This week the Wilton Public Schools‘ superintendent Dr. Gary Richards presents his budget for the ’14-’15 school year. There are two opportunities for town residents to hear Richards’ presentation:  the first is at a Q&A hosted by the Wilton schools’ PTAs on Thursday, Jan. 23 at 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the Cider Mill School Cafeteria; the second is at a town Public Hearing, also held Thursday, from 7-10 p.m. at Middlebrook School Auditorium.

Residents are invited to ask questions and express their opinions at both meetings; the Boards of Education and Finance will be present during the evening presentation, and they have both frequently expressed publicly that they seek input from the town’s citizens as they work to create an affordable operating budget.

GOOD Morning Wilton has covered the preliminary Board of Education discussions and budget workshops that have led up to the budget thus far, which currently stands at a proposed 4.66 percent increase over last year, for a total proposed operating budget of $79,687,892. In addition, BoE chair Bruce Likly recently spoke with GMW about several issues in front of the schools, including the budget.

We highly recommend reviewing the “super graphic” prepared by the administration, which breaks down where the school district is allocating and planning expenditures based on assumptions they make for the ’14-’15 school year. You can find that document here.

If you can’t make either of the presentations, we suggest attending one of the regularly scheduled meetings of the three main town boards–Selectmen, Education and Finance; the town calendar is online here. Additionally, you can email the various boards via the following email addresses; messages sent to the BoF and BoE email addresses will be delivered to all members of the respective boards. To contact the selectmen, email each individually.

Finance: boardoffinance@wiltonct.org

Education: boe@wilton.k12.ct.us

First Selectman, Bill Brennan: bill.brennan@wiltonct.org
Second Selectman, Hal Clark: haroldclark@hotmail.com
Ted Hoffstatter: tedhoffstatter@hotmail.com
Richard Dubow: rjdconsult@optonline.net
James Saxe: JASaxe@optonline.net