Finance Board Gets Budget Proposals [UPDATE]

Update 12:05 p.m.:

First Selectman Jayme Stevenson's budget transmittal message is now attached to this article. It appears to be the longer message in the budget document, not the statement given Tuesday evening to the Board of Finance.

Stevenson said in an email that she will also send the Tuesday evening statement.

Original article:

The town-side budget and the town education budget were each officially handed over Tuesday into the care of the Board of Finance, which focused its first official discussion on education spending, particularly special education.

The town-side budget, , increases spending by 6.4 percent, to $41.3 million. Finance board members said almost nothing about that budget during the meeting.

When it came to , however, they listened to Board of Education Chairperson Elizabeth A. Hagerty-Ross give a slide presentation explaining why her board proposed increasing spending by 5.3 percent more than the current fiscal year's spending, to $80.3 million—a $4,010,377 increase.

Hagerty-Ross on the education budget

Overall enrollment in the school system is expected to be essentially flat in the next fiscal year, not changing much from the present 4,819 students, Hagerty-Ross said. Enrollment at the high school will increase by about 34 students, and Middlesex Middle School will see a decrease of about 29, she said.

The high school will get an extra teacher to handle the enrollment increase, and the middle school will lose 1.25 "full-time equivalents" as a result of its enrollment decrease, she said.

Personnel costs, which make up $55 million of the $80.3 million proposed budget, increase the total proposal by $765,000, Hagerty-Ross said.

Part of the increase reflects the proposed addition of a social worker for elementary school students and a school psychologist for high school students, each at an additional cost of about $70,000, Hagerty-Ross said.

The Board of Education also wants five Spanish teachers for a new World Languages program in the elementary schools, she said. Their salaries would cost a total of $320,000, she said. Health insurance and other benefits, along with teaching materials, will raise the cost even higher.

Special education

Special education spending, which is somewhat unpredictable because it depends on individual education plans, many of which have not been set, is estimated to rise by roughly $1 million, to $18.9 million, with state special education funding falling by about $900,000, according to the superintendent's proposed budget.

With revenue from state special education funding (the Excess Cost Reimbursement program) and other revenues, the total proposed special education cost to town taxpayers is estimated at $16.7 million, an increase of about $1.9 million.

Although the school system is obligated to pay for special education costs, it can dispute particular plans in court if a disagreement occurs between parents and school officials over individual students' education plans are not resolved.

Board of Finance Chair Liz Mao asked Superintendent Stephen Falcone whether or not special education costs could be held down if Darien Public Schools had an unlimited legal budget.

Falcone said that out of $2.9 million expected to be spent in the next fiscal year on expensive out-of-district placements of special education students, probably $2.3 to $2.4 million is on arrangements where school officials and parents are in agreement.

In the remaining $500,000, the school district came to some kind of legal settlement in about 15 separate cases.

Mao said that while it might be thought prudent to settle an individual case, it is possible that a settlement can encourage other parents and their lawyers to pursue cases, losing money for the district in the longer run.

"You might have five more look-alike cases once people know you can get that as a settlement," she said. Mao said she'd like to discuss the district's legal strategies later.

Stevenson on town-side spending

First Selectman Jayme Stevenson delivered a brief budget message to the board, saying the budget was both lean and representative of the spending that town residents seemed to want.

Stevenson said the selectmen's proposal is "an attempt to preserve town services at their current level" while looking for savings through efficiencies and cutting any unnecessary spending.

In recent years the capital budget has increased as the town has taken advantage of record-low interest rates, she said.

"If you take out the costs for the upcoming [townwide property] revaluation, our capital costs thisyear are actually less," she said.

Stevenson said she would like to see the town side of Darien government share more services with Darien Public Schools in order to save money. "We owe it to the taxpayers," she said.

Stevenson said after the meeting that she would email a copy of her statement to Darien Patch (which will publish it).

Membership has its privileges

The town budget is a public document that includes a longer presentation from Stevenson, but it wasn't made available to the public on Tuesday night at the Board of Finance meeting—only to members of the Board of Finance. Members of the Representative Town Meeting may also get copies. Mao said no extra copies of the paper document were available Tuesday evening.

No extra copies of the paper document are expected to be available later, said Finance Director Kathleen Buch. The budget may be posted Thursday on the town government website, she said. When it is, she said, it would not have page numbers on it.

Board members typically refer page numbers when discussing various items in the budget, making the document to be posted on the website not only difficult to navigate but useless for the purpose of helping to follow the budget discussions.

Members of the public may file Freedom of Information Act requests for the hard copy of the budget, with page numbers, with the town Finance Department. The cost for the document, which has more than 200 pages, is 50 cents per page, Buch said.

At Board of Education meetings this year, numerous members of the public could be seen in the audience, flipping through the thick binders containing the board's proposed budget, which were distributed by Darien Public Schools.

The Board of Finance will hold a string of meetings on the budget, including a public hearing in Auditorium on March 13, then pass their own proposed budget, which goes to the Representative Town Meeting for final approval.