services,” which Likly said, “was to better serve our students, our district and our community,” a tacit acknowledgement that this area always draws much attention from some at budget time due to the high costs incurred by the district.
In a direct reference to recent criticism lobbed at the district by Sensible Wilton, Likly mentioned enrollment, and called it a “hot topic” both in past years and today. Sensible Wilton has charged that the Miller-Driscoll renovation is bloated in scope and cost given that enrollment projects show shrinking numbers of children by 2018.
“The reality is our student population is shrinking but from what I’ve seen it isn’t shrinking as fast as some might say or think it is,” Likly said. He asserted that the data varies greatly. “Some of these numbers show precipitous drops, some show gradual reductions, and some don’t want to speculate on the unknown. The real challenge we face is we’re being asked to predict how many kids our residents might have 10 years from now. The answer lies in the quality of our schools, the strength of our economy and the number of beds in our community. Looking at those variables I believe we will see a stabilization in enrollment in the next 10 years, and there are some speculations that we’ll see a return to growth as well.”
He even took a philosophical step further, saying, “For our town’s long-term health, that stabilization and return to growth should be everyone’s goal.”
As the number of students enrolled in the school has some bearing on the number of teachers, Likly mentioned staffing adjustments in the FY ’16 budget. He noted that in total, the district would be cutting 4.3 Full Time Equivalent positions.
The Specific Budget Numbers
Salary and benefits: Of the total proposed $79,956,024 budget for FY ’16, Likly pointed out that employee salary and benefits accounts for 77.8 percent; citing contractual increases, he said that salaries grew $1,145,931, or almost 2.4 percent over last year. “This makes getting our budget numbers down a real challenge.” That increase in salaries also makes up the largest portion (74 percent) of the BoE’s requested 1.98-percent total increase.
He said that the district has actually been able to decrease costs in the area of benefits, to the tune of just over $1 million.
Professional services: One area that showed a heftier increase over last year, at 19.94 percent ($610,692), was “Purchased Professional Services,” a category that includes special education services, legal and independent evaluations; district legal fees, the Safe School Climate initiative; the district’s evaluation of SPED services; and professional development.
Facilities: For facilities maintenance and repair is an area where Likly says the district “has taken a hit in the last few years, and it has a lasting impact on our town if we don’t stay on top of it.” With a very small increase of $14,283 (1.18 percent), the major work will be done to revamp the school libraries into “learning commons.” The overall number in this category is small because any costs for 2015-16 were offset by what the district incurred due to security upgrades.
Other purchased services: Likly said the cost for special education, tuition and outplacement as well as transportation services–which are contractual–will increase $831,445 (9.67 percent). That overall cost is offset by participation fees the district collects, which Likly said, “…is in line with what surrounding districts are doing, but it is a number we’d love to find a way to make go away.”
Supplies: Likly said that the district is making an investment in textbooks, something that they’re “excited” to be able to spend money on following years of cuts in this area. Even though the district is spending that, this category had enough decreases in other supplies to show an almost $10,000 decrease (.67 percent).
Eequipment: Most of the $48,373 increase to replace classroom furniture that was deferred in recent years. It’s also the category that includes the technology budget of $823,929, which Likly said is flat compared to last year’s technology expenses, “but it’s well-funded to do what we need it to do.”
Likly reminded the audience that the complete budget is online, and he encouraged questions to be emailed to the board.
He closed his comments by comparing Wilton’s education budget increase to the budgets in surrounding towns. At a 1.98 percent overall increase, Wilton’s increase was the lowest on the list, below Westport (3.75 percent), Weston (3.17 percent), Ridgefield (3.19 percent), New Canaan (5 percent) and Darien (3.65 percent).
“While [the budget] does a very nice job addressing the needs of our students, it also does a nice job in assisting our Board of Finance in closing our mill gap,” Likly said. “We recognize that closing that gap has an impact on the financial attractiveness of buying homes in Wilton.
Public Comment
Among the few members of the audience, some people directed their comments and questions to the boards. Among them were:
Veronica and Keith Fordsman, who said they recently moved from Florida and were the parents of a highly gifted child. They told the board that, “It is a little disappointing that you offer no service for that minority.” Veronica Foresman said that she hopes the board will take into consideration enrichment, taking it more seriously and making it more relevant. “It will help the economy in Wilton. You will attract more people, people like me.” Citing the school system as the reason they moved to Wilton, she also pointed out the two teacher arrests this year on sex-related charges. “It’s not helping,” she said.
Ed Papp: “We’ve heard a lot about unfunded mandates, coming from Hartford and Washington. Could you list a few that affect the budget? Can you approximate the overall percentage that we have to spend to comply with those unfunded mandates, whether it’s No Child Left Behind, Common Core, SPED, to help us understand the issues that are out of your control, and to help the community to understand what it needs to do to lobby for improvement?
Dr. Kevin Smith, the school’s superintendent, acknowledged the impact of the transition to Common Core standards. “All districts have been transitioning curriculum to correspond. Additionally, we’re also transitioning to a very different type of assessment–the Smarter Balanced (SBAC) Assessment.” While he said it was tough to give a specific number because the impact is so far reaching, the related costs included new materials; “lots and lots” of new professional learning time, to rewrite the curriculum to train staff to teach to the new standards, which he said was a multi-year process; the impact on technology, because the new assessment is given on a computer. That means the district has to insure there are plenty of devices as well as provide training to staff and students on the devices. Although he couldn’t cite a specific figure on the spot, he called it “a considerable amount of money.”
Serenbetz added that some mandates are “underfunded,” and he cited state SPED funding and reimbursements.
Alex Ruskewich: Two simple questions: one on participation fees–I see that they’re not increasing. Can somebody comment on how they compare to our neighboring towns. My understanding is that many neighboring towns have higher participation fees.
Second, to Bruce Likly on the enrollment figures. I’ve seen on the web that most neighboring towns are projecting significant enrollment decreases. I’ve seen Easton having problems, Redding is considering closing a school, Westport is reducing enrollment projections, Ridgefield has significant reductions in enrollment projections. I’m wondering what’s different here in Wilton? Are we handing out Viagra packets to the newcomers? Why all of a sudden we have a different projection than everybody else?
Likly responded on participation fees, saying that Wilton’s fees are in line with other towns, some are larger and some are lower. “It’s hard to make an apples to apples comparison. For example, in Wilton the gate receipts for all student events go to town, in other schools they go directly to the athletic budget. It’s a number we’re looking at. My personal view of what the board’s looked at, is that we’d like them to go away. We can’t afford to have them go away. Personally if we could find another way to fund that same amount of money, I’d be interested in doing that.”
Likely also commented on enrollment, saying, “It was a personal view on my point that I believe the numbers are going to level off at some point and start to grow. It’s in our community’s best interest for that to happen. When you look at communities that have shrinking school systems, they also have other issues as the population ages. I believe that as we continue to make our schools better and better, it will become more of a magnet for people to move to, and as we address the mill rate gap and overall costs, I believe there’s a possibility students will flock to Wilton. In keeping our services at or above those of surrounding towns makes us more competitive, and therefore positively impacts our real estate values.
Ruskewich, the president of Sensible Wilton, opposes the plan to renovate Miller-Driscoll and has cited declining enrollment as a reason to reexamine the scope and cost of that project. He replied that he’d prefer relying on projections that use more scientific approaches based on demographics, “…not on feel or on wish. If you have an analytical, scientific method, I’d be willing to discuss or look at it with you.”
While Likly pointed to one report that, using economic variables as well as real estate variables, projected an increase by 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Ruskewich said he was more concerned with the nearer future. “I’m worried about 2017, 2018, 2019 when the expenses are being borne for this. If you do a cost discounted cash flow, you’d know anything further out is worth less than what you have currently. This is my concern on that. I’d be happy to see those. I’ve seen their projection for Newtown and it’s down.”
Likly came back directly referencing the subject Ruskewich was dancing around: the Miller-Driscoll renovation. “I respect your concern for the building project at M-D. The challenge we have is we have to renovate a facility that we believe will handle the town’s needs for the next 20 years. We are therefore trying to make the best educated decisions that we can for kids who haven’t even been born yet.”
The final speaker was Maggie Feltz, who said she wanted to express her thanks to the officials who put together the budget. She said that as the daughter of two retired CT public school teachers, with a sister who is a former Wilton teacher, and a son with special needs going to school in Wilton, she was grateful for “respecting the fact that my child’s brain just works differently. I don’t think my son could access the education without the level of support that he’s getting. I will continue to support the education budget any way I can. To me it’s made a world of difference.”
Tomorrow evening, Tuesday March 24, the Board of Finance will present the town operating and capital budget prepared by the Board of Selectmen. That public hearing will take place at Middlebrook Auditorium at 7:30 p.m.. Following that, the BoF will begin to deliberate setting the town’s mill rate, on Tuesday, March 31, in order to determine the budget that Wilton voters will consider at the Annual Town Meeting on May 5 (adjourned vote May 9).