001Okay, call to order. We'll start with the pledge of allegiance of America and justice for all >> here. >> Mr. Grady >> here. >> Miss McNair >> here. >> Mr. Oolinda >> here. >> Mr. Paradis >> here. >> You have a form. >> Okay, get started. >> For those of you, can you hear me? >> Hello. Make this louder. >> For those of you who don't know me, I'm Sal Bordner and I'm the chairman of the board of finance. Welcome to everyone in attendance and and those on Zoom. The board of finance was given a proposed budget that would increase the property tax rate by 4.2%. After a thorough review and working with town management, the board of finance made budget adjustments which reduced the tax rate increase from 4.2% to 2 and a.5%. The
002board of finance majority voted to move forward with its adjusted budget. Prior to the budget being released, the town received a $4 million reimbursement for the final closeup of the Brone High School construction project. This allowed the town to allocate those funds towards various capital projects and items, including HVAC upgrades at Griswald School, more school vans and police vehicles, and several more items which had no impact on the budget. The proposed budget did include an additional $1.6 million in capital items which was reduced by $450k by the board of finance. Although the plan has a net reduction in total debt, the town plans to issue $4.2 $2 million in additional bonds to go towards the second phase of the police department upgrades Timberland Encourse bridges and the East Berlin recreation complex upgrade including capital. The
003general government proposed budget increase of 5.44% was res was reduced by the board of finance to 4.07%. If you take out the capital, which represents over half of the increase, the general government proposed budget increase of 2.3% was reduced to a 1.8% increase. The board of education requested a 5.34 operational budget increase. A board of finance majority approved a 3.35 increase. Historical board of education performance supports that 3.35% increase should be sufficient. In the last eight completed years, the board of education has asked for an average 4.9% increase. Received an average increase of 2.7%. And in every year, there were funds available to reallocate or carry forward a year end. Throughout those years, the board of education was able to add more staff and introduce no new programs. At the end of the board of
004education presentation, I have included a chart that shows those statistics. Burlet's peral expenditure remains the highest in comparison to six similar nearby towns. Those towns include Glassenberry, Newton, Farmington, Weathersfield, Rocky Hill, and Cromwell. The town expects $2 million in additional tax revenue from real gold flow through the grant list. As we can continue to bring more businesses, complete some of our major building projects, and tax abatements drop off, grantless tax revenues will continue to grow. I want to thank the town and board of education officials and managers for their hard work in preparing the budget. Finally, I want to thank the board of finance members for welcoming working together to produce a solid budget. I believe we put forward a fiscally responsible budget that continues to provide the highquality services that our citizens expect. With
005that, I'll turn it over to our town manager, Brian Bur. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Borara, and thank you for everyone who's here in attendance this evening and those who are online as well. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Ryan Curley. I'm the town manager and I'm here uh to go over the fiscal 2027 proposed budget. And I I want to echo what Chairman Boraro said. I worked alongside our finance director Kevin Delaney as well as our our staff members, department heads, and the entire board of finance who's here this evening as well. Uh, everyone has has combed through budgets and and made some some difficult decisions and that includes the board of education as well who who's with us this evening. So, just to go over for those of
006you who may be online that don't have the slides in person, you can find the slides. They are available on the on our town website. They're under the board of finance. So, I would encourage you to to download those and follow along if you'd like. I'll just touch base on the agenda. So, I'm going to go over the overall budget. I think it's important to highlight some of the accomplishments that we've had over the past fiscal year. So, we're going to touch on that briefly. I'll speak about the revenue that's included in this proposed budget and then I'll turn it over to board of education president uh Julia Dennis who's here with us this evening as well and then I'll close out with the general government budget at the end and we'll go over next
007steps as well. So overall strategy I just want to touch base on this because it's important this this slide is important but it really doesn't change from year to year. public safety, education, infrastructure, culture and recreation. These are all priorities of the town. These are this is what we all strive to do and we strive to do it in a structurally balanced and sustainable way. Uh our goal, it says it on the bottom, provide services to residents, uh expect to grow the local economy and closely manage town liabilities. This is this is what we do. And uh I think I think overall this I I'm pleased to say the town is in is in very good shape. We have a we have a terrific town council. We have a terrific board of finance and and
008uh town staff you should all be proud in. So I do want to say that. Uh so just to go on just to talk about what we've done over the past year. So this is a a new playground at Willardan Elementary School that was installed this past year. I didn't get a picture of Little People's Playground, but that is new as well. And so, hats off. I see Steve Wood out here and the parks and uh grounds crew. Steve always disappears whenever there's a ribbon cutting and there's photos. But I do want to thank you and your staff for for doing such a great job on on these projects. Uh, next slide, please. The Willer parking lot. This was done last year on on my first so I started last year and um Ashley gave
009me a great tour and one of the first things that she showed me was the the current conditions at the time of of the uh Willard parking lot. So it's been a great improvement there. Next slide. We we remodeled the old VNA space at town hall. We now have swing space that's utilized for our registar of voters and early voting as well as a new conference room that's utilized quite a bit by town staff. So hats off to facilities for that project as well. And then the new the next slide is a picture of a a newly renovated youth and family uh youth and uh family services office as well. This was a big topic. I see I see Peter Roso in the front row. You uh you This was one that the town council
010had had asked about and and I know a number of people had asked for better lighting at Zippadelli Field and our girls softball field. So, this was upgraded this past year as well. Next slide. We had new bathrooms installed at both Willer School and our Merlin Senior Center as well. This was a request and you'll see in the budget that there's more bathrooms to go as as we continue to renovate our our facilities here in Berlin. So, next slide, please. We had a new roof put on at town hall this past year as well. They did a great job on that. Thank you to facilities for and our uh public building commission because they've overseen this project. A new walking path was installed at center field. Uh they did a great job. That's Parks and
011Grounds again that oversaw that project. The caretaker's home at 292 Debian Road was demolished this past year. I believe that was a a long time coming. So we're pleased that we were able to get that uh taken down after a long time. I also want to mention, I don't have pictures, but we have the Timberland Golf Course has the bunker project that's ongoing right now. And the Timberland Golf Course is already open for business for 2026. So, and I believe we have our grand opening this Friday morning, right, Saul? All right. So, Friday morning, what time is that? 10 a.m. 10:00 a.m. Uh, I just want to touch on the paving schedule. We were able to pave over four and a half miles of road of town road this year in the town of Furland.
012You can see the see what our highway department, public works department accomplished this year. Uh it's it's quite a bit and I know there's probably plenty of people in the audience that are saying, "Well, when's my road coming?" And it's on the list. So, it's a long list. Next up, I just want to touch base on some of the grants that the town received this year. We were very fortunate. We received three competitive grants. I want to emphasize that competitiveness because we're competing against many other towns in the state. We received an $800,000 connectivity grant uh to install sidewalks by Hubard and Griswald elementary schools. We received a $1 million small town economic assistance grant for a new roof and HVAC mechanicals at the Berlin Peek Memorial Library and Community Center. And we also received
013a grant for a new ADA accessible uh bus for our seniors. And so all of these all of these grants that we receive, these are things that we're able to to do without impacting the town budget, without impacting your taxes. So we're going to continue to apply for and maximize uh grants as much as we can see uh fit to do so. All right, next slide. So here I'd like to talk about what's included in the proposed 2027 fiscal year budget. As I mentioned before, infrastructure, public safety, culture, recreation, these are all main priorities every year, but the nuances of that change from year to year. This year, we're looking at police station upgrades. This would be the second part of a project or or projects at the police station and this would renovate the
014the main office facility area and really bring bring that area up to speed. It's been it's badly needed in our police department. Uh the McGee sidewalks uh are also needed. This has been an item that has been on our capital list for some years. It's it's included in in this budget and I'm excited that it's uh that it's in here and uh I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get these sidewalks replaced this year for our students and faculty. Sage Park irrigation. This is whenever you have an irrigation system. There's ongoing maintenance and and we want to take care of our parks. Sage Park is no different. So that's included in this year's budget. school laboratories I mentioned we have Griswald is the priority this year I believe we want to take care of there's
015a uh boys and girls bathroom bathrooms over there that we want to uh get done this year as well as some asary work as well as uh various doors and locks to replace throughout the town public safety uh the proposed budget that I put forward included two police officers when the board of finance reviewed at and based on new information that they received, they they thought best to to replace one of those officers and with a dispatch officer, which uh which is needed in in our dispatch to to again make the uh the 911 system safer for the town as well. So, the proposed budget that's before you currently includes one new police officer, which would bring us as a town up to 48 sworn officers and one full-time new dispatcher as well. This also
016includes funding for new school security cameras which over time just technology uh continues to adapt and we need to continue to put put funding aside so that we can keep up and make sure that our schools are continue to be safe civic and recreation. So the the Deore Dinda Bitner Junior Memorial Pool upgrade has been in the works and talked about for a number of years. The plan is to replace the pool with a splash pad, a pickle ball, a court, a a recreation area for for the children, and a parking area. It's a really great plan. It's before our parks and recreation commission right now and and it's currently being designed. So, I think that's Weston Samson doing the design work right now. So, that's included in the budget. That would be phase one
017of that project. Uh I mentioned Timberland before with the bunkers, but the bridges at Timberland also need to be replaced as well as the the maintenance building at Timberland uh need some work, additional work as well. Ongoing operations, public safety, uh education, legal or legal expenses, contractual expenses, compliance and recreation. This is all ongoing. This is every town in the state and country talks about this same work and Berlin is no different as well as our long-term obligations as well. This pie chart gives you an idea about where your tax dollars go in Berlin. You can see that about 35% of your tax dollars go to fund the general government operations. You have long-term liabilities at about 8% or$8 million. This budget includes, and I'll touch on this in a little bit, over a million
018dollars of capital, which is also important to the town as well. And so, uh, I'm excited that we have some capital in the budget. In addition, you have you do have some transfers. And then you'll see the board of ed operations at 51% of the budget and general government for board of education. So, some shared services at 5% as well. Looking at the numbers as it currently stands, the board of education is looking at a 3.35% increase over the previous year. General government is up 4.07% and remember that 4.7 or 07 includes that capital that I mentioned. So that that's why it looks a little higher than the board of education here. But overall, the general fund budget is up 3.7% overall. And the mill rate is a 76 the proposed mill rate. On this
019slide you can see the historical the historical figures on this. And it's important to note that as of right now the average home is assessed at roughly $345,000 in in Berlin. and the proposed budget with with this 76 increase, you're looking at about $185 increase over last year. Is that right? Yeah. So, uh that's where we're currently at. So, the average homeowner in Berlin would see a $185 increase over the previous year with the proposed budget. Uh, I do want to point out though that I I would encourage everyone in this room to take a look at other neighboring towns and other communities. Berlin is doing very well this year with with its budget. My again my my hats off to the board of finance, board of education, and everyone for for working on this.
020It's there's a lot of tough headwinds out there. Particularly health insurance continues uh to be an an excessive cost and this is I talked with other town managers across the state and hear the same thing and and so Berlin uh continues to be very fiscally conservative and and I think that's why we do so well with our economic development which I'll touch on right now. So, our grand list this year, that's the value of all of the property in the town of in the town of Berlin, is up over 2%, 2.18% this year. For the first time ever, we're at over $3 billion on our grand list, which is which is really uh incredible. And that brought in or that will bring in an additional 1.9 million in additional tax revenue alone this year. So
021you can see the components of that. Real estate was up6% this year. Personal property is up uh 6.2% and motor vehicles is up over 10% which that kind of tells you the the state of uh the town is good because our residents are buying vehicles and that's a sign of a healthy economy. Next slide. So, as uh chairman Boraro mentioned, the board of finance met for a number of deliberations and they they really combed over the budget and they they made some reductions. The the initial budget that that I put forward had a mill rate of 31.94 and so they did make uh the board of finance made some changes. You can see those changes here. They they reduced the board of education by uh just over a million dollars. They reduced uh that police
022officer that I mentioned, added a new police dispatcher. They reduced police overtime a little bit as well as the electricity budget and they uh did uh increased the fire administrator stipen that had never been adjusted. So that was uh you know all of this all of these modifications included uh many deliberations and a lot of and a lot of thought and so they also did some changes to the revenue as well where town clerk fees were increased by $50,000 and there was a municipal revenue sharing grant that we had to remove because we would not be eligible for that grant in the current proposed budget. All right, next slide. I mentioned capital. I think it's important to just touch on this. You see, you got $1.17 million in proposed capital. Every one of these items
023on the screen was ranked as a number one priority by our staff as well as uh members of the board of finance who attended the meeting. This was these are all tough decisions because every year we have to prioritize aging equipment and and limited resources. you have to balance your your needs with what what the town is able to afford. On here, these are all important updates that uh our departments badly need to continue to improve the town. Uh you'll see the camera upgrades and the lavatory upgrades that I mentioned, the sidewalks uh that I mentioned at McGee. Uh and and you can you can read the full list here, but it is important to note that the budget as it's proposed currently does include monies for all of these items. And as Chairman Borardo
024said, we were also fortunate to receive that BHS reimbursement funding and the town the town council as well as the board of finance wisely spent that on capital needs. So, this is one-time funding that the town received almost like a windfall, and it was widely used to to achieve all of these items that's on the first list. Uh, police vehicles, school vans, radio upgrades for the fire department. Uh, the and we have a HVAC at at Grisswald School, and a a moisture tile remediation project that's coming to the high school. This is all all of this was able to be spent without increasing the taxes uh by anything in the town. We also utilized uh debt or yeah debt savings this year to do uh there was an appropriation to save to help save the
025Augustus Moore homestead. We also bought a or are in process of pure p purchasing a generator for our town facilities at town town farm lane. uh veteran park bridges as well as a payment for a fire vehicle. And then you see other work that we're utilizing state grants for. This includes Sage Parking lot improvements which will be coming this summer. We're excited about that as well as a senior um center parking lot improvement project. We're looking to add more ADA accessible spaces at the senior center as well as more additional spaces overall because our senior center continues to uh become more popular and we need more parking over there. So, we're going to continue that. And then we also have work this year with I mentioned that police station renovation project. We have the bridges
026at Timberland and we have that East Berlin pool project that's becoming a splash pad and pickle ball course. So that is all part of this budget. Next I'll talk about revenue and you can see so as you can see largely taxes make up the bulk 80 over 87% almost 88% really of the revenue for the town of Berlin. We are fortunate in town to maintain uh 99.3 collection rate. Our tax office does a a terrific job. Uh we do receive about six six and a half a little over from our uh the state of Connecticut. This year the the funding that they allotted us did not change from the previous fiscal year. While we would always welcome more funding, they they did hold steady. So we are grateful for that. Uh but but as always
027um as costs continue to rise, if the state doesn't give us more allocation, more gets put on our taxpayers. So if you if you see your state representative or state senator so you know it's always helpful but um we do get some funding from fees uh and then interest interest is down this year. You'll you'll notice I'm sure your savings accounts have seen their interest rates kind of uh shrink a little bit over the past uh couple years or so. And so the town is no different and we have to adjust for that. And we have a 97,000 uh dollars in not education state grants as well. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our board of ed president, Julia Dennis, who is here. And turn over to you, Julia. Thank you.
028>> All right. Good evening. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you to the board of finance, um, chair south orro, mayor, town council, board of education members who are in attendance, the administrators, and all the community members who are here this evening. Um, taking time out of your week to be here and engage in this process. Um, so, you know, I just want to start out with my appreciation that, you know, those who are here or tuning in. Um, you How do I advance this slide? Oh, you do it for me. Oh, okay. Perfect. Did he steal it? Did he steal the click? Okay. Um, so my name is Julia Dennis. I'm the chair of the Berlin Board of Education and uh the budget is something that we take very serious. We spend the majority
029of our time each year as a board working on this. We go through several meetings, workshops, discussions. We ask questions. We take time um and you know we ground our decisions in the foundation of the budget is grounded in the mission, the core value and the goals. This is what has been front and center during this budget process. And we have a responsibility to deliver a quality education to students and to the parents who trust us with that. So you know we serve the students and our focus is on the students. Um our mission Oh go back. Yeah. To empower our students to be enthusiastic, curious learners and kind, compassionate leaders in our community and in the world. Um and I and I know I truly believe in that and that's you know what me
030and the board go back to when we make these budget you know when we have these discussions. We move on. We want to start out by highlighting some of the student achievements in our schools and you know if if we didn't have great schools we wouldn't be able to share these achievements. um you know 73 members in the national uh national honors society this year inducted we had 120 received the pre presidential award we had um the Lemonson MIT grant I don't know if you guys are familiar with that but only a handful of states received this three schools in California one in New York one in Massachusetts one in Florida one in Arizona and here we are we have that here in Berlin so if you have not seen the work that Berlin High
031School is doing with the bats. I cannot pronounce carp carpet knockdown. Yeah, they presented at our board meeting last month and it was just incredible work that they're doing. Um and and all these are because we have wellunded schools and you know we we use our budget wisely and we advocate for what we truly need. Go to the next one. Uh some other distinct districts highlight, you know, we have 40 inter classic sports teams, inter mural sports, art league, upbeat employment through our um the high school, they they do internships and they're getting kids career career ready and I think that's really important. There's clubs, the media team, theater program, banded chorus, and all all our students have so many options and opportunities and these are the things that we need to continue to provide
032to have a strong community. So, um another thing the average class size is 19 and the for elementary and secondary is 21. We have great programs that we offer which are up there. team, uh the college and career pathways, different pathways, we've rebranded some of them, having the capstone project that is so unique to Berlin. Uh it's not required by the state. There's project adventure. We offer AP, ECE, and college partnerships so students can leave high school with as many college credits as possible. And that then saves our community probably upwards of a million dollars a year if it were to be calculated how many college credits are getting. earned versus how much is being saved. Um, so again, all these opportunities for the students and we grant their decisions and options and opportunities for
033what's right best for the Burland learners. So our our fiscal budget for the 2627 year um is the board adopted a 5.34% budget coming in at 57,481,59. And you can see right here, the red is just all staffing. Um, and if you want to go to the next slide, the board of finance budget recommendation was from a uh 5.34, which we requested, to a 3.35. So, I'm going to get into a little bit about like what this looks like and what this means for the board of education. So, the the the graph the chart on the slide, those are the reductions. The red is the staffing. Um the green is contracted services, yellow is transportation and tuition, and the blue is supplies and equipment. So, the board of finance has proposed a 56,397,59 budget for
034the board of ed, which is the 3.35%. Um, or a1,829 uh,151 increase from our current operating budget. So, this 1 million reduction from our pro our adopted budget, the board's adopted budget um will have an impact on us. And throughout the budget process, the superintendent and the board of ed maintain the message of prioritizing staffing and programming because if we become a district where people are scared to lose their jobs, no one's going to want to work here, morale in the schools will not be positive. And then then you need to question is that what's right and best for kids. Do you want your kids sitting in front of a teacher who's questioning if if the school is going to bring them back or not? Because that's going to impact their learning if the teacher
035comes to school worried, scared, stressed every single day. Same with their parents, same with their custodians, same with the secretaries. So Berlin does actually do a great job with not doing the pink slips every year like a lot of districts do when they face reductions. Um Brian and his team have done a very good job at focusing on staff morale, but that doesn't come that doesn't come quick and that's not in every single district and that's not a guarantee. If staff start thinking that they're going to lose their jobs, morale will change quickly. Um and that has been a huge priority of the board events. So the board reduced department requests such as supplies, equipment, and all other expenditures. really staying away from the positions. We do not want to cut positions or programs. Uh
036we reduce unanticipated outplacements for special education and the tuition. We also reduce contracted services and utilities. And you can see about 70% of the reductions are coming from other categories. However, to achieve the recommended reduction to the board of ed budget, we had to look at staff positions. at a 3.35% we will not be able to maintain current staffing levels. So what does this mean? If you go to the next slide, this slide right here shows you the positions that will be getting cut out of 3.35%. a math teacher. Um, we will have to consolidate sections and have larger class sizes. A ELA, two ELA teachers, uh, a sixth grade class size is going to have to go up to 25 uh or more per class. So, sixth grade ELA, two positions. Um, ISS supervisor
037remove the request for additional par profofessionals for special ed students. produce a number of unanticipated hope placements. Uh just hope that we don't get additional up placements and if we do we will cross that bridge when we get to it. Reduce building operations and reduce the request for equipment. So we do not have a line item for technology and equipment like our Chromebooks for students or laptops for staff. That is not your budget. That is funded through a year surplus. Um okay so the fiveyear uh staffing comparisons you can see on this slide um and this has the revi this is revised with the proposed recommendations. So the next slide some common misconceptions um fewer so one misconception is fewer students always mean fewer teachers. So the FTE counts are not reflective of student needs
038in current programming. Decreasing enrollment doesn't necessarily mean fewer teachers. There's program mandates by the school like financial literacy is one. Berlin was ahead of the curve. They put that in place far far before that was required. The state required some type of capstone before financial literacy and then financial literacy got rid of that. Berlin had that in place in advance. Um special ed requirements. so on and so forth. There's a number of requirements that we we have to offer uh regardless of how many students there are. Um special education, IEPs, and staff roles. So the student to staff ratio is not just a basic calculation. It's just not something you can just add up, divide, and come up with a number. The assumption that declining enrollment translates to fewer teaching and staffing positions isn't accurate.
039And again with special education that has changed significantly since even I was in school and the regulations the federal regulations are you know have continually evolved to keep students in the classroom and provide what is best for them. And so again saying we have declined enrollment. Our needs have shifted and the the needs for students have changed. The requirements set forth by you know the federal and state government have also changed. The FTE count are a reflection for student needs and programming. The district monitors enrollment closely and has reduced the number of elementary sections and high school teachers. Every year it seems like every year it seems like we are reducing a teacher here, a teacher there. We've reduced as many administrators as possible. So however it in our unwavering commitment to provide this highquality
040education that students deserve and families expect um you know we've also identified need for additional support and sometimes that results in a net zero change in our FTE numbers. So you can go to the next one. This is our elementary projected enrollment. There's you know these projections are not always accurate. uh they are just projections and you know no changes are projected. It's going to stay flat for elementary. Again, that could change. They're not always accurate. These people come up with them. You can go to the next one. Um oh secondary. So it's just saying that uh McGee will decrease enrollment by 14 and BHS will increase by three. So again, we are talking 14 and three for changes. So pretty much our enrollment is staying the same and anything can change. Um but I
041I I don't think saying 14 students is all that significant for numbers that are dropping uh in budgetary decisions, but we can keep going. So the board of education's budget as recommended by the board of finance. This just shows our um you know our 3.35%. You can go through this a little more careful but it shows the you know what the board adopted what's recommended by the board of finance the difference and the percent difference. Um you can go through that a bit more carefully and then we are going to get into funding comparisons. So, superintendent request by DARD. So, the state doesn't really officially go by drugs anymore, but everyone still goes by drugs. It's a district reference group. So, towns made up of similar demographics, income, socioeconomic factors. Um, and you can see
042we are we are not even in the middle. We're we're right below the average. So, uh coming in right about you know some districts as high as 9%, some as low as 3.2. we were right there in the middle. Our request isn't even in the sixes or the eights. Um we really really thought carefully, asked a lot of questions, and that's where we came in at. We didn't know where others were coming in when we came in at that. Just so you know, that came out after you can go to the next slide. Okay. And this is where we fall uh for a budget percentage. Um, so we're we're below the average middle. You can go to the next slide. So the per pupil expenditure in Jersey and the state comparison. So the the line
043the green line going across. It might be hard to see. That's the state average. And then you can see where Portland's per pupil expenditure is. And we're just focusing on dirt D in all these. So it's just consistent data across the per pupil expenditure is used to identify approximately how much a school district spends per student. That calculation does not apply. It's not apples for apples. There's several variables to consider when looking at this. Districts with higher enrollment, higher denomination will likely have a lower per pupil expenditure. Um higher denominator. Yeah, they will have a lower per people expenditure. Other factors that contribute to prep pupil calculations are special ed costs. So where the majority of the staff is placed on the salary schedule. So there's a salary schedule that is negotiated through you know
044the collective bargaining and where are the teachers on that schedule. So that will also go into it. Um what other specialized programs are they offering and you know most importantly what's important to student success. So here in Berlin, we we want to focus on what's important to student success. Regardless of where we are in all of this, we need to do what's right and best for our community. Having a per pupil expenditure and alignment or higher than the state average is actually a good thing. And it shows the community's investment in our schools. And the most important thing to note is a higher per pupil expenditure does not mean education is overfunded or that education is is funded adequately for the future. It doesn't mean that at all. So you can go to the next
045slide. So the board of education's budget recommended by the board of finance. So the key takeaways for the board of education budget as recommended by the board of finance does not maintain educational standards um of the community what the community expects and we promise to deliver. There is a disconnect between this budget and our promise and our our ability to deliver on that. reduces teaching staff. It increases class sizes. Teaching has gotten increasingly difficult over the past five years. I will speak to that as a teacher. And the challenges that we are now facing as classroom teachers are things that we never even thought we would face. Education is devolving. The profession is getting more difficult. But but we do it because we love it and because we want to do what's right and best
046for kids. And at the end of the day, having a larger class size and having less staff, that is not the answer when your enrollment numbers are projected to stay flat. So I, you know, again, we we talk about the staff morale and keeping the schools a happy place for people to work where they want to go to work, where they want to be, because at the end of the day, that's what's best for the kids. If you have a teacher that doesn't want to come to school or you have a parent that doesn't come in every day and then there's inconsistencies and then there's sub after sub after sub or you know all these different things that occur, you know, we will provide the subs and we have that in the budget, but is
047that what's best for your kid every day? Is that what you want for your kid or your grandkid or your niece or nephew or just the people in Burland, the kids in Berlin? Um, so it does not allow our school district to be as progressive as we intended based on what I just discussed. You know, I think a 5.34% is just a maintenance budget. This is no new program. It's only, you know, the only additions we had were two requests for special education par professionals. That was it. the surplus. Um, so I'll get into the surplus now. The surplus is not necessarily a bad thing and we do not, you know, we do not budget for it. We cannot guarantee it. So, as we conclude, you guys saw our budget and what we're doing. You
048heard from the town manager and all the wonderful things that are happening, you know, in our town, in our community, the economic development, what how the schools are benefiting, whether it's through grants or or the town surplus, it doesn't matter. The Willard playground got done. They talked about the splashback, um the parking lots, the sidewalks, the bathrooms, all these different things. And again, it can be grant funded. It can be through the town. Um but these are things that we get to provide to this the kids in our town. And do we want to be a town that, you know, accommodates the children? I I I think so. But, you know, we have a surplus at the end of each year and the town does as well. Later on, um, in the presentation, the board
049of finance is going to discuss the board of ed surplus. Uh, from what I saw, there's no mention of the town surplus. So though the town's surplus probably contributed to these great and wonderful things as well as a brand, I don't know the breakdown. Uh I'm a busy lady. But what you need to ask yourself or or ask them or ask any of us is what was the town surplus and why wasn't that shared? Unless it's been since I I most recently looked, but I I don't think I saw it. Our job as a board of education is to focus on the education to advocate for the kids and to deliver on that promise to them and their families. It's the board of finance job to set the n number. It's the community's job to
050come out and vote. So I I implore every community member to come out and vote so we can continue providing the education that the kids deserve. So I'm going to leave it there. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. As I mentioned in my introduction and I just share some statistics for the last eight years. So the next chart basically shows you that in the last eight years that we you know last year com last year that we closed out um you can see that the board of education in the first column requested those year-to-year increases and for those eight years that average was 4.93%. As a result of going through the budget process and developing budgets, the approved increases, as you can see in the next set of columns, average 2.73%. Now, I will say that
051um the board of education has done a great job managing according to those approved budgets uh and they've made whatever changes they've had to, but at the end of the day, at the end of the year, there was also money's left over that they can transfer to technology or whatever else they want to do. So, they've done a great job and I don't have any problem with budget surplus. Uh I think uh some of it is needed but at the end of the day if you look at the history you know that that they they were um they were given operational budgets 2.2% less than what they requested and they've done a great job with uh with respect to staffing. You can see the last four or five years even with those percentages staffing has
052been pretty stable you know overall for the board of education. Yeah, I mean things have changed throughout the years when there's been mixed changes and uh changes in requirements and you know this is just a number that says overall from when I've been tracking overall staffing increased 15 you know FTEE since I've been tracking it and at the same time the overall student enrollment has has dropped but the difference between the town and the board of education is that the town whatever surplus the town has all goes back to the town and and gets a and for the most part every year we've we've applied it to capital projects. So it all goes to capital projects which encompasses not only town capital but also school education capital requirements also. So that's that's the biggest difference.
053The board of education really can't transfer that money anywhere but keep it within their within their budgets. Next slide. Um, as I talk a little about the extended circle of people, interesting, probably about five, six years ago, the board of education did present this chart and they were on the bottom half of this chart in terms of expenditure per pupil. So, the last three or four years I've been presenting because it's no longer available. So, basically that we've done we've come a long way with increasing budgets for the board of education and that demonstrates that we've been funding them. uh a lot better than some of the other towns and their net expenditure, you know, they're first in that category between several towns, nearby towns. Okay, with that, I'll turn it over to Ron. All
054right, thank you all. I'll I'll go through this try to go through this brief here. So this is this slide right here is the drivers. Right now in our general government fund, we're looking at a $2.1 million increase over the previous fiscal year. I mentioned before uh the bulk of that is in operations and staffing. We have one new proposed police officer. We have that new dispatch officer. uh contractual wage increases make up the majority of this number as well as the health insurance increases that I mentioned uh previously as well. Uh I also touched on earlier the capital. We have quite a bit this year uh that's included in the currently proposed budget. There's $651,000 increase in operations. This is largely driven by contractual increases as well as inflation. Operating materials continue to to
055rise. Uh transfers is important. I do want to touch on that because our public building commission has been doing a really great job in town uh working with town staff on a number of projects. And this line here, this additional $225,000 is to fund uh the architecture and engineering for a number of projects. There's four specific projects that we would like to accomplish in the upcoming years. And so th those projects are new uh renovated bathrooms for our Berlin Peek Library. They I I see Carrie out there. I know I know those bathrooms are needed. So, we're going to uh work on the design for that. Uh the front plaza of town hall has had some uh drainage issues which need to be addressed. We have the our our windows at town hall as well.
056I think they might be original windows if I'm not mistaken. Doug, I see Doug nodding his head. So yes, we have to address those those aging windows and uh the Timberland bridges as well. So that's what that additional $225,000 is for. And we did have some good news this this year as well. uh the town has done a great job paying our pension liabilities and so that's why you see that $260,000 reduction in our closed pension plan. So I want to congratulate everyone who's who's had a part in that over the years as well as uh debt payments. We have 1.6 million in reduced debt payments in the upcoming fiscal year as well. And that that allows us to do all these other projects and and still although we're going up in the mill rate,
057we're still able to uh to go up at at a reasonable rate. Oh, I did mention I should have mentioned before that the current proposed budget is a 2.5% increase to your current taxes as well. It's a 2 and a half mil rate increase. I don't think I said that earlier. Uh the next slide, Berlin Water Control. So this is th this is another fund of the of the town. It's an enterprise fund. And so this year, I'll just go through this quickly. The the water fund is up uh 300 about 340,000 and the sewer fund is up about 468,000. There's a number of drivers of that. uh there's no staffing changes but uh Matabaset where our where our sewer uh goes to uh inflow and infiltration INI continues to to rise and the and
058Mattabassets increase their cost to us for that. So that's why you see an increase there as well as we have a number of projects that we have engineering uh and construction management upcoming. Uh the Meridan interconnection is particularly interesting because we're going to connect with the city of Meridan for water. And while we while we put our Lamentation Mountain tank offline, we will uh buy or utilize that connection from Meridan. And once that tank that we have is back online, we will likely be able to sell water back to Meridan. So, that's a it's a pretty interesting project that we're that uh we're working on at town hall. Uh and so then we have a couple other design projects. East Berlin water system design work, Division Street upgrades, and Worthington Road Loop. So, that is
059it. I I want to talk about next steps. So after this hearing is is closed, our our board of finance will be meeting to um to deliberate and potentially send the budget to the town council. Uh after that the town council will meet on April 7th and I guess I should say the board of uh they can at the town council would be able to at the April 7th meeting reduce the budget but they can't add anything to the budget at that meeting. So they they could reduce the budget. Uh they uh it'll be up to them and they can send it uh to referendum. And so referendum will be April 28th. So, please I you know, if you're here on a Tuesday night, I'm sure we'll see who at the polls on on referendum
060day. Uh so, thank you all for for being here. I'm you know, I'm hopeful again. I I said it last year when I was new that I wanted to see if we could get a oneanddone referendum. We came pretty close last year. We had the the general government side did pass. Um I'm hopeful that no, you know, the budget will be able to uh succeed and we can get back to work on the fiscal 2028 budget. So uh with that, I just want to thank everyone and appreciate your time. Thank you. >> Okay. I want to thank uh Ryan and Julia for your presentations. Um now we'll start with the audience of citizens. And I got a couple names here. Um, please give your name and uh, street address when you come up. Uh, Ariana
061Diana. Hello, my name Hello, my name is Ariana. I live at 250 West Lake here in Berlin. I am a I am in seventh grade and I know that the transition from elementary school to middle school is a big step. I believe that these budget cuts should not be me. I'm specifically speaking about Miss Burnham and Miss Tarver's ELA position at McGee Middle School. These two are wonderful teachers and amazing people. They have helped me through my first year here at McGee. I had a wonderful year with Miss Burnham and I am always happy to see her. Although I didn't have Miss Tarver, I did grow to know her. In sixth grade, I realized that there was a lot of work in ELA, and having two classes made it helpful. I also felt supported in
062my learning by both of my ELA teachers. And if that were to switch to one period for upcoming students, I believe it would be challenging. Imagine being in a class full of 25 to 30 students to the point where it's almost hard to learn. That's what it would be like for sixth grade kids next year at ELA if this budget passes. This is yet another reason why I believe that this budget cut should not be made. Teachers like them make a difference, not just academically, but personally as well. Losing educators like Miss Burnham and Miss Tarver would be a huge loss to the school community. Thank you, and please consider keeping the positions of Miss Tarver and Miss Burnham at Mickey School. Thank you, Ariana. Next is Vanessa Diana. Hello, Vanessa Deanna, 250 West Lane.
063Awesome job, Ari. Um, I know since COVID, our math and ELA numbers have been struggling and they're finally getting to where they need to be, but if we cut any math teachers or ELA teachers, our students will suffer. Um, we need to keep teachers in. It's hard enough with a a teacher's cut to get that position back. So, if we were to cut them and then we're like, "Oh crap, we shouldn't have done that." What happens? It's not going to be in the budget to get another teacher back. So, I'm here just to say we need to keep our our teachers in the classroom. We need to keep our numbers low. It's important. It's imperative uh for these students. They are our future. We want people to keep moving to Burland. That's why I came
064here. And I agree. Our education system here is great. I think the board has done wonderful by keeping their numbers the way they are. But once we start cutting teachers, we suffer. I uh we need more people out here to speak. I'm a little disappointed to be honest. I thought that there would be more people here. Uh we need to get the word out more. Uh we need people to come out. We need them to speak. And we need we need our teachers. I I can't reiterate that enough. We need to keep them in the school and our numbers low. Thank you. >> Thank you, Isabella Leonetti. >> Hello, my name is Isabelle Leonetti and I live at 35 Cobblestone Road and I am an incoming sixth grader. If the proposed budget gets approved, it
065will directly impact me and all of my classmates. It will affect us by creating larger classes. Students like me, me, and others who may need extra help might not receive the support we need. It's not fair to expect one teacher to support a class of 25 or more students. Moving from elementary school to middle school is already nerve-wracking. Adding these changes will only make it more difficult. Starting something new should feel exciting, not overwhelming. School is not just about learning facts. It's about feeling supporting and confident. When classes are too large, it's harder for teachers to really get to know each student and help them grow. Some kids may be too shy to ask for help, and they could fall behind without anyone noticing. Middle school is a time when we begin to become more
066independent, but we still need guidance and support from our teachers. Larger classes, class sizes take away from that support that can make the classrooms feel more stressful. I understand that the budget is important, but students are too. We are the ones who are affected by these decisions every single day. We want to we want to succeed, feel more confident, enjoy learning. When when you think about improving this budget, please think about what you are taking away from me and from the students who come after me. Thank you for your time and listening for it. Listen and for listening. Thank you. Is there any anyone else that would like to come up and speak? >> My name is Isabelle Mer and I live at 34 Windy Drive. Um, I wasn't intending to speak today. I was
067just coming out in support, but I am a middle school ELA teacher in a different district and I have occasionally classes over 25 and it is a lot. Um, and it definitely directly impacts the feedback I can provide students and my own son is going to be entering sixth grade this year. So, this directly impacts, you know, his ELA classes as well. And like the very eloquent um Emily just said, it's I just implore you all to reconsider that um aspect of it because it I had my students do math for me in my ELA class the other day. If I spend over, I don't know, 10 to 15 minutes on your on one essay times the 110 students I have divided by, you know, 60, it was like over 30 hours outside of my
068work week to grade one assignment, you know, and it's just the the prompt feedback just can't happen at that rate. So, I just urge you to reconsider not cutting those positions. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? My name is Kelly Pope. I live in 1829 Orchard Road. I have three daughters. Um, one in elementary school, one in middle school, one in high school. Pray for me. I'm going to tell you the story of my oldest daughter. Okay. We moved here in January 2021 from Washington. So, we're not originally. Um I don't know why I still do that. Um we learned a lot um moving here at that time. My oldest daughter was in the middle of her fourth grade year. We moved to J. So we started school year which was never great. It was
069also co um their classes in DC. They were all over here. You guys were actually in session and we did like a little dance party at home. Parents have kids that's class. Um my oldest daughter uh has some special needs and like knew that she did, but we weren't exactly able to pinpoint what it was. Um, she was attending Miller and so we talked to her teacher and the principal at the time set up an assessment. They had 14 different specialists and they met with us all on Zoom and they told us each one of them, "This is the assessment we're going to do." They went down the list and at the end my husband and I just cried. We were like, "Thank you." Like we just felt like finally someone is like hearing us,
070right? And so they did those assessments. We came back together a month and a half later and um they recommended a course of action for her oldest um that was also consistent with what she was getting in therapy that she was going to when she was on the spectrum. So on a weekly basis, she was receiving physical therapy and occupational therapy and a mass specialist at work for free. And I told my like DC mom friends what was happening and they were floored. They were like, "What?" Like, "How's that even possible?" Right? And we were just so like grateful that that was available. But it was that was the beginning of her fifth grade. She only had one more year of alert and she moved. She moved to McGee who was so worried and they
071had a program here at McGee with one teacher um that was kind of heading up the special needs program and he was wonderful and he was with her all three years, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. And really it wasn't huge thing. He had she had one period a day with this teacher where they just taught executive functioning like write down your assignments, make sure you're getting everything, you know, organized, make sure your note work is, you know, organized, make sure your assignments are getting turned in on time. If you need more time for your math test, you could go and take your math test again. It was just kind of that added level of support which was so wonderful and she excelled. And then the eighth grade last year, we had that end of like
072middle school meeting with all of the people that had helped her and again. We just cried and I was like, "You made a difference. You've changed her life." And now she's at high school and she has a teacher there and is doing the same thing. And I want to say in the last two quarters, she's made the highest honorable, which is different than honorable. Okay, they're moving supports. She's doing so well. And it's a success story from the supports that she was able to get here at the schools in Berlin. I remember coming to open house down the hall is the music experience class. There are 30 Macintosh desktops and a wall of guitars. And on the board it said, "How to save your song." I was like, "What is this? This is amazing." Like
073the technology, the things we're able to offer these kids. She wants to be a writer. Her eighth grade teachers told me after she finished her assignment, she would like go in the corner and get her little Chromebook and like write short stories. She had one about Alice in Wonderland where like 10 years later, some kids find the hole that Alice fell down and they they go down in Alice has gone crazy because no one believed her. Like, I don't want to read that. and now she like joined theater this year. She never got enough on stage. Sometimes I think about like what do we want to be known for in I think we want to be known as like a community that's investing in kids. I mean I live on Orchard. I was turning on
074a four road today and there was a car coming the opposite direction and started flashing its lights and like stuck its hand out the window. I'm like what's going on? And there was a cop like just driving around the corner. I was like, "Dude, I love Berlin." Like, "Yeah, we're just takes care of each other, right?" And my my second child, maybe I shouldn't say that the like my second daughter is in sports and like we've been able to make so many relationships with families, families that are in this room through that because the foundation of Berlin is families. We moved to Connecticut from Tennessee because I got a job with Teach for America Connecticut, which places teachers in high need school districts. And I will tell you, districts have reputations. And they have reputations
075because budgets get cut and teachers don't feel secure. And that keeps us from recruiting top talent. I don't want that to be what is about. I think all the time about what would have happened if my oldest had not gotten the resources that she needed. She's kind of borderline on the spectrum. So, she would have just fallen through the cracks. She would have just been like a C student kid, maybe never realized her potential. And the teacher that helped her when she was at me that spent those three years with her that changed her life, the one that I told them like made such a big impact. He was one of the teachers you cut last year and he doesn't have a job interview anymore. And now our program was disbanded and all of those
076kids are assimilated into different programs and they have limited parent support. You have the opportunity tonight to take part in the transformation of this community. You have an opportunity to take part in the legacy of kids in Berlin. In my experience, when you're investing in kids, you're investing in the future. And that's never an investment in return. I implore you to make the right decision. Um, I'm going to speak as a parent of child who goes to Willard. um and taxpayer. My name is Julia Dennis. I live at 115 Norton Road and I just want to share with you guys my experience in Berlin Public School so far. I am someone who has worked in public education for 19 years and I am not scared to say I will put my kids in private school.
077Like that's that is not a problem for me and that is something that I you know I will do if I need to. My experience in Berlin public schools for the past three years has been incredible and thank you for inspiring me to get up and speak because I normally don't get up and speak at these. I don't know the last time I did. Um I don't know. So anyhow, my son started at Millard pretty much non birth. He he wasn't even saying my mom like and he was a three-year-old. He was in speech. He was in birth. He was in all these things. I was very concerned and though I believe in public education, I'm also a mom. So I'm very skeptical of, you know, is he gonna grow? What's wrong with him? What
078am I not doing right? All these different things. And I I cannot tell you how much he's grown. We just had his QBT last week and I just can't believe how far he's come. And that's because of the parents, the teachers, the whole entire team. And as you talked about the 14 people sitting around, I have very similar experience and I know that if something isn't going right, I can go to them and they're supported and I can talk to the teachers and I can talk to the admin and we can do what's right and best and they're so responsive and I go in that classroom, you know, a few times a year and I see the hard work of the parents. I see them at the end of the day. Sometimes I've had to
079go and pick something up and they work so incredibly hard and none of this stuff could be possible. Like my son would not have grown this much. I I don't know if he would have grown this much in, you know, a neighboring district. And again, you know, as a teacher, I feel like I have high expectations and they can be hard to meet and Burlington public schools has far exceeded my expectations. Um, and you know, my husband and I every day we look at her son. I can't believe how far he's come and we 100% give credit to Willard. Um because they are with him five days a week. So I just wanted to share that and how important the budget is. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello. My name is Gabriella Leonetti.
080I live at 35 Cobblestone Road here in Berlin. Um, I have been an educator in early childhood and elementary education for over 20 years. I am also a parent of an incoming sixth grader. I just want to urge you to understand the impact that you will make on this community if you get rid of two teachers. We're talking about English and math. We're not talking about something else. We're talking about two subjects that directly impact the rest of their lives. Without English, they can't learn math. Without understanding simple math, how do you expect them to contribute to our society as adults? So, as an educator, I have 30 plus preschoolers in my class every single day. I cannot imagine doing that with a middle school classroom. That would be unacceptable. We moved to Berlin because
081solely for the schools and Hubard has done an amazing job with both of my children and I expect that level at McGee. Thank you. I'll hang on to it. I'll hang on to it. Let's go. John Tedesco, 193 Dunham Drive, Berlin. So, I'd like to say reiterate what the young lady down there said. The children of Berlin are our future. The children of Berlin will be sitting with the finance board on the board of education. They will have offices and they will also move forward to this community that we all love. I'm just going to put this out. I don't need a show of hands. If anybody on the board of finance has children in uh Burland, consider what you're doing to all the children in Berlin. The last thing I want to say, and
082I'll be short. I think if the budget does not get restored, if there's funding not pushed back to the board of education, we are doing an injustice to all the students in Berlin. Thank you. Hey, this is >> I wasn't going to do it. I do this too much. Jan Zagorski, 63 Grandio Avenue. I am now one of those old people and I don't get a lot of money every year. Um, but I am a 39y year retired teacher. Um, what I'm hearing tonight about the specific cuts to the education budget, I totally agree with everything that's been said, but I think what needs to really be brought out is it's not the reason those cuts are happening is because the budget is being cut from the board of ed, not because the board of
083ed wants to cut those positions. And that's the bottom line. So, please, I hope you restore the money, even though I may have to keep coaching. Thank you. Good evening, >> Emlda Mangelo, 86 Devin Shire. I know that when the board of finance is looking at the numbers, you're looking at the numbers and it's a very difficult decision to make of where should you take your pot of money because everybody has needs. I'm really glad to see what you're doing in the town, all of the improvements that have been made. I know that a lot of them were probably made with the um surplus or the additional funding gain from Berlin High School, but that's okay. I mean, it's benefiting the entire town. What I'm hoping that you're doing is that you are humanizing the
084numbers. You can't just look at the number and say the board of education is going to be okay with a 3.35%. But what is the implications of that to people to the educators to the staff to the operating budget to the operating budget that is um supposed to be take care of our schools and of our students. Anything less than 3.8% is immediately a staff reduction. 3.8% is what meets contractual obligations. You're up 3.35. The board of ed has had to decide what would they do if it is less than 3.8 and that is what you're hearing in the audience that there would be two ELA teachers reduced from the McGee Middle School and a math teacher from the high school. The math program at the high school is already going through some challenges. Do
085we really want to affect it even more by taking out an additional math teacher? Are you humanizing the numbers and understanding the implications that you're doing? Last year you were gracious and you were able to give 3.9%. If you added in what was given for the reading program, it came to about 4%. Why are we going backwards? We were just making progress. 3.9 and now you're walking back to 3.35. Why? Why are we not continuing what we have already here? There are a lot of programs that are being put out there, but they're being done without some additional funding that hasn't been received. Um, board of finance chairman, I take offense at your language of saying that more than sufficient operational budget at 2.2% less than the requested increase. I know that you always talk
086about the surplus, but you can't plan a year with the surplus when you have to hire staff and you have to make sure that you have the funding. How do you know what is more than sufficient? Yeah, they make ends meet, but that all of the retirees that have happened at the schools, those have not been replaced. That is staff that has been lost. There are ways that they're making the numbers happen. But I do ask you, don't go backwards. Go back and sharpen your pencils. See how much more you can get from the 3.35% knowing that anything under 3.8 is already a reduction in staff. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? My name is Gabriella Foster. 174 Raspberry Hill and I'm an incoming sixth grader and I'm going to McGee Middle School and
087it's already a big impact and I'm very nervous already and it's just going to be even more nerve-wracking to go with only one teacher in ELA especially and I really hope you can reconsider having Miss Burnham and Miss Arbor. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. >> Cornell Budria 115 Skinner Road. Um, I just need to speak to the testimony of everybody that spoke today. I think that's really the Berlin spirit that our school district creates. You don't get that unless you have staff, administration, and resources to make it happen. Now, that in mind, I need to give a huge call out to the Carp Noctum um or a group, the invent team has any if anybody here has not seen the presentation and the work of this group to create a prototype to save bats
088of all things. Just the incredible ingenuity of this group is absolutely phenomenal. You do not get that without proper school funding. You don't get that without a BHS renovation project that made it possible to have the resources and facility to make that happen. It's a long tale from investment like that to produce that kind of an outcome. The persistent undercutting year-over-year has an impact. It does. And what we're seeing is a potential loss of core teachers, math and English. We're looking at $250,000 difference between keeping them and losing them. That's not sufficient. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Well, thanks for everybody's input. Um, may I make a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> Second. All >> in favor? >> So, move. Thanks for everyone for coming, your comments.