TOWN OF ROCKY HILL
BOARD OF EDUCATION
BUDGET WORKSHOP OF FEBRUARY 4, 2008
Members present: William MacDonald (Chairman)
Nadine Bell
Raffaella Calciano-Coler
Charles McMonigle
Frank Morse
Rene (Skip) Rivard
Catherine Vargas
Charles Wisnioski
Members absent: Jennifer Viggiano
A budget workshop for the Rocky Hill Public Schools was held
on Monday, February 4, 2008 in the library/media center of
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Rene Rivard said there were documents for review with regards to the follow-up from the last budget workshop. He turned the budget workshop over to Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato.
Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato told the Board members that documents were provided to them that listed proposed reductions in the budget. One of the documents was with regards to the question that had been asked as to whether there were any accounts that had no expenditures made in them for two years. She said that Finance Director Turansky prepared documentation with regards to this.
Finance Director Turansky said there was a limited list of items where no expenditures had been made in these accounts for two years. These items were of relatively low value and this list totaled $5,000. The majority of these items were impacted by the 2006-2007 freeze.
Chairman MacDonald said the primary reason for his asking for this list was because of due diligence. He asked Finance Director Turansky if he was recommending reducing or adding onto this list. Finance Director Turansky said he wasn’t recommending doing any of that and he believed there were plans in place for the current year for these items. The items on this list that had asterisks next to them were items that had to do with the freeze.
He went over the two items on this list that have already been eliminated from this year’s budget.
Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said another question that had been raised was with regards to the money for the equipment for the portable classroom and whether or not there was possibly a double classroom in the high school. She said Principal Hayward spoke to the teacher of Room 331, Mr. Bruneau, and he said that dividing this room in half wouldn’t work. Mr. Bruneau suggested maybe dividing the room and having two-thirds of it as one classroom and one-third of it as another classroom. Principal Hayward spoke to Dr. Riggs and if a Special Education class was to be put into this room then one of the current Special Education classroom spaces could be vacated. Principal Hayward also spoke briefly about the initiative of co-teaching.
Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said with regards to the money in the budget for the equipment for this portable classroom, $4,100 of it would be used for furniture and then there would be a reduction of $5,650. Principal Hayward explained that the Special Education class space that might be vacated does not have traditional student desks in it and there certainly aren’t twenty-five desks. Money will be needed to outfit this room as a regular classroom.
Chairman MacDonald told Principal Hayward that he appreciated her going through all of this and he said there has been discussions for the future with regards to the school facilities and the classrooms not all being only one size. Chairman MacDonald thanked Principal Hayward for being proactive and he told her he appreciated her time with regards to this. Chairman MacDonald supported this and he said this is a good way of using space there. He also agreed that furniture is needed for this space. Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato mentioned how she tried to reach Rich Cooke (Town Director of Facilities) with regards to dividing the classroom but he was not in today.
Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said these were the follow-up questions from
the last budget workshop. Rene Rivard said a further reduction is now being looked at of $5,650.
Charles Wisnioski echoed what Chairman MacDonald said. Charles Wisnioski asked about the space being created that Principal Hayward had referred to and he asked
if that was going to be expanded by taking a wall out. Principal Hayward said no construction would have to be done and she mentioned that Room 322 would be vacated. Charles Wisnioski asked where this room is. Principal Hayward explained this room is on the left towards the locker rooms as someone comes out of the library.
Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato referred to the portable classroom and she said there is not exactly $10,000 in the account for this. She explained some more.
Charles McMonigle said he was confused about Room 331 and he asked if there was talk about talking one-third of that room and using it so that two spaces would be created. He also asked if two Special Education teachers would use one room so that they would free
up a room. Principal Hayward explained that there were two different concepts but they end up being combined and she explained some more. Charles McMonigle asked if the smaller space would be able to handle the number of students that are in the present Special Education class and Principal Hayward said it should be able to.
Rene Rivard asked if there were any other items. He said the Board of Education members had been told at the last budget workshop meeting that was held last Thursday that they could submit any additional questions to Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato. Rene Rivard asked Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato if she received any additional questions. Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said she received correspondence from Charles Wisnioski.
Charles Wisnioski said he submitted something to Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato in response to last Thursday’s discussion of the budget and in this correspondence he gave his opinion of the budget as well as the budget process. Charles Wisnioski mentioned how he also had approximately $600,000 more in cuts but he didn’t think it was appropriate to discuss this information this evening. He said in the interim period that the Town Manager sends back to the Board a budget that most likely would have additional cuts there are a lot of qualitative issues with regards to what is being done presently and what will be done in the future (i.e. curriculum). One of the items that was in his correspondence was a statement about the number of high school courses that have enrollment figures of ten students or below in them. He said Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato had told him that there was no policy that addresses a minimum enrollment in a course. Charles Wisnioski said this was a complicated issue with regards to remedial courses and courses that are advanced. As a new Board member, he believes there needs to be some dialogue as to whether courses that have that level of enrollment can be afforded. He also believed that there are other spaces that need the same kind of review like Principal Hayward has worked out with her faculty. Before the budget comes back to the Board, it is his hope that in the next sixty days there will be a series of Curriculum Committee meetings that will address where everything is headed. He understood the idea of the budget about it being given to the town and asking the town what it is going to give the Board.
Rene Rivard applauded Charles Wisnioski for his due diligence. Rene Rivard said there are many items that need to be discussed during Curriculum Committee meetings outside of the budget process.
Chairman MacDonald asked where everything stands with regards to CABE. Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said there is $3,000 in the budget for professional development and this is being reduced by $1,500 so there will be no money for
professional development but there will be money to have an audit of Board policies done and there is $5,700 for membership in CABE for the new superintendent. Chairman MacDonald asked if membership in CABE is eliminated if the audit would go from costing $1,500 to $4,500. Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said yes. Nadine Bell said the potential would then be lost to have seminars that are taught by CABE people. Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato said CABE is an excellent resource for a new superintendent.
Chairman MacDonald said after looking at class size analysis and after talking about the social studies position being knocked down to a .2, he was wondering why this position couldn’t be reinstated to a 0.6. Principal Hayward agreed with Chairman MacDonald.
Chairman MacDonald asked if a .6 position was being added for abnormal psychology. Principal Hayward said it was. Chairman MacDonald asked Principal Hayward if she had a choice if she would want to put the money towards the social studies position or the new course. Principal Hayward said this would be a very hard choice to make and she explained more. She said if she had a choice then she would ask to have a little given to each of these positions. Chairman MacDonald said more and more students are coming in and the majority of them have to go through world history but not abnormal psychology. Principal Hayward agreed but she mentioned how all of the students who are coming in would have to take an elective and that means they are going to take up spots in all of the electives that are already filled so more elective spots will be needed.
Chairman MacDonald referred to the .6 English position and he asked if this would be a new hire. Principal Hayward said it would be and she explained some more. Chairman MacDonald said he would make this a .4 position and he would keep the social studies position a .4 one. There was a discussion that followed with regards to this. Principal Hayward said the administrators might come back to the Board and say that they can deal with a .4 English position instead of a .6. Chairman MacDonald recommended that the social studies position go back to a .4 and he said the English position can be kept at a .6. This means that a $6,000 reduction would have to be come up somewhere else in the budget. If both of these positions are made into .4 positions then there will be no impact to the budget. He explained some more about this. Charles McMonigle confirmed with Chairman MacDonald that he changed his recommendation now to both of these positions being .4 and Chairman MacDonald said he did.
Catherine Vargas said it wasn’t known how much more the class size is going to be in history versus abnormal psychology. Chairman MacDonald suggested leaving both positions at .4. He said $6,000 could be cut from supplies.
Charles McMonigle referred to the NATEF certification at the high school and said he was confused about this. Chairman MacDonald told him that a certification would want to be gone forward with. Assistant Superintendent Boutilier said there is money in the budget to do a study for this and a list will be drawn up with for budget requests in order to go ahead with the certification. Charles McMonigle referred to the $19,000 worth of equipment in the technology education budget for that room and he said since the school system is not on the verge of running a certified program for next year he asked if an effective program could be run with $6,000 less of equipment. Assistant Superintendent Boutilier explained that through the process of running a program for this study, a company may be found that is willing to donate this equipment. Charles McMonigle said if money is left in to explore the possibility as to whether a certification program wants to be gone through to find out what is needed then he wanted to know if $19,000 would still need to be spent on equipment. He asked what the impact would be of taking $6,000 out of the equipment for the program this year. Principal Hayward said that was a good question. She said this program is fully enrolled and she explained some more. Raffaella Calciano-Coler said her understanding was that big ticket items in this account are needed to sustain this class right now. Principal Hayward explained if certification does occur then these items would be needed. She told the Board that the $6,000 reduction would want to be found somewhere else and not here. Nadine Bell said the $6,000 could be taken out of the supplies account.
Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato referred to the administrative professional development line with regards to it being reduced. She asked if a recess could be taken for five minutes with the administrators with regards to the $6,000 worth of potential budget cuts.
Moved by Rene Rivard, seconded by William
MacDonald, to break for
five minutes at 6:10 p.m. with
administrators to discuss potential budget
cuts.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
After the recess, Interim Superintendent Parmelee-Blancato referred to the professional development for the administrators once again and spoke about reducing this by $4,000. She also spoke about reducing the artist/writer in residency by $2,000, and reducing the high school science equipment by $232.
Rene Rivard asked if there were any further questions. There were no further questions.
Moved by Rene Rivard, seconded by William
MacDonald to break
for twelve minutes to prepare motion
to be read by Catherine Vargas.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Rene Rivard asked for a motion seeing there was no further discussion on any items.
Moved by Catherine Vargas, seconded by
William MacDonald, to amend
the Superintendent’s budget proposal
as follows: reduce Elementary Vice
Principal position $95,000; reduce
Technology Assistant $28,400; reduce
Technology lease purchase $25,000;
reduce Special Education tuition
$30,000; reduce Board of Education
Professional Development $1,500;
reduce portable classroom furniture/
equipment $5,900; reduce artist/writer in residence $2,000; reduce
administrative professional development $4,000; reduce high school
science
equipment $232; increase ESOL tutor salary $6,612; increase Athletic
Trainer contract $6,000.
This will make a total budget reduction of $200,000 of the
Superintendent’s
original request of $2,404,653 resulting in a revised budget submission
of
$27,981,880 which is a net increase of $2,204,653 or 8.55% increase.
OPPOSED: C. WISNIOSKI
FAVOR: ALL OTHERS
MOTION CARRIED
Moved by Catherine Vargas, seconded by William MacDonald, to adjourn
the budget workshop at 6:30 p.m.
FAVOR: ALL
MOTION CARRIED
Respectfully submitted,
Jo-Anne Booth
Recording Secretary
Accepted by:________________________ Date:________________________