001our budget cycle is all determined by State uh by well State statue on what we can do but our town Charter on how we roll it out and what we can do and there's not a lot of opportunity for us to have inter thank you there's not a lot of opportunity for us this is for whci so you're not going to hear my amplification but um there's not a lot of opportunity for us to have an exchange with the public about budgets you we do receive emails we receive comments I I do meet with people but we have public hearings that we just received the comments and we can't really answer questions so tight time frame for us and we vote the Town Council votes on our budget on April 22nd at our meeting again
002all by Charter uh so we just wanted to open up and and try to have an interactive doal we're going to do a short Our Town manager and our superintendent will do a a short presentation on how the um and I want to Echo the mayor's uh welcome and uh a thanks for your engagement in this process as you may know um 81% of the board of education budget U really is comprised of salary and benefits at the end of the day um I would say it's probably true for both the town and for the board Board of Education we're a people business we don't we don't make things we don't have a dramatic uh overhead um and uh really our money goes into people so um when we when we add to the budget
003we're typically uh adding people and if we take away from um when we when we add to the budget we're typically uh adding people and if we take away from the budget of 8.2 fewer positions from this current Year's funding uh with some tightening and some reductions in and current uh we're not hearing of any plans uh to fulfill so in light of this uh and then and then take a stab at what that would be um if those students were outplaced as those Services you know are district and and it comes at a cost Savings of of roughly $35 million if we had to outplay all those students there are some programming needs mainly within special education where I'm adding 4.5 positions in the coming year um that preserving programming in those departments namely
004intervention counseling a small cut within gifted and talented and a cut to an instructional coach um the return on investment as you can see you know we're extremely proud of the accomplishments of our school this this most recent year every year I can put on six or seven sort of accomplishments like this so this is for this most recent year six names schools of Distinction um our Blue Ribbon School actually that's a couple years ago our high school is in the top 3% of all schools nationally that's a year-over-year accomplishment and and it builds on the foundation of our prek-12 programming um we have a realized Savings of $2.7 million based on early college experience uh in tuition savings for parents um and hey our hockey team was our most recent uh sport to take
005State uh recognition title uh but we have programs that are recognized regionally and nationally for their Excellence um I know that that's something that brings people to the district and that's something that I'm trying to uh to do my best to preserve so uh the summary of the overall budget before I turn it over to Mr ledwith um we start from kind of where we are this year at a roughly 200 uh almost $21 million budget uh for the current year and we typically will try to say okay I'm going to roll that forward with next year's prices uh presuming that we preserve everything that we're doing that the town has come to expect that's that's a roll forward increase of just just over $6 million um we look at the recommended changes uh that
006I've kind of given a very broad-stroke description to here but much more detail in in uh the meetings that we've had with our Board of Education uh for a reduction of just a more than 1.5 million to a recommended overall increase to the budget of 14.4 million um it's a 7.2% increase it is it is an above average increase um since the time that I first presented to the board we have had a lot more Towns come in with where they are and while we're still above average we're in we're in we're in some company and we're in better company than when we first started but there are a number of districts that are kind of being hit um equivalently by this state shortfall in the excess cost funding which is really the driver to
007my budget uh um what I will say about it is uh we're we are um over the course of of my time in the district when I was in when I was personally as a child in Elementary School West Harford had the second highest um per pupil expenditure in in the state now that I'm in my 31st year in the district uh or actually over my 31 years in the district uh we've gone from 48th position to 100th in per pupil expenditures last and over the last 10 years we've been in the lowest third um of districts ntion of districts Statewide in terms of per pupil so my intent with that is to demonstrate um what we do um for the quality that we get is is quite a return on investment so with that
008I'll turn it over to Mr ledwith thank you Paul good morning everyone and um just to to take a moment to Echo the the May opening comments um we appreciate this opportunity to engage with our community in a different way than we normally do and as the mayor had pointed out we have this public hearing process that we go through every year folks can come out um and they can essentially opine on our budget and but it's not a back and forth It's not the opportunity to do what we're doing this morning and that's have a conversation about what what we're dealing with this year and it's a it's a significant challenge uh as highlighted by Paul right there um but we want to take this opportunity to have this back and forth even Beyond
009this morning we have another session this evening uh at the Noah Webster house uh we have a couple public hearings coming up on the town side over the next couple of weeks as well but if you want to sit down and get into more detail about this budget it's big it's you know if anyone's looked at the budget overall it's 480 Pages um but happy to talk about the nuances that are within the budget and how they all kind of fit together to end up where we are and and what we do uh our our challenges this year were very similar to the board side it's a salary and benefits um our salaries are Up 3 and a. half million benefits up 3.6 million uh and that's that's driving our 5.7% increase on the town
010side um but we do feel you know between the services that we provide on the town side our exceptional School District there's a value that we provide in our community and as uh highlighted by um by the mayor and and and our superintendent Niche just recognized West Harford as being the best town to live in for the eighth straight year and it's easy and I I talk to my staff about this as well it's like it's year after year we're like the best town to live in and you kind of set you almost start to take that for granted and it's not anything we ever take for granted everything we do every day 7 days days a week 365 days a year we're working to make our community better uh both on the school side
011on the town side and that's our goal we never want to take that for granted we want to be the best we want to build on what we're doing and continue to move west Harford forward and a lot of that is built into our budget this year we are going to obviously this is this is a budget that was presented by me and then by our superintendent Our Town Council and our Board of Education are very working very hard with us right now to find Opportunities to minimize that tax impact so the the number that you've seen is not the number that we're we're going to end up we're going to continue to work with our community um and try to balance as best we can uh what we're providing for our community and where
012that you know ultimate tax increase comes in and and we understand the challenge there um just for a moment back to the benefits actually and and Paul uh highlighted this we are with the uh State partnership plan so we're one of I'd say 60 communities around the state who um we did it a few years ago we did it seven years ago we moved from our own healthc care plan onto the state plan hoping to take advantage of economies as scale by having a much larger uh pool of employees to draw from and and it and it has paid off so the first year that we moved to the state partnership plan 7 years ago we saved $2 million for our taxpayers and since then the following year we had a 1% increase the year
013after that we had a decrease in our health care cost so over seven years we've averaged 4.2% uh as an increase in healthcare and that's that's Below in um healthc care inflation um this year was 99.9% it was driven primarily by inpatient Hospital costs as well as prescription drug costs um it's not a number that we're happy with we don't unfortunately the mayor's had a number of conversations with the state comproller that number is not going to change uh so it's a it's a higher number this year than it has been in the past but we're hopeful that uh we'll see that number come down uh longterm if if we continue to see challenges and we'll we'll do what we always do and we'll take a closer look at uh that plan that we're with
014that we're in and constantly look for uh potential savings where possible as we move forward so uh other drivers operating expenses so our operating expenses as a town are $31 million um and this year we've maintained we've kept that number flat which um was not easy so last year we increased that number by $1.8 million so to keep that number flat in an inflationary time period that we're all living in right now is it's difficult um everything we're doing whether it's our household expens shopping Etc uh same thing with us when we're purchasing salt sand plows uh police cars fire trucks you name it um everything's costing departments and our directors and we're managing our budget as if it was our budget at home and if we if we need something if we need to
015purchase more salt uh for our roads then we're going to do something different uh within another portion of that Public Works uh budget so um so we're very very lean in that uh operating expense um area so Capital financing again that's a number that's fairly flat as well from year to year um but we will not uh we we need to maintain our infrastructure and we're committed to um always enhancing on that building on that and continuing as I said earlier making West Harford great um we have uh accomplish excuse excuse me accomplished a lot uh over the past year um we will continue uh working to make our road safer as folks have heard we've had a a commitment to Vision zero and uh we completed about 115 projects over the last year and
016we'll continue to build on that this year with uh with even more projects uh as well as a commitment to quick build projects to um see some of that impact a lot sooner as well so um so that's those two drivers so um overall as folks know we are a AAA rated Community um so um that has a benefit to our residents as we move forward it allows us to as I talked about our Capital Improvement plan and uh Capital financing we're able to borrow money at a uh lower number uh than most communities around the uh State and that allows us to again it's a benefit for all of our residents to uh to keep that those costs down and um maintain our infrastructure and build on it Grand list growth uh we've had
017a lot of questions uh about uh the development that's happening happening around town and you know literally and on every corner of uh of our town from north to south you see some form of development happening um so a lot of there's a strong commitment to multifam and mixed use development uh an incredible commitment to to affordable housing uh our Council has committed uh $7 million in arpa funds those are funds that we received from the federal government during covid uh we um invested that $7 million in affordable housing and we've increased our affordable housing from 7.45% to 8% over this past year and if you total up all the development that's happening around town and included the affordable uh units that is in that development that number will grow to 9% um folks are
018asking all right with all that development why are we not seeing a decrease in our taxes um or in our um our mill rate everything that you're seeing right now is is in some form of development a lot lot hasn't even been built yet but the projects that you are seeing are in some you know process of the uh construction process uh construction schedule so we're not seeing that dollar for dooll impact on that growth quite yet so we're about next year we'll be a little bit better two years out as we see some of these projects that were recently uh approved by our Council we'll see that number even grow more but that being said this year we did have a 61 million doll increase in our grand list um which helped to to
019minimize that tax impact a little bit so um we do have and everything we do um while we're back working on our budget just not now but throughout the entire year is working to wa for looking for ways to be more efficient and um find opportunities for savings where po when when available uh one example of that is our pension plan so I talked about our AAA rated status uh um for bomb purposes and we went through a uh a long period where we saw diminished returns in our Pension Plan um 3 years ago uh our mayor and Our Town Council had that vision of taking advantage of our triaa rated status issuing pension obligation bonds to fund um our um our funding status within the pension plan and to help reduce cost to our
020taxpayers long term so we did that three years ago uh we saved $2 million that year that we did it within our budget um the amount that we contribute to our Pension Plan uh it's called the ADC the Actuarial deter employer contribution was $26 million back in 2022 today that number is $10 million so that number is reduced by $16 million we do have to pay for those bonds so the difference in our annual cost is made up in the amount that we um that we fund our um our debt through uh but taking advantage again of that AAA rated status so um and today our our funding status stands at rough 94 95% so um and then you talk about Grand lless growth again and return on investment obviously we're all seeing um the
021impact on our our home values um they're up everywhere as we know um they're up a little bit more here in West Harford uh with on average a 35% increase in the value of our homes any of us who may have looked around at our neighbors who might be selling you're seeing there's no inventory those numbers continue to rise up um our grand list today is uh $7.2 billion uh met with our assessor last week um in two years we're projected to see that grand list grow to1 billion so um just significant growth that's been occurring that will continue to occur over the next two years and and again I think it's it's a a function of the services that we provide our school district and our residents and our businesses are very much an
022important part of all of that so this is uh overall our uh summary is a 6.55% increase in expenditures 5.7 on the town 7.2 for the education 5.2 for Capital uh does right now it's an increase of 2.86 Mills uh which brings our mill rate up to 45.2 uh or 6.75% increase our motor vehicle mill rate uh of 32.4 6 uh does not change that's a state manded mandated rate I just do want to comment on something there was an article last week that indicated that our motor vehicle taxes were increasing by 5% and I just want to that's not what's happening I just want to real quickly walk you through that uh change there so this past year the state mandated how municipalities how cities and towns can assess their motor vehicles and that
023change resulted in a ated depreciation schedule that the state said all right apply this uh depreciation schedule to all of your motor vehicles that dropped our value by $50 million by implementing that um depreciation schedule that impact was felt across the entire State legislation decided to back that change up realizing the impact that it was having on the entire state so the state gave municipalities the option to essentially claw back that decrease in value which is what we did so we're going to collect $18 million in motor vehicle taxes this year it's the exact same number of motor vehicle taxes that we collected last year so our motor vehicle taxes are not going up it's the depreciation schedule that uh the state mandated that they're allowing us to add 5% to each level of the
024depreciation schedule I can get into the weeds if you wanted to on that but it's um it is what it is so um so that's uh my summary um and then we're going to I guess turn back over to our Council and board of education for any final comments and then what we'd love to do is engage in a in a back and forth with uh all of you so thank you again for being here this morning U thank you so I just want to put all of this what you just heard and we want to hear from you but I just want to frame I'm going to put it all on perspective right every and some of the emails that I get are indications of where what people are thinking and and maybe you
025know some some um perspectives and uh and some assumptions we are a highly residential Community West Herford unlike certain other towns Windsor Farmington other towns that have a more corporate presence uh in their Community it were residential 10% of our revenues come from the state very small compared to other states in the in the country we a lot falls on the town to provide services we provide we alone pretty much and it's our residents that provide all the resources for our schools our police our fire our Public Works which truly is what defines our community those are the highest then we have you know obviously our human and social services our libraries and all that to small small pieces of the budget would wouldn't move the needle much but but it's the schools number one
026police number two fire number three Public Works number four those are the big items they make up the majority of the budget 90% of our Revenue comes from property taxes 90% of that comes from residential property taxes just shy of that so it really is our residents that have been shouldering a lot of what and again compared to other states we property taxes are are a driver on cost of living on everything that's the structure that the state you know determined we don't get a share of sales tax we don't get a share of any fees that we collect every year we get mandates from the state that require us to fund something else for instance early voting where they pay less and less for something so um I'll give you an example our dog
027licenses we are required to provide dog license I think it's $9 a dog license this town keeps $1 the state takes eight it costs us more money as a town to administer the dog license than it does for us too so when we talk about cuts and we talk about the structure and reducing our property taxes we are going to be reducing teachers police FES we will not see the same results in education because is and does not have an assistant nobody works harder nobody and I you know and I I just want to tell you that there's not fat these are quality of life what we're going to how safe our community is going to be and believe me our police are busy every single day doing things that are preventative uh and responding
028so um we also municipalities are facing an employee shortage um there's not a lot of communities that want to go into um municipal government it used to be that those benefits were very rich you would get rich pension plans to find benefit pension plans and some other things we are competing that's not the case anymore a lot of people want to work remotely a lot of people you know might all of our almost all of our police have uh Advanced degrees undergraduate degrees and advanced degrees as well we get cream of the crop but we we have to be competitive on our salaries to to get them um and we are competing and the same thing with education we're competing with with all of that and so I know some of the B is here
029and I know that you understand and support and you probably are here to say we need to invest in our kids and we need to invest in our communities but I do want you to say to tell you that you know uh the school population uh we have 9,000 students what's the percentage of households that have kids in school off hand do you remember is it 30% I thought it was about 30 and about 70% don't but yeah so 70% of of our community doesn't have kids in the schools that are feeling and so we get those emails that say I'm on a fixed income I can't afford to keep raising th that fixed cost uh you know 6 7% this is an outlier our our past um increases have been more in the two
030three three and a half% range sort of in line with inflation this year we have this special education that the state is flat or actually reducing or and excess cost and we have um a uh Insurance costs that are uh exceedingly High uh for this particular year that's pushing our our our rate so high but anyway that's just a little soap box and uh I don't know if anyone hello uh good morning want you all to share your thoughts we are here to hear your thoughts and your concerns and your suggestions cannot Echo and Advocate enough and first of all I want to thank my board colleague Ethan for being Echo enough the importance of what we're talking about uh we're talking about numbers but more importantly these numbers relate up as uh the mayor
031just made reference to we know that of the total town the majority of it does reflect um input from the board of education however we represent a minority of the town so that's an inverse relationship right there and that's why we're so glad to have this opportunity to engage because it's important for all person to be aware of what goes into the budget because all hands are on Deck with in this regard we know that for the past several years we have been preparing for this moment in time we knew that yes come 2020 when we had an influx of funds we knew those were borrowed funds essentially it was not uh indefinite funds it was Tim limited funds and here we are at this time right now of really trying to recognize how we
032continue allocating funds moving forward not just thinking about the here and the now but our time down the road we are very appreciative of our state delegation who recognizes our concerns and has been advocating on our behalf on the state level referen is already been made of the challenges of reimbursement funding that we would like more of but nonetheless we're working with what we have we're here to hear your thoughts your questions your suggestions and thank you again for sharing your time I just want to do want to also say that we're looking at some very Stark uh situation with Federal funding coming our way and that is something that's Weighing on us very heavily um we have a couple grants in limbo um we don't know if we'll get them or not but I'm
033just as a as a little footnote hi thanks for talking to us um I'm Jason Wang I live on Four Mile Road um so uh mayor Sher you mentioned there's no fat in the budget um I was poking around the budget um one thing that seems like a kind of a financial Albatross is um parking um looking at the numbers we expect to bring in $2.2 million in fiscal year 2026 we expect to spend or lose basically $3.2 million on the same parking but that doesn't appear to include capital expenditure of $10 million over the next two years for the parking garages which is that's that's $10,000 per space and I went up to the parking garage um this weekend and the top three levels were empty um so what when that that seems like
034a crazy expenditure when we're talking about you know I understand that the kids you know that our kids may have to deal with a little less because of inflation um but there's there hasn't really been a lot of conversation about these really extraordinary parking expenses um you know raising the doing we're basically subsidizing parking in the center um all of us are um business owners outside of um West Harford Center all residents um and it's a huge subsidy um it's probably several dollars per hour so if somebody from Avon comes in um and and goes to our town center we're as Town people we are subsidizing you know people to use our parking um and there there probably is a realistic conversation about you know do we subsidize people Park on parking so that they
035spend more money in in town but then when you look at three floors of empty spaces that's kind of painful because every 10 spaces is a teacher salary um and and that number is crazy like $10,000 per space not to build but to renovate uh I I mean how is how is that how has that figure arrived at can it be deferred and is there a plan to get rid of a parking garage or increase the fee for parking or recognizing the town's people are subsidizing you know give PE give residents a break on parking you know like an hour free every day and and maybe charge people Out of Towners more um because I I think it's reasonable to ask you know if we're not going to raise taxes at the rate of inflation
036it's reasonable to ask people including parents and kids to give back a little bit but we haven't talked about uh this money losing parking system giving back a little bit whether that is increasing fees or decreasing our liabilities or just like again looking at that $10 million like that almost doesn't pass the smell test to me like how can we spend $10 million $10,000 per parking space to renovate thank you Jason and uh happy to answer that question I'll I'll try to answer it as succinct it's a complicated um Arrangement that we have Arrangement is probably not the right word to use but I understand your question so we do have um we have a parking lot fund where all of our when we go into the center we go to blueback square we pay
037for parking that Revenue goes into our parking lot fund we also have all of our expenses of our P Parking operation in that parking lot fund so right now it's a it's a sufficient selfs sufficient um fund where the revenues are funding the expenses there's a another piece of this that's outside of the parking lot fund and so back in 2005 when uh blueback Square was developed um our Council back then had the uh the vision to um to look at the possibility of building parking garages to support the development and then establish a special services District we call it an SSD so since that time um the blueback square tenants and residents of the Heritage Park Condominium complex have been paying an SSD tax to be part of the special services District so and
038then the parking that's in their garages and in blueback square is in our special Services District fund not in our parking lot fund and there's an exchange uh transfer uh from an accounting standpoint that happens every year between those two funds but we've used um that tax and the revenues on and blueback to fund the debt of the parking garages so we paid for those garages through that process so garages were built 20 years ago and um you have to renovate a garage structure that that's that or not it's 20 20 years old now um so we those structures and we will fund that through our CIP so we're bonding at a lower interest rate number we're not taking the cost of those Renovations putting it into our parking lot fund where we would in
039fact have a a deficit a large deficit and then we'd have to tax our residents separately for that so we're like any of our assets our fax and Library our schools our um fire stations police station on any of our assets we will bond um the cost of that construction or renovation through our CIP super super final Point here so when that special services District ends at the end of this year because we paid off our debt and we're no parking lot fund now so we have one more year in this structure next year um that Revenue flows over to parking lot fund and our to U minimize the impact uh that any of these operations have on our taxpayers so that doesn't look like it's self- sustaining it looks like it loses a million
040dollars a year and then the capital expenditures that's not free money I mean we're still paying for paring Revenue a year you're only seeing a part of that because we have two separate funds where that revenue is going into you're only seeing a part of that because we have two separate funds where that revenue is going into the special service distri expert out there would tell you yeah many years you need to you should you could AR uh and those parking garages support the businesses in Blue Back Square that was the part that was the blueback square agreement that you know 20 years ago was designed actually more than that designed in a way that that parking lot structure obviously you don't want a parking lot structure like that is way more efficient uh and
041way more sustainable than uh parking you know parking um uh lots and whatever but we are going to be looking at we couldn't look at selling those garages or refinancing them in some or some other Financial structure until the um until the uh SSD uh the loans were paid off uh and now they are and will be and we are going to be looking at every single kind of financing Arrangement that could be done those those uh improvements need to be done whether we sell the garages or we don't sell them it doesn't matter so those uh improvements need to make just like School improvements you know that you know if there's you know a fewer students you still have to provide the same you know structure so uh the fees for sure we're going
042to be looking at and I am I would uh expect pretty assuredly that we will be changing our our par our parking uh fee structure parking uh fee structure thank you um Jackie yakabi I um I'm a mother of a first grader at brayburn um let me first say thank you all for what you do as civil servants it is not an easy job and the appreciate the walkthrough of the budget um and that if we're looking at a whole puzzle we have to look at all the pieces not just one um but to be selfish to understand what the other options are clearly what what is being brought forth is is what this group feels as the best option so fair but I'd like to understand what the other options were in terms of
043classroom size so for brayburn the proposal is that for our fourth graders which doesn't affect my kid for a while um but it will um they're going to go from three classrooms down to two and 27 children in a class I don't know who that's worse for the kids or the teacher um it's at least at brayburn we have children that have different behavioral needs so there's going to be more those folks in our classes um that require more resources which there's going to be Cuts there and things but um maybe you can talk a little bit about what the other options are you can look at nationally and and what other states are doing but we live in Connecticut and we live in um so couple of things um class size and and I
044know uh probably a lot of folks here if you have concern budget is up there and there's a data supplement that I think a lot of people are are looking at and referencing indicating um hey these are the projected class these are the projected class sizes if we did a strict adherence to our class size guidelines um with 27 being um the maximum that we would look at in a fourth or fifth grade and that is a jump from third grade uh K through 3 is 23 as the maximum um so not surprisingly a lot of the uh questions I'm getting are from current third grade families as as they look at the increase into fourth grade um to answer your question Jackie Brer specifically um you know it shows on on that page um
045as it does for a couple of other uh schools and grade levels hey right now or at the time that this was printed which was when we first did the budget proposal or a week or so before there was an anticipated enrollment in fourth grade at BRB burn of 54 kids um so the paper shows two sections of 27 however way at the bottom it shows there are three sections still left to give relative to the number of uh number of sections because this is just a moment in time um so if that held true um you know some folks have written in and asked me you know because they've seen my comment to that and said hey hey Paul if you were to distribute those three available sections today where do you think they'd
046go um and there's a number of factors that play into that not the least of which like you say at a school like braburn for instance I have an intensive behavioral program so what's the density of students that we serving um with those needs in those particular grade levels what's the frequency of time that they might be expected to be in those classrooms what does it look like say in some of my other schools where maybe I have a higher e population a lot of those things but if but if you told me where do I think I'd throw the three sections I'd throw them at the places that had the 27 we had our second board workshop last week and I asked my um I asked my Director of Finance and planning to rerun
047numbers so I could have the most upto-date numbers for that meeting um so that would uh the rerun of those numbers had two factors that were um that were variables number one move in or move out so any changes in enrollment in general and then number two uh the recent magnet lotteries that we ran for Charter oen Smith so assuming that all folks who uh had applied to the L magnet Lottery that were selected for the magnet Lottery will then attend because they've they're just in the process of being notified hey you applied you you you want a seat in the first round please confirm that you'd like to attend so assuming that the those numbers were rerun uh so in many cases some of those numbers came down in Bray bur's case in the
048grade level you mentioned um the the enrollment actually went up by one and that that meant now from 54 to 55 we would break that fourth grade automatically into three smaller sections of uh I think it's what is it 181 18 and 19 or something like that um you know which is like again had I applied that one section there that's what you'd be seeing anyway under these rerun numbers hey you know again another moment in time there's going to be some folks that are happy because they're now at that breaking point or they saw relief from the magnet there are going to be some folks U who are going to be who are going to be less excited because now it would appear for instance I could just pick a school over here in
049second grade uh that's now at 23 and 23 and they were previously at three sections of 16 16 and 15 um in this new run I have four sections that I'd be able to give and I would look at where I would give those four sections um we do this every single year this is not like a new thing uh every single year we're we're faced with the same question we we have a a specific number uh that we will budget for um we will go into you know we make as many decisions as early as possible for obviously for uh staffing needs but then you know inevitably it's coming down and we're we're watching almost on a daily basis in the month of August folks who are moving in moving out what's the status
050of their registration process we'll have folks who who sign up but don't get through the registration process which you know translates to hey they were thinking of moving here and they started but they never finalized um we call them and say are you really moving here stuff like that um and so by the time you all get your letters that say your teacher is going to be Mr or Mrs Jones that's our that's our locking in date once we send you the letter that's our contract with you we're not going to disrupt that following that so we wait until until mid August um where we have situations where where the movein and things settle in such a way that we need to exceed the number of sections that we've budgeted for we do that we're
051doing that this year we're three sections over what we put in for nine months ahead of time because nine months ahead of time we're giving it our best guess um and when we do that um we then have to find a way to uh compensate for that now at times some of that compensation can come in just from um hiring and you know we try to we try to hire um you know we average uh like when we do a budget for for folks that we don't know we'll average a salary at 75,000 which is somewhere you know I wouldn't say it's smack in the middle but maybe you know approaching the middle range plus 25,000 for benefits so uh it's $100,000 for every every uh FTE that we don't that we can't attach a
052name to we don't know how many years of experience etc etc uh if we get some some newer teachers that come in if if we're able then we can realize some of those savings and we have the money budgeted in in the payroll account to cover it if not then we have to find some savings and we've done that we've done that where we'll have a position that's on the books uh that we choose not to hire for whether that's not to hire for for the year not to hire for for a portion of the year in order to realize some savings to uh because we whatever budget gets passed um ultimately first by the board ofed and then affirmed by the Town Council we can't come in over budget we have to you know
053we have to balance that budget by the end of the year that's essentially a statute um are other options you asked about other options are other options become um finding something we're not going to do in trade for a classroom teacher um so that you know and like I said we're 81% people um it's not about you know less paper and paper clips it's about I'm going to hire this person to fill a hole over here and not over somewhere else so so those become the trade-offs but I want to I want to at least be more optimistic about what some of these class sizes look like there's a larger question that folks have come to the board table to talk to the board about relooking at class SI guidelines I don't think any of
054us are opposed to that I just don't think that this is personal I won't speak for my board I don't think this is the budget cycle where I can try to propose a reduction in class-size guidelines uh given what the town is facing just uh but it's something I think you know we've heard we understand so I hope that addresses some of your question um I'm going to go there then there thank you hi I'm Alicia landow this is my husband Zach landow um we moved into this to West Hartford this September um we're at whing Lane Elementary um we adopted our daughter from foster care when she was four years old in Albany New York and um looked all when he finished his medical residenc he looked all over the Northeast to find the
055place where she would have the best academic opportunities and where she would be um around other students who look like her um and feel like connect and we totally love this community We Love whaiting Lane we're super happy to be here um but I'm really scared about class sizes I understand that I'm I'm echoing what everyone's saying here obviously the in a perfect world we're looking at the budget and we're saying how can we reduce class sizes because the numbers are super outdated I'm a occupational therapist I've worked in schools the needs of students are way higher than they ever were before in terms of students who are coming in learning English for the first time kids who you know because of Co didn't have enough Early Childhood learning opportunities um behaviors like just behavior
056management is incredibly challenging so obviously like number one at some point we need to revisit class sizes um and then I guess the other part comes down to to equity um and so we have schools that are Title One and schools that are not and we have schools where there's like Winter's class or daughter's class just a student just started last week so we're now at 23 students right so first of all students come in the middle of the year and you're not going to say no you can't go to school so it's like you're saying that you're you're putting all this money into it you know you know the roof is needs to be replaced but you don't have the budget to support it for the for the upcoming year and so we're already
057at capacity how are you going to bring a teacher in mid school year or if someone moves in and you know whatever the time is like I feel like it doesn't make sense to have everything hinging on one student coming or not coming it just isn't fair to the families who are there and the teachers who are there and um you know I don't I don't know for sure but it seems like per pent per pupil expenditure is probably the same across schools as my guess um but there has to be a way to allocate to schools that are have students with higher needs um and that and that's what I would like to talk about I'll give her the mic next and you can go um so our per puple expenditure um that we
058published just to make sure you know I'm very clear and honest with that uh first that gets published at the end of a at the end of a fiscal year when all of your expenditures are finalized you take whatever that final dollar value was and you divide by the total number of students service and that's your average per pupil expenditure when we're doing budgeting for schools it is very true uh that we start by saying hey here's the total budget uh that we have um in terms of what a school budget's going to be we divide that up by the pop you know by the total number of students service and we allocate that equitably across the schools then in the case of a title school um there there are additional Title One funds federal
059dollars um that the title schools are then able to get so uh the title schools you know it's not an equal they they actually will get more um likewise there's a title 3 Grant um and anywhere that there are um English language Learners title 3 supports English language Learners so that that funding goes to provide um relief and support across the district um typically by way of uh we'll fund a number of our English language tutors out of that but but but the short story is yes the title schools will have some additional money and that's typically invested um in some cases we're funding some teachers out of that Fund in some cases uh specific if there's a specific title program in the title school um in many cases we're funding um additional Tutors or
060interventionists out of that fund um and and the good news is amid you know mayor caner brought up you know we're in a really scary uh Financial time federally um I'm cautiously optimistic to say that what we've heard from the federal government thus far is that are what are called formula grants um which is idea which supports students with uh disabilities our Title One and our title three um are all um presumably safe uh in the federal government uh seeking you know funding and and I'm pleased that the recent continuing resolution those funds were named safe um there are federal grants that we we make benefit of uh title 2 specific to professional learning uh that that Grant was not named in the continuing resolution I don't know what that's going to mean you know
061so so this is some of what we're looking for um again I'll reiterate I I definitely you know it's it's um something that we do look at in terms of I think we've been looking at we have seen as you've mentioned an increase in the number of students we service uh for language proficiency we've increased our we haven't in we haven't changed class size specifically but we have increased our number of of uh Esau teachers um proportionate to the increase in student service likewise with special education we've seen an epti we're we're at we're pretty much at the state average for a number of students uh with special education needs uh and and that is the area of growth in terms of our teaching positions this year so it hasn't hit the class size yet
062but but we we do invest for those differences I did I want at least offer that pardon know you have a question just wanted to respond to the question so far and additional ones that may be regarding class size and for you to know that we as board members have received have heard and are aware of the concerns and do not shy away from them as superintendent vicina shared the numbers are variable so it is constantly changing and so do not want to give the false sense that what has been shared th as far as a fixed number we know that it is variable but also do want to recognize that there are many pieces that play a role in the functionality of a classroom uh we certainly know that yes the makeup of our
063children varies and so that plays a role in the climate and of the classroom we know yes the number of students but also in in terms of the quality of what is happening in the classroom and the leadership as well and referring to our teachers and that's why we are so appreciative of our teachers that's why we certainly do value professional development we have that on Wednesdays that is an an important opportunity for the teachers to refresh to revive and to address what's happening in their classroom so say that because do not want to give a false sense of security that the number alone will determine how the classroom is functioning it is all of those pieces collectively that make up how the students are doing in the classroom and as we know family engagement
064is so very important as well and so clearly what you all are sharing and the emails we have been receiving Echoes that and we so appreciate your commitment and your involvement because we cannot do this alone the teachers cannot do it alone collectively we have to work together so again your concerns are heard we certainly hear them it never is determined or rather never is preferred to have the highest number of students per classroom so I think that is something we can say without hesitation it's not that we strive to have the highest number however with what we do have and what we are trying to work with we try to make it as manageable as possible but certainly recognizing your concerns certainly recognizing what we're striving to to continue to maintain high quality education
065for all of our students which is certainly what they deserve so again there still may be questions or comments about that but want for you to know the questions and comments that have been raised thus far we certainly do hear you thank you hi I'm Lauren um I am a parent of two students at Webster Hill Elementary and um and I know and I appreciate the feedback on the question so far our situation is a little bit unique um to the others as well like I just want to so while I am here to advocate for class size um and I'm very aware of how complicated this process is so I worked in Boston public schools for 20 years um looking at school budgets a lot get it I know how complicated looking at the
066data um really was a result of our families coming to me so I had over a 100 families uh signed a petition in the last 24 hours because I had an outcry of families coming to me as the PTO president concerns um we are currently um have a principal for one year right now so we're like in a transition period Dr lantner has done a phenomenal job she's a phenomenal educator um but knowing that we're getting a new principal we are the third neediest School in the district um we are title one we receive the third um largest allocation title one we have uh three times the percentage of English language Learners and um families are living um below the federal poverty line as some you know we have a significant amount of needs and
067our numbers projected are the highest across all 11 schools um and so that's a major concern and I hear that things change and the numbers aren't set the reality though is when we have hires in August that's very different than a higher in the spring and we know that quality um is a big difference in that and we are in a situation right now where we can't have any more students particularly looking at our our second grade projections so if we are at we're at like almost at that cap so I'm looking you know while we talked about fourth and fifth grade and those numbers are looking very high we're most concerned about our first second and third grade classrooms um that have gone to from three strand to two strand over my four years
068a strand a year has been pulled the numbers have increased in those really key grade levels um and so right now uh we're at a place where we are we're already projecting capacity so then what often would happen is that we're going to get students in the spring and summer and then we might need a pair professional that's hired in the summer that's to support across classrooms as we've done in the past at Webster hill we did last year as numbers changed and it's a it's a further burden to the teacher um our teachers are feeling the burnout currently our families um are coming and talking particularly our families who have students with special needs um in our second grade have been the most vocal to me personally just knowing my role as a PTO
069um about their concerns about their children and their class sizes so um while I know that a bit with addressed I just wanted to like I I had this whole Spiel that was connected to what a lot of you guys said so eloquently but I just wanted to kind of highlight the differences and what we're advocating for specifically at Webster hill now I appreciate that and um second grade is is one of those um right at a cuspy point um at Webster Hill they exist I um there are those hires that that get down to the August time frame uh but as many of them as possible during the typical hiring season will you know we we do obviously try to do that it's not it's not like all four happening in August that's usually
070like the last one to go is it going to be here or somewhere else kind of a thing and um the the one thing I'll say just and I think it it it lands on um reaffirms what what Lorna said is both for the Whiting Lane and the Webster Hill you know Blue Ribbon School at Whiting Lane Webster Hill um over the last five years just the dramatic increase in student achievement to the point where where they're where they're now leading in the district and it's a testimony to the teachers and so I do appreciate the you know the concern and you know the fear of of burnout but you know it's one of the things i' I got a lot you know folks talk about all all of the different variables that come in
071in class size is is definitely one of them um I just want to underscore uh you know the thing that makes West Harford special is the quality of teachers that we attract they are they are I would put them up against anyone in the state are just incredible um and they do a phenomenal job and so I I just I say that not that they might shoulder any any of the financial burdens just that that they are just exceptional at what they do um and it's and it's in that confidence that uh you know we're trying to preserve the programming that that you have so um this gentle and then I'll go to you and then over here uh good morning thank you for all being here um my name is Ken pouch I've been
072a resident in West Hartford for uh over 40 years now and uh it I agree it is has been an exceptional town for me and my family over those years uh looking at the budget at a higher level um I think if I'm my notes are correct um I I uh recorded that 90% of the Town Revenue comes from property tax is that correct and um 10% of that total property tax revenue is comes from commercial property tax is that correct correct uh that's an extremely low number which you refer to um in the 40 years we've lived here we've I think it would be fair to say that West Harford is moving more from what I would call a Town to a city the particular development of now Residential Properties I.E apartment complexes uh
073both in West Harford Center and outside of West Harford Center um I think underscores that um my question is how do you see the commercial property the apartment complex development uh contributing to and lessening the Reliance on personal property tax residential property tax uh and boosting it up more to a level of of higher I'll call commercial property tax we see in other towns like for instance Newington uh which has a high um commercial uh property tax base great thank you for that question and I can uh talk briefly and certainly the American add to my comments as well um as I I mentioned in my comments we have a a lot of development that's happening townwide um you know right here in Elmwood right as as where we sit this morning we have a
074um and we the our Council developed a Transit oriented development District a couple years ago one of the first in the State uh to encourage uh more dense uh housing opportunities and business opportunities in an area that's walk to public transportation so we have our Connecticut fast trck here it would be our hope one day to have a train station there as well so folks can get to and from West Hartford to Boston and New York easily without uh having to drive a car um the old puran site has been that's a a site that's been approved for development the developer working through um financing right now but that's a that's an 80 90 million development uh as you move down New Park Avenue there's another uh to development that was approved and that's more
075like $40 million development and as we move into the center um we have uh about $100 million development on troutbrook the former troutbrook I mean I'm sorry children science museum uh and then on Farmington Avenue we have uh 100% affordable development at 900 the old west Harford in um so that's that's about a $40 million development we have the by line which is heading west West on Farmington Avenue which is almost done uh it's about a a $50 million that's a mixed use development so that'll have residential on the top floors commercial on the bottom floor and then as we move into the center we have two other projects that were um approved and then as we head to Yukon um we have uh on the parking lot side um the developer is building four
076um apartment buildings with 300 units that's about a $90 million development and then on the west side of the campus where the main campus was it's about $150 million development there so hundreds of millions of dollars of development that and well you talk about our AAA rated status and the brand that we that we have that we're all part of um people want continue to want to invest in West Harford um at the Yukon site alone the property where those four apartment buildings uh are going to be put they purchase that land for $22 million so it's just again it's a sign of of what we offer here in West Harford developers want to be here but as I said in my opening comments we're like two years so next year we'll have even more
077growth and that second year we will see um kind of an explosion in in groundless growth uh as a result of all of these projects that are in some form of uh approval either approved not yet construct constructed or constructed so may if you want to but how how maybe you'll address this but how do you see all of that development you're um you've given the detail to us on reducing the burden of 90% of the revenue uh for property tax uh residing on the residents where how will that affect a lower property tax burden for the residents so almost all those uh developments are adaptive reuse a synagogue that now it was not taxable is being converted to a mixed income development a a motel that was underutilized and not was well pretty low
078whatever um and that is that was the science museum the children's museum that went out of that moved and was so they're all um adap or reuse the campus obviously that moved um we don't have a lot of land for for um and all of them are residential they're not there's some mixed use commercial on the first floor Yukon being probably the largest but they're still residential um even though they're a multifam residential they're still residential um we do have some industry and and Commercial we obviously have the mall that we split with uh West Farms I don't know if you know the history but it was West Harford and Farmington West Harford was the town that actually was going to have the whole mall and the council at that time didn't want the whole
079Mall in town so they split it between was they put it on the development line uh so it's West Farms as a result of that um and so we you know we obviously have a a center we have Bishop's Corner we have there's commercial centers uh but we don't have land for extensive commercial development except for the Yukon which is going to have some commercial development otherwise it's really all multif family residential uh we did spend a lot of attention with our industrial base we have a number of industrial properties uh Triumph being one where we worked very hard they were going to there was a a consideration of them consolidating their operations with another company um and leaving West Harford potentially and we worked really hard with the state decd to uh work on
080some of their fixed costs to make it more valuable for them to be here and stay here uh and I mean that doesn't get a lot of publicity but it was an incredible in uh amount of work by um by our myself our state delegation to keep them here and they actually brought a line of manufacturing into their uh into that uh facility that's across from chedder Oak School um we you know we continue to work we have a but I think it's un not that it's unrealistic sck but it's very challenging for us to diversify our housing our that that development of 9010 um because we are so highly developed um we will continue there's not a lot of we will actually strengthen blueback uh there is some you know there's some uh turnover
081in that and there is a lot of desire for that commercial um office space uh there's a lot of uh companies that want to in a vibrant Center versus in an industrial park and somewhere remote uh so we're seeing a lot of interest there um but it's really fortifying the commercial districts that we have the growth of that probably is not going to be um is not going to change much and to the talk of the city town that is part of I think uh um Tracy bson be in blessed memory um our town historian had talked about that City Town population over 50,000 can self-identify really um and you know New London is a city it be largely because it was a center an industrial center we were an offshoot of Hartford we're a
082suburb of Hartford and so and that sort of is that commercial residential makeup that's historic for our community it was a residential Community it remains a residential largely residential community and so that City Town having that be a a draw I think we are a draw for restaurants and our Center uh and maybe some commercial properties but not in the same way that you know Hartford is or uh we're not a major employment center and all that right behind you yeah but just to generally talk about taxes right here's the thing right Connecticut is known for its high property taxes we come under attack for that and West Harford is a poster boy for high taxes look at this 45.2 one seriously seriously that's a lot and and the increase you're asking is a lot
083and like I say you I know you feel that you're right up against it you can't cut anything but let me just bring up a couple things that that have popped up and I brought them up before which is the overtime massive overtime that the police the fire the public works and it comes up in the p i don't even put in the paper some puts in the current every year and even breaks it down one guy makes $125,000 in overtime two years in a row so it comes into the millions of dollars number one that's overtime but another thing comes with with with the with the school system I don't know that much about you know the school system but I've been told that they have proportionately high a lot of Administrators secretaries um
084you know and specialist maybe you know compared to other other towns I'm not saying that's not right I'm not saying in a perfect world we could do everything right but in this non-perfect world we're going to have to make tougher decisions and as far as getting back to the overtime again if you remember I this was last year so maybe you don't because the police chief of police was there and he turned to me goes and in reference to this guy point to me goes our policemen work hard and they should work all the overtime they want to and they do because they work a ton I went to one basketball game there were three police officers you know I go to other towns sometimes they don't even send a police officer and and not
085only that they have three police officers they have their their um you know security guards too now that's a small issue I understand that but that's if it's multiplied many times over it adds up we it just many things I don't like I said I don't want to spend my life going through through the town and finding out every issue where we could save money but e even where we even even so we have to make even tougher issues and of course in the school system and things like that it seems like our our sacred cow as you can tell by these people the people have come here today they're very concerned about the school system they should be you know these these class size is kind of I'm saying really the money we spend
08627 kids in the class but regardless the taxes let's just talk about taxes they're super high and again you you can win all the Ws you want but we are known for high taxes when you you can go to anybody oh West Hart night town but and people have moved out of this town because I I don't want to move I love this town and like she said we it's a great town for for many reasons but yeah the taxes that's an issue and and like I said this increase if it stands or even come close to stand standing is just going to help put a you know ruin things we and and let's talk about oh yeah here there another one one more thing about some from weha she writes a she goes well
087all the services we get what Ser when I first moved to this town people used to drive up your driveway get your garbage cans right we used to have like leaf collection we used to have um anytime you want you to put anything out they take it all that stuff all going what what do we have now for services real Services basic Services we have garbage collection oh okay garbage collection every town has that by the way I don't know what services we're really getting you know it's our school system really obviously that seems to be and and that's a good thing but again no matter what we have to make even tougher decisions and going forward here thank you and and that's why we're here and that's why we're doing this and and as
088I think everyone has said it's not where we're standing right now we are working hard to minimize the impact as we move forward and we know we have work to do so appreciate your comments as well as everybody else's terms of overtime um you know part of you know we talk about being a a successful community and our brand and a great place to live and that anyone who's doing anything like even when you're looking at issues from around the world they want to be here in West Harford to talk about those issues and we have to keep everybody safe so when we have something that's happening when we have celebrate when we have all the things that we do from March until November there's literally an event that takes place every single weekend nobody
089nobody does what we do from that perspective anywhere around us um but our job we have a moral obligation to keep everyone safe and that you know we will have to hire extra police officers in those situations I said I'm sorry don't three police officers at at a basketball game that's hardly attended and like I said we had an issue one time between at a hall Conor game where a little fight broke out so if Hall Conor maybe they would send three cops but normally one but they have the security guards I'm just saying that's just a little example I'm throwing out there and I could look at that one a little a little closer but we do both of our high schools have school resource officer so we have a high we have a
090police officer who is assigned to Connor Dan Hall two of those three were probably them um but in terms of overtime uh I think an important I everyone's been reading the paper over the last couple of weeks about State Police overtime and factoring that into their our pensions all of our pensions we've eliminated overtime from the calc completely so for police and fire Public Works that overtime has been eliminated completely almost 75% of our fire firefighters today are covered under that new pension plan and about half of our police officers today are covered under that new pension plan so you're right overtime is a a necessary well some may view it not necessary but it's is an expense that we we work hard to manage but at at the very least here we've made some
091decisions in the past uh where it's not imp impacting us you know with our other liabilities like our Pension Plan um no I listen your comments I understand uh in terms of the administrative positions I would want you to know that from current operating budget uh the budget that's going forward recommended reduces uh the administration by 1.6 positions and uh for teaching positions away from the classroom um it's a total cut of 2.25 from the general fund that's 1.25 positions cut and one position shifted from the general fund into uh a Federal grant so I'm tempting to be responsive to that you know in my in my thing every sort of uh every area had a had a little bit of a hit we looked at everything it wasn't uh it wasn't like uh you
092know we went went for the easy easy button necessarily so um I do recognize saying all that that it's still still big there are still large class sizes uh in some areas and uh I recognize that's still a concern and one other point I just want to make and and not to defend but to my point of us always looking at ways to find ways to do things differently more efficiently and try to save money which we'll continue to do you know I've been here 25 years so not quite as long as uh my superintendent here though I am older than he is um when I started here we had 600 full-time employees on the town side we have 4 450 full-time employees today so we've reduced our Workforce by 150 uh to the mayor's
093Point earlier we are we're lean and mean uh we made some decisions then to get us to where we are then and and kind of moving forward and we'll continue to work to to find ways to continue to be efficient and and be leaner and meaner as much as possible other questions I don't know if this works but than it's okay uh hi I'm Zach I'm uh I'm a newer West Hartford resident and I think I moved to a different West Harford than than maybe the last generation who sees this as a very residential um Community we searched all of New England for a walkable place and I don't see us as a as a Hartford suburb um we're some of those West Harford residents that never go into Hartford um our commercial centers are
094here in West Hartford we travel well outside the region when we want to be in a city um and I think of West Hartford as a growing city um I'm curious what the town envisions when you talk about commercial growth I see a lot of places for growth I see um uh Park Road and I see this area here which I think is like trip is like New Britain and I see areas down in Elmwood where I could see so much flourishing commercial growth there um walkability density right now there it seems like there's a lot of blight and a lot of low population density in a lot of areas that look kind of rough that could really um become the next really nice place to go walk and shop and live and exist in
095West Hartford I'm curious what's happening with that in in the budget now um and how that might change our budget in the next few years great question um and that factors into some of the development that we were talking about earlier that we're seeing um everybody when we're in West Harford and part of what drew me and my family to West was that Center we drove through the center you know back in the '90s or like this is where we want to live this community and that's thankfully why we uh made that decision to move here um our mayor and Our Town Council have had the vision of creating um those walkable Central areas in different parts of our town as well so it's not just the town the the center and blue back so
096I talked about our to which is literally as we walk out the front door here on New Brittain Avenue we'll walk down New Brittain Avenue to New Park Avenue major development happening right here on this Corridor and then as you head north on New Park Avenue creating that walkable community in the to area one that the state's pushing hard for for to type communi Statewide I think we're leading you know leading the state in that kind of vision and potential potential development right here the uh the old Puritan site that I referred to will have its mixed use so on the top floors it'll have U multif family units on the first floor it'll have commercial and then as you head down new park AV will have the same thing um at the uh at
097the Jaden on the left hand side of new park and then as you go north and you talk about the Ukon campus having that area for for that Community where you can walk to the grocery store you can walk and grab a cup of coffee you can walk to a restaurant all connected to the troutbrook trail which takes us from Yukon South all the way to New Park Avenue right over here and then we're going to eventually connect that trail to Harford in Newington so creating that kind of bikable walkable uh pedestrian friendly Community from north to south one of the uh council is very um adamant and working with a developer uh on the Yukon campus and continuing trpr Trail through the campus so right now trout trail ends on Asylum we'll continue the
098Trail North through the campus and eventually we'd like to get it just another less than a mile to to Bloomfield hopefully and make that connection to Bloomfield as well no I appreciate you or I I don't see us as a suburb of Hartford either but I that's the way it was designed the subdivision of Hartford became West Hartford and was uh annexed and blah blah blah um and I think we are a draw and we know we're a draw but we aren't um we don't have big high Office Buildings that attract a lot of people to work uh we do we have work centers and we we do but our largest employers are the town and uh I think um the Hebrew Home the are our two largest employers so we don't have large employment
099centers really sort of why I was saying I think the the city sort of designation but we could we could and I I don't think it benefits Us in any way but I don't think it hurts us in any way either so at some point you know we might be the city of West harp we'd have to change a lot of uh our sign it and all that but you know it cost us quite a bit of money but whatever um as far as um development I do think there's a lot of potential but I don't think it changes the makeup of the designation of commercial residential uh it might well pittin commercial on the first floor residential above that was a fully commercial property now it would be mixed use so there would be
100a little more residential designation um but as far as potential reuse of a lot I agree with you I think there's certain um areas in town that have a lot more potential one park being one of those uh where we had a Convent right that was aging Convent that we just added 300 Apartments to in the last few years a little before you moved in um on the prospect uh right on the west Harford Harford line um and that is was a wonderful boost in the arm to a lot of those businesses all along that Corridor um and I I do think the biggest potential growth is uh our Tod area a train station is on the state plan um we do have plans for a new community center which could make that old Community
101Center campus a very attractive property difficult property um with an aging 100-year-old school and uh topography that's difficult but with a train station there there's really is potential but I you know it's again Lots more potential for reuse I think and more density and more um uh some uh update a lot of updated uses uh but I think it takes people living in an area to really uh um light it up and and that's what we are have been working so hard with and that's really what the developers are interested in so um and just one more comment I just want to go back to development I think we're talking about a lot of development I I don't want people to forget that for 20 years between blue back and in the last really 3
102years we didn't see a lot of development we saw very little Grand lless growth that's kind of why we're in some of the position we're in that we didn't have steady Grand lless growth we had revaluations that shuffled the values of property throughout town and we have had continuing increases in the values of our Residential Properties but that doesn't that just shifts you know who's paying what you know the larger homes didn't go up at the same rate as the low and mod moderately priced homes did and so the L low and moderate homes went up at a higher rate so and we're going to have another we're in the middle cycle of a reevaluation so that mill rate will come down again when we talk about the groundless growth that Rick had shared 7.2
103billion to 10 billion that's going to decrease our mill rate quite a bit so we're in the middle of that cycle uh but we are um seeing and we we can't necess we can't bring we can try to bring in developers when times are tough if interest rates go up where it's going to be harder if if there supplies are hard to get if steel goes up and wood goes up it's going to be harder for us to attract so we have to kind of grab those opportunities when they come before us and that's what we really tried to do uh thank you I just going to add real quickly one thing and Rick you know correctly pointed out that the our staffing is down um from 20 years ago um one thing we have
104added is economic development though um and we do have an economic development coordinator who has whose job is both to you know uh be the the checkin for the local businesses and also look for new ones um and we've had that's been a great success um and again so we want to like be sure like when we're cutting the budget and we all get you know everybody here gets it in terms of like the the tax implications of this um and the real harm being done um by by higher taxes um there are people who you know um who a tax increase will be a inconvenience and others who it could mean no longer affordable to stay in town um these are real issues here um but one thing we can do and it spending
105is not all just negative right and so Economic Development here has really helped to diversify um the tax structure here and bring in businesses um and and keep and keep them here especially um so uh we had one uh we have I forget the name the entertainment one going up in um Corbin's Corner uh council person saw great entertainment uh level 99 um we saw this great place in another town mentioned to Economic Development they went out and recruited and we got somebody in um so so again that if you know businesses you know people want to come there's a reason people want to come here but keep on recruiting because um the more business the better hi everyone uh my name is Libby I appreciate everyone being here and I think we're all here
106because we genuinely care about this town and we care about the kids that live here um my husband and I are both um graduates of Hall um we grew up here our parents are both still here and our original houses which is just really special and the schools are what drove us back here after living in New York City for a long long time my husband and I actually both spoke spoke at the board meeting on March 18th about class sizes um I was so amazed that I could recruit him to do that because I feel like that fall usually falls on the shoulder of women right and moms so anyhow um and Aaron spoke a lot about how and he's he mentioned you Sherry about how the town is thriving and there really is
107so much good happening I come today still deeply concerned about our class sizes and our kids um I feel like we are investing financially very much so into this town and as a result our school should reflect that and I know we have a wonderful school system and we never would have returned here if we didn't so after we spoke at the budget meeting about class sizes I've talked to a lot of different people and um I'm also on the Aken PTO board and I volunteer weekly in my daughter's classroom and I really like to have a pulse on what's happening in the schools I'm worried about our teachers and the sustainability of classes that big and I'm worried about our kids um so I've spent the last week and a half really thinking about
108Alternatives that it sounds like we're sticking to class sizes in the email that you sent to people that wrote concerns and one of the things that Aon and I were both thinking about is how can we be creative in what we do about class sizes and I know this is not a popular topic but I think it needs to be addressed at the March 18th board meeting is at what point do we consider redistricting and I know no one wants to talk about that it happened twice when I was a kid in West Hartford all I had bugby friends join me in second grade and then the area that Aaron and I both grew up from Mountain excuse me from Albany to Stoner Hunter then became braver so I had my next door neighbors went
109to Connor on Orchard and I my sister and I stayed at Capen Hall it was not popular but in my mom's best friend was the Board of Ed president back then and no one liked it but guess what it served her purpose to best service our kids I guess and this was not something that could be talked about at the board meeting because there's no obviously you guys cannot respond but I guess at what point do we consider redistricting to make class sizes more Equitable across the district because as it stands right now there's no reason a class should have 26 to 27 kids in fourth grade at aen and 18 kids at Smith that's just inequitable and we can't say that those kids are going to get the same education when there are nine
110more students in a section of fourth grade at or braburn or webill I've done my research so I guess at what point do we look at it and say maybe it's time to change the map around especially with the developments and I know it's like 0.25 kids for every unit of development but we know exactly which school those developments feed into particularly on trout BR we know that the um east facing will all feed to Ain and then we know the new affordable housing property that at the foral on North Main will also feed to aen and I was just looking at the map and my husband's company actually developed the Camelot so like we care about affordable housing this is important work we know where those kids are going to go so and there
111will be families there he knows there will be families there so I guess at what point do we consider redistricting that's I know it's not a popular topic but I feel compelled to ask it um I don't know that I have a timeline answer for you but I'll say you know obviously it's come up and I don't um I think you bring up a good point number one I think um as we as these uh projects come online as families begin to move in and seeing um seeing if our projections you know we just we just presented the long-term enrollment projections and there were very specific questions about what will the impact be of these different housing developments so as that you know number one as we sort of say okay do the projections and
112what we're anticipating is that actually happening what's the impact on the schools that's going to be one factor I think you know this this question has come up over class size over the last two years um I mean it comes up every year but it's come up I think with a lot more public um a lot more public momentum behind it uh and I think and I think it becomes it becomes part of that question if we were ever to look at class sizes we would have to look at those two things together but then again I I also don't think that it's um you know it's not necessarily obviously a wholesale a wholesale issue you know we have had and it goes back now it's probably pre-co I don't remember we did spot redistricting
113um where you where you looked at some neighbor neighborhoods um adjacent to another neighbor another neighborhood community in order to try to level things out so it's it's not a it's not a conversation that um you know I I would I would agree that in general it's not generally a a positive conver a popular conversation right but it's not one I necessarily think I think that that uh we would shy from it would be something that I think would you know if if we get into a larger conversation about um what do the class sizes look like especially as we see the impact of these things I think I you know I think I think there's a conversation that can be had so thank you it's 10:30 now and I don't know if um if
114uh any there are any other questions I had one more but it okay need to finish that's okay well before you ask your last we'll take one last question I do want to thank whci for being here and covering this so people at home can watch and and learn and and and respond to us we're always available by email or phone um and also to the library for opax and Library Laura I'm sure who was here she's the the library director and promote who is the library um director for or uh here it do incredible work uh and we're really really grateful to have them but uh is there a mic floating around I have one thank you hey I'm Chloe growth um where we are a new BR bur family we've just moved from
115New Orleans in the last two years where uh there is no public school system and there is no City infrastructure that benefits children so we feel incredibly lucky to be here and really thankful and honestly when we pay our taxes you know we're privileged to be able to just say like please keep benefiting our children um so I read the response in the email about um you know the higher class sizes and how the success rate of children didn't really change at the higher class rate you know how children are still performing well at the higher class rate which obviously we can attribute to having in incredible teachers um I was a teacher in the western public schools for several years and so I do know like the emotional and the physical and the mental
116energy that that increase would cause for the teachers um so I feel like I need to speak for them because I have a third grader and a fourth grader at rurn and like my kids are with them right now um and so one of the aspects I'm worried about is how those teachers will be supported and how we retain those teachers um and because they're the reason that the success didn't decline so as a new family that doesn't really know much about the district like what support is in place what systems are in place to support those teachers if that increase does need to happen thank you for the question and welcome to the community I'm glad um i w first I would say um there are you know I think about the lower grades
117you know we we are trying to preserve a support mechanism that we have we used to have um something that we called Kindergarten par Educators they worked specifically in the kindergarten classrooms um they actually work now primarily between K and one uh we do blend them um and we typically will provide one uh we uh par educator um for every two classrooms in K and one is gener is generally how we'll do that um when we look you said you were at brayburn specifically brayburn with a third and fourth grad okay uh when we look at brayburn with as an IB School you know uh we look at the supports that we're able to provide in that one of the things I'm I wanted to mention that we're that we're you know a lot of
118students will come into um an intensive behavioral program or maybe some of the schools that have our intensive Academic Program and they're programmed with a with onetoone adult support we're trying to do a lot of work within special education right now we're piloting to say hey rather than have um all of these individual education plans specifically naming therefore mandating by law one toone adult support attached to the singular student we want to look at what the density of that looks like across the classrooms and be able to trade um two or three prepare Educators for an additional special education teacher who can then be pushing in because what we find is you know if Paul has a one-on-one and Rick has a one-on-one and then we end up in the same class or we go
119to the same Arch class or something there can be a lot of adults in the same room and their effectiveness at supporting the children is is no longer there um so but we have to you know but it becomes about how the IEP is written because we would have to change the language in the IEP to where it was all of a sudden two on-one support so we've we've been in the practice of that over the last couple of years it's one of the strategies that we're trying to do and we've asked for different schools hey we'd like to do some more of this um see if we can get your community behind it because if I can be then hiring those additional special education teachers it it's number one it's a more qualified support
120for the children number two it's it's affecting you know it's it's a difference when I have two certified teachers versus a par educator in teacher in terms of the level of support and the different kinds of environments and the small groups that we can create so that's something that we're also trying to do um I would say I'm I'm aware of the demands on our teachers I I I talk to them a lot I hear from them um I talk to their Union the teachers are very very uh the teachers are always better to talk to they're they're much more uh optimistic but I hear the you know I hear the truth and the things they don't necessarily want to say to me through their Union representation um but at the same time our retention
121rates do remain uh very strong and and I think that has to do where we have folks that you know they they can feel burnt out and they go somewhere else and one of the things they'll they come back uh and they say the level of support that they do get in the district is just not not really well paralleled anywhere else I think a lot of that has to do uh with our Wednesday structure which I want to thank all of the folks here for that Wednesday structure um in other districts when you have a major initiative or you're trying to do something you're getting two maybe three PD days in the year and that's it and we've got you know the ongoing touch points that if I had to say what's the one
122thing that has made the school system the success story it is in West Harford it's the Wednesday structure so um I'll point to those things they're not there's one that's new the rest are kind of what's in place and what we've been able to do thank you okay um I just uh tonight's uh I think brick mentioned no Webster house I think it's the no Webster Library correct yeah it's okay I just want to clarify I'm like I could have it wrong no Webster Library 6 o'cl we'll be doing sort of a similar very similar uh if you want to come back please feel free if not send to your friends whatever I want to thank my colleagues who work tirelessly really I mean it's is a we are we are an amazing town because
123of our residents and push but we have remarkable elected leaders that work really hard and and wonderful town leaders that that um uh work at the highest professional level and we're really grateful uh thank you again all for being here have a wonderful Monday thank you e e