The Board of Education had an opportunity March 14 to plan for further cuts in the 2016-17 school budget, but chose to stick to its guns and show solidarity behind the superintendent’s request.
“This is the budget we put forth. I wouldn’t be happy with any cuts,” said Sharon D’Orso, a member of the board.
“I want to support the budget as it is,” said Fran Walton, chairman of the board, echoing the sentiment.
Superintendent Dr. Karen Baldwin had invited the board discuss potential cuts, saying, “As the FY 2016-17 budget approval process progresses to the Board of Finance (March 28), the Board of Education will need to be prepared to make difficult decisions if faced with reductions.
“To frame this work, we will have to answer the following systemic question: ‘What are we prepared to offer as a quality education for all children in Ridgefield?’
“I anticipate that the board will have rich discussion in several key systemic areas.”
But the board didn’t want talk about where to find potential cuts before any further reductions are made and voted 8-0 (Tracey O’Connor was absent) to back the superintendent’s revised budget request at the 5.72% increase level that she’d presented to the Board of Selectmen. Baldwin had adjusted the budget down to account for a recently found $163,000 health insurance reduction — savings to be generated mostly by changing to a self-insured dental plan.
With the Board of Finance already talking about deep cuts, the school board’s next stop is before the finance board at its March 28 public hearing to explain the $90.9-million budget and show why it believes a 5.72% increase, $4.9 million more than the current year, is merited.
The total is up from the current year’s $86.07 million.
The superintendent had originally asked for a 6.16% increase, but since then savings have been found through a couple of rounds of cutting and the budget request has been lowered to a 5.72% increase.
To originally arrive at the lower budget, Baldwin at first found some savings with grants. Then the board members voted 6-4 to eliminate two new full-time equivalent positions Baldwin had asked for. One was a custodian for the pre-kindergarten program at nearly $50,000 a year and another was a communications specialist and webmaster to shepherd the district’s website and communications to parents, at $75,000. And Monday the board approved the $163,000 in health insurance savings, finalizing its request for a 5.72% spending increase.
The budget increase is still the highest asked for in years, in a town where board member Michael Taylor said the average increase for the past 10 years has been 2.5%.
But the Board of Finance still has its work to do.
Dave Ulmer, chairman of the Board of Finance, said Tuesday that with the schools at 5.72% and the Board of Selectmen at 2.12%, with roads at $1.875 million and debt servicing according to the town’s fixed repayment schedule, “we are looking at a 4.90% mill rate increase.”
Every $500,000 of use of fund balance or budget reductions lowers the mill rate by 0.41%, Ulmer said, so it takes $1.75 million to get under the 3.5% mill rate increase suggested by the Board of Selectmen.
“Although the Board of Selectmen declined to use their charter authority to make a recommendation on the level of Board of Education spending, the motion they did make, to get under a 3.5% mill rate increase, obviously implies both a significant use of fund balance and a significant cut to the Board of Education budget,” Ulmer said.
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