BOE special meeting for public input on budget, Tuesday 1/27

The BOE held the second of two public forums on the budget last night. I was not at the first, I believe Ed Greene may file a brief report on the Monday meeting.

Also, if you were unable to attend the State of the Schools address last week it has been posted at: http://www.guilford.k12.ct.us/State_of_the_Schools_2009.pdf

The budget that the BOE is proposing to the BOF represents a 3.67% increase over last year. This is down from a 5+% increase over the last several years, and Bill Bloss cited our percentage increase as lower than six out of eight towns with comparable DRGs. The increase is primarily due to contractual obligations for salary support.

A draft of the budget is available at: http://www.guilford.k12.ct.us/%7Egpsbudget/budgetpb.pdf

While Dr. Forcella stated that he believes the budget is "adequate" it was described as addressing the "minimum needs".

Areas that Dr. Forcella stated are being trimmed:

* The amount being spent on the 5-year technology plan has been reduced to $75K for this year.
* Supplies have been cut to a bare minimum.
* Maintenance is being prioritized and deferred if possible.

Neither Dr. Forcella nor BOE members would speculate on what would be cut if the budget did not pass but suggested they would be uncomfortable cutting anything further, and that further cuts would likely result in staffing, larger class sizes, etc. It was noted that only recently had Guilford recovered from the budgets that failed in the 90s, and that it can take a decade to recover from significant cuts.

Bill Bloss did mention that he was cautiously optimistic that there might be federal assistance for school budgets (see NY Times article).

Necessary repairs to Adams are still being planned, including 3rd floor air conditioning, electrical work, and drainage improvements. These will likely be addressed as a separate bonded referendum of approximately $1M with the budget.

The vote on the combined town and education budgets will take place on Tuesday April 21st (mark your calendars!)-- this was originally scheduled for 4/14 but was moved due to school vacation that week. There will be further opportunities for discussion and input through BOF meetings, and a town meeting will precede the vote.

That is all-- kind of a low key meeting, my take is that Dr. Forcella and the BOE are doing what they can to keep costs reasonable, but it will be essential to pass it.

Chris