001where it's all L out in our Charter when the the window when the budget's presented the school budget and the to the whole budget together and then we go into uh the um hearing schedules and workshop schedules and all of everything that that happens and just to um going a pause WCI is here and I want to thank them so much for being here and my name is Mayor Sher caner and the mayor of West har but oh this is helpful to so again the budget process has just begun for us the board is a little bit ahead of us uh and then we have specified dates when we actually vote on the budget but for both of us we have public hearings where we receive comment um and we don't interact it's just the
002way we can receive the most comment the way it's set up in our again in our Charter so we wanted this uh some years are more difficult than others this year happens to be a very challenging uh budget year uh and we wanted to have a more interactive Forum uh with the public uh and so we set up several dates different kind of date to accommodate people's different schedules and be able to really talk about what is driving our budget and the difficult decisions that we as a council are going to have to make the Town Council statuto in Connecticut has an overall amount of money that we approve for the school budget we do not have any control over the line items that is up to the school board uh superintendent submitted his budget
003then it becomes the school board's budget and they have uh you know we could say you know take you know a million dollars out we can't say where that's going to go that is their decision on how and that state statute so um I en joined by um I'll just tell you who's at the table uh Deputy Mayor B winr obviously County Manager of lewood superintendent of schools all the a board chair Morman commer markuson and Shannon um Maron is is the um yeah is vice chair and then is also here I also have also is on the board um we have foi rules so I I thought we were limited to two so I don't know how that works we can do three okay but um I also have colleagues in the back um
004I also see Jason from the um board uh is also here and we have Carol blanks and took me again is from the council part here so um and with that think we're going to do a quick overall um picture of what the budget looks like and then we can get into a little so we're here to answer questions and be interactive thank you madam mayor thank you Sher um so Rick and I have talked and uh I'm going to I'm going to lead because the board of education budget is a component uh in fact I understand it's 58% of the overall Town budget so we're going to kind of go Parts the whole so I will uh lead with an overview of the superintendent's recommended budget um I'll then turn it over to to
005Mr lewi who will uh will conclude with uh the overall presentation of the Town budget and then I imagine we'll open it up for discussions and what we talked about this morning you know we've both given a presentation and you know to that you can watch on WCI that you know perhaps it's 45 minutes we show in link um and then we have our our you know we're we're doing Board of Education Workshop this evening so I'm not going to not going to not going to take all of the time to go exactly in that same level of depth I'm going to try to hit the high points for you um so that we can allow the maximum amount of time should you have questions um or or reactions that you want to share all
006right so with that there we go um I'm going to you know we've set this up where we'll talk through uh some budget drivers some of the some of the things that are most greatly impacting our budget um try to talk to you about uh the return on investment for those expenses um and then give you some other shares uh but I think you'll hear both of us say that overall we're uh on the town side and certainly on the board side we are a people business you know our money is invested uh you know overwhelmingly in our staffing um for the Board of Education uh salaries and benefits constitute a total of 81% of our total budget um and when we look at what the drivers are each year you know our annual salaries
007they're governed by um they're governed by market based salary uh settlements through contract negotiations across all of the different unions teachers administrators par Educators custodians etc etc um and the average uh the average impact uh this year to last year for those contract settlements are represent a 5.2% increase so that comes in as an ad just kind of going forward on top of that uh the salary benefits and we've been fortunate to be in the state partnership plan as are all of my colleagues working on the town side um and that while that has been that state partnership plan has been really a cost savings for us for quite a number of years this year in particular it's a little bit it's it's more than a little bit it's a higher number it's a 9.9
008uh% increase for uh health benefits that we've been told to anticipate and that data is as recent as uh four or five days ago we've we continuously look for the updated projections so in light of those increases because they are significant we look closely at our staffing and in my budget I've recommended a reduction of a total of 8.2 positions from current Staffing levels that's a net I do have some places where and I'll talk about them where I need to grow some staff specifically for special education services um but the net decrease is 8.2 positions from current levels and that positions us with a total of 40 fewer positions from two years ago so we had some rather significant Cuts uh that we made last year both as a cost savings measure for the
009roll forward budget as well as positions that we did not continue in light of the cessation on Esser fundings um the return on investment on there is kind of up on the screen in terms of the work that our you know really our teachers our Educators all our folks do they're dedicated to the m to the to our mission um the niche rating the most recent 2024 this year uh again Place West Harford number one I believe I heard Mr ledwith say that's seven years running as the number one place to live in the state and that's based on in in part uh and I think in in a fair amount of the part uh the A+ rating of our schools you know people talk about coming to here for the education um we do
010boast several milkin winners that's a that's a huge award in the educational landscape we have several milkin Award winners on staff in our district we boast the uh 2025 Connecticut outstanding Arts educator of the year and uh the Arts supervisor of the year and those are just this year's Awards as we go back uh we look at other things each year year-over-year our next set of drivers um are are outof district tuition and and related Transportation costs and this really is the big driver that has for the education side has probably uh created the greatest amount of impact that I'm unable to um I'm unable to control for in a significant way so um overall you know the majority of our students uh are educated uh directly within our schools and then within our specialized
011programs um however we do have students that uh we service who have needs that we cannot accommodate within the schools they may require um they may require more of a medical setting a hospitalization setting they may require uh residential therapeutic placements um and it does not take many students to create a big cost and what has happened at the state level um is there's been flat funding to our excess cost reimbursement the measure by which um we can recoup money from the state of Connecticut once we've expended greater than four and a half times um the the average typical per pupil expenditure so with that we're seeing uh the need we we have a 3.7 we're anticipating a $3.7 million gap um from the state on top of what we would typically expect which is
012going to drive a 39.6% increase in this line item um PR pretty significant um there's an Associated $1.3 million increase that we were adding to our transportation costs based on the potential addition for uh for roots to support these placements we have to transport the students to these out of District placement as well as there's a piece of that Transportation cost certainly that's part of uh that the negotiated contract settlement from year to year in terms of an increase um this is all in the face as I mentioned there's there's uh we there's a current $80 million shortfall that our legislators uh and and owed in large part to the work of the West Harford uh legislative delegation to the mayor's uh really Outreach and work with them um we were successfully I'm sure you
013saw the news fill about 40 million of that and there's a plan in the governor's budget two years out for an addition for another 40 million for that year but there is no plan for next year at this time and and I would say a safe estimate is there'll be a $100 million shortfall across the state we're anticipating a $3.7 million shortfall for West Harford um so in light of that uh we we have budget uh increases in this area but we're exploring some different things we talked very recently uh haven't even had chance to flesh this out with a solid plan but you know some things we want to look at Regional busing if if if we can regionalize bus routes with other districts to to lower those Transportation costs um and we're looking
014at what are different um is there is there an additional program that we might be able to do but one of the things you see up on the screen in terms of the return on investment we currently have already invested heavily in programs to support our neediest children our Early Learning Center our intensive Academic Program our intensive behavioral program our strive program and our post-secondary program which is nationally lotted we just had folks go out to a national Workshop to present on our postsecondary program and I asked our um business office to kind of take a take a swag at how much we we would we are saving by offering those programs and where other districts smaller districts might be outplaced that we service through those programs and it's upwards of 35 million dollar in
015savings when you take what it would cost for them to go and subtract the costs that we pay um for uh for the staffing on those um and we're looking to to get that even to a finer uh finer explanation because I think that's an important metric to look at on the realm of programming um and our programming in town is unquestionably excellent I think that West Harford is in a league of its own uh relative to the educ ational services that we provide um we are looking to preserve the programming um I have received no fewer than 20 emails since I presented a couple days ago um from parents wanting to ensure that things were not necessarily going to be cut and and concerns about class sizes as well um I am looking at
016class sizes uh as a means to try to control some FTE uh we're not changing our class size guidelines we're just trying to have a more strict adherence to them but what we are doing with programming as I as I alluded to in the first slide uh we are going to be adding 4.5 positions net within special education in support of specialized programming that is required that is that is part of the overall net decrease of 8.2 so uh we'll go down by more than eight positions in order to add these 4.5 obviously um but we are seeking to to continue all programming that exists I know you know we talk about some trim to uh with fewer sections some trim to music or art because we'll have fewer Elementary sections some trim to are
017gifted and talented all of these are trims and we're looking at how we can schedule more efficiently to have uh to look at our intervention groups to have them just be not dramatically large but slightly larger to try to save little bits here and there wherever we can overall we understand our recipe works we have six named schools of Distinction here in the district we've got a recent Blue Ribbon winter School our high schools which rest on the foundation of prek through 12 programming are in the top 3% nationally this year and is for as many years running as I can count back um the the awards that we that we get both for our curricular programming and our co-curricular extracurricular are unquestioned we've got one of the best music programs in the state that
018is National recognized um our arts program is second to none so um we we recognize uh that people come here for that and we are doing everything that we can to ensure the preservation of that which kind of brings us to the numbers um our existing budget for this current year is is just upwards of 200 million almost $21 million um to roll it forward to do everything the same um with the same Staffing levels and maintaining all of the same programs uh with those increased costs that I that I described at a very high level uh would cost approximately an additional 16 million um the changes that I'm recommending uh to include the uh you know there's the 8.2 fewer positions that that span that we're going to talk in great depth about tonight
019at the workshop as well as some other uh savings that are a wa that aren't necessarily tied to people they're tied to different funding and things that we can take advantage of util savings that we're anticipating and things of that nature uh is about a 1.5 $1.6 million savings for a total um recommended increase to the budget of 14,42 2,000 which puts us at a proposed percentage increase of 7.2% which I will thoroughly acknowledge to everyone here in the room uh is is high it puts us above average it does not Place us as an outlier in the state there are outliers in the state that have put forward 11% and 12% increases and I'm and I'm not talking about small districts with small budgets I'm talking about large districts and those um those increases
020are based on uh the in large part based on the flat funding at the state the state shortfalls that we're seeing um what I can share uh is the fact that uh our per per pupil expenditure uh despite the the significance of that number remains three point 3 percentage points below 3% below the durg average if which is to say if we were to spend as much as the average of Avon Simsbury uh Glastonberry South Windsor uh we'd be expending $5.2 million greater and we're 4.5% lower than the state median um which would be the equivalent of of 9.2 million so we do you know we do exercise um the greatest amount of financial responsibility as we can because we recognize that uh that uh that this is a large number and and I know
021the uh the issues on the town side relative to trying to preserve the services that we provide which are unquestionably good at the same time to try to control taxes so that's the broad overview I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Mr ledwith and then we'll take questions thank you Paul and good afternoon everyone it's a it's a pleasure to be be here and um you know as the mayor opened up and and as we just heard from our uh superintendent um this is a challenging year um no question we knew that um going into the year I mean essentially a community of our size you know was 64,000 residents 9,000 students uh 1,600 full-time employees on the school side another 425 on the town side um some the things that we've been
022seeing in terms of funding that we've been getting from the state um we knew coming into this year it was going to be a challenge and uh we've been working very closely with our colleagues on the school side um to get ready for for this budget process um and the mayor and and the uh board chair had a great idea uh as we were heading into um that process and that was having this type of setting having in addition to the public hearings having Community conversations getting out meeting with our residents and having that ability to have one-on-one conversations um to to talk about what our challenges are and then to hear from you as well um your concerns and and things that we can address as we move forward through the uh the next
023six weeks so as a superintendent said he presented his budget last Tuesday it was received by the town manager I take that budget and put it into the overall all Town budget and uh I presented that last evening to the uh Town Council and I'll spend a little bit of time where are we here all right so and a couple of the factors that we were dealing with on the school side are very similar to some of the challenges that we're facing on the town side so overall uh on the town side our budget it's going up 5.7% so we have about a $3.5 million increase in salaries and we have about a $3.5 million increase in benefits um the salary increase those were negotiated contracts um we have a couple of issue couple of
024factors that we're dealing with this year um specifically to salaries that are a result of we had some outstanding contracts that we recently settled that were four years in a RAR we also have another couple of contracts that we're negotiating right now so we have to set up a contingency f fund for the settlement of those salaries as well so not everybody's getting a 7% increase but it's a result of those two factors in addition to on average our employees are receiving about a 3% increase in in the most recent contracts that we've settled um the benefits issue that we're dealing with is same issue that we're dealing with on the school side uh as a superintendent said we joined the Connecticut state partnership plan back in 2019 when we did that at that time
025we saved $2 million for our taxpayers for our residents when we made that change since we've been with the state partnership plan our average increase has been 4.6% over the course of that seven years this year just happens to be one of the larger increases at 99.9% um and the state partnership plan allows us to join the same plan that the state of Connecticut has so we have the ability to take advant AG of larger economies of scale instead of just being the school district and the town in our own plan we joined this plan um and that has been a benefit to the town and the Bo in the school district for quite a while this year we're getting hit by that 99.9% increase um last year it was a 2% increase you know
026I wish wish we were looking at a 2% increase this year would have been uh exceptionally helpful as as we're moving forward so we don't have any control over that that's something that we have to factor into our budget um but you know between the salary um account and the benefit account that essentially makes up the town's entire increase um and and as we know we talked about it last night Paul talked about it in his presentation all we do is we we provide services so we don't you know we don't sell anything everything we do um is delivering servic services to our community and and as Paul mentioned and uh I can't understate it enough uh nor can Our Town Council Board of Education we are consistently rated the best community in the state
027of Connecticut to live in to work in to play in to retire in and that's something we take very very seriously so that's you know and that's drives our 425 full-time employees on the town side and our 1600 on the on the school side and and our Ed officials we take a lot of pride in trying to do what we do today do it tomorrow even better build on our success continue to be the best community to to live in um to work in and and and to retire in so that's very important to us you know we have done over over many years we've been doing it more efficiently than we have in the past when I I've been here coming up on 25 years which is uh surprising to me uh to be
028able to say that uh when I started here 25 years ago we had 620 full-time employees on this town side so over time we've you know we continue to make the right decisions uh to balance our budget uh to continue to to deliver the services that we do to our community um and we will we will continue to do that as we move forward I you know as last night I you know our theme was you know and our budget theme was you know navigating challenges with strength and purpose um we will use that to drive us um you know as Paul said our our numbers are are high right now in what we're proposing um but we're looking to work with all of our residents to to find ways to uh to minimize that
029impact on our residents as we move forward uh another budget driver a couple here operating expenses in capital financing so from an operating expense standpoint uh that's the the line item we had the most control over this year and we essentially are coming in with a flat increase in our operating expenses doesn't mean you know everything we're all doing whether it's in our own households or are here for the town uh when we buy something when we you know need to repair something everything costs a little bit more and that number typically our operating expenses will go up you know roughly around 3 to 4% a year uh they came in 3 or 4% higher this year um but we cut that 3% uh request from from our budget so it's going to remain flat
030uh last year's increase was $1.2 Million that will which what was adopted in terms of an increase and um we're going to remain flat we're asking all of our directors to manage that number as best you can so when we have to pay for that extra you know plow or or whatever it might be police car um that's covered under this line item we're going to look to sacrifice something else in order to do that and that that's what we've done with with that number so far uh Capital financing um we are con continuously making investments in our infrastructure townwide um with 220 mies of Roads um and sidewalks and um our our consistent um focus on ensuring that that we're Del you know that we're maintaining a safe Community um that is in this
031budget so we will continue to make that investment in our roads in our streets in our Parks um we've you know folks have heard about our commitment to Vision zero uh eliminating all traffic deaths and serious injuries uh in 10 years we will maintain that Focus uh with our Capital uh financing uh budget this year so that we can continue to you know create that quality of life uh that's so important for us to to deliver for our residents I do want to talk a little bit about and and as I said you know and Paul said our number right now uh it's not where we want it to be um but over time we have uh always maintained prudent fiscal management we are a AAA rated Community uh one of a handful in the
032state of Connecticut it's import important for us to maintain uh that AAA rated status so that uh we can borrow money to work on our schools work on our infrastructure at the lowest rate possible for our residents and every decision that we make including decisions that we'll make as we move forward with this budget will be made to uh to maintain that AAA rated status um Grand list growth I want to talk a little bit about Grand list growth um because that's the number that's very important to us and our ability to uh deliver services to our community uh and if we didn't have groundless growth year after year um and we have to hire teachers we have to hire the best teachers right we have to hire police officers we have to hire firefighters
033and they deserve to get a raise year after year and if our grand list remained stagnant and remained at the same level it did and everybody received a 3% raise there's no way we if we didn't have that gr lless growth our taxes would be even higher than they are so um I know there's been a focus on development over the last couple of years you've seen it around town we're seeing it literally in every corner of town that's going to help us with our grand list growth and um this year we're seeing uh about $61 million in Grand lless growth and that will result in about 2.3 $2.4 million uh an additional tax Revenue that we can use before we have to um tax residents um but that's a number that's going going to
034continue to grow over the next two years so that $61 million is based on what we're seeing around town um and we haven't seen anything developed through fruition so that's all projects that are in the process of uh of being developed uh this year alone we've um approved Our Town Council has approved a quarter of a billion dollars in in new development uh with a heavy focus on affordability so every project that we've approved uh has a compon a component of affordable housing and some projects are almost all affordable housing so that will remain a focus of Our Town Council of our staff as we continue to grow that grand list as we move forward uh I do want to highlight um some of the decisions that we've made in the past a recent one
035um and that is our our Pension Plan four years ago in 2021 our contribution to our pension plan was $26 million so today that number is $10 million so the decision a decision our Council made four years ago to issue pension obligation bonds and establish a pension Reserve fund uh has paid dividends for our community in just in four years so this is year over-year of not having to make that $26 million payment into our pension plan this year as I said it's $10 million so those are the kinds of decisions the kind of Creative Solutions that we will continue to work on we'll do it today and we'll do it as we move forward to minimize the impact that this budget is going to have on our residents knowing as that grand list growth
036that I just talked about next year is going to be even higher and then year uh and the second year out um right now we are you know I talk with our assessor Joe dakers every day um that you talk about that return on investment the value of our homes over the last year to two years has increased almost on average 30 to 35% across the town so the homes that we're all living in that value has increased dramatically here more so than even other communities around the state of Connecticut which is again tied to I think the quality of services the quality of Education that we provide here in West Harford that's very unique two years from now we're we're looking at a grand list that could potentially grow from $7 billion 77.2 billion
037where it is today to $1 billion so that's where we're on track for in two years so um so that's uh a real real quick summary of both of our budgets as Paul said you can view both of our presentations on whci um at this point I think we'd like to stop there pause there and then turn it over to uh our resident any closing comments before we turn it over to the residents at P ofed would you Lura or Shannon would you like to make any comments thank you thank you can you thank you all right so appreciate very much the information I'm hearing it again from uh our superintendent vs but thank you for sharing as well that keeps us a breast and want to thank all of you for being here and
038those that may be viewing and listening to our budget piece I want to very much thank my teammates that are here Shannon and Gail um that are here as well because we know when it comes to our budget it really is all hands on deck and it's important that all persons play a role in supporting these efforts I just want to thank my colleagues here and of course mayor and Deputy Mayor thank you so much for for being here in our town manager as well so we welcome your questions uh and your comments also so we can try to move forward together we have a microphone to folks yep yep any questions comments opinions all are welcome sure just you know I don't have a perspective of what goes on in other towns but if
039and you may have a better perspective like if if similar group of individuals were getting together in other towns surrounding West Harford would they be having the exact same conversations are there unique challenges that West Harford is facing versus all of our fellow you know neighboring towns so just wanted to get a perspective on that like what's going on in Ava what's going on in Farmington what's going on in Simsbury are they having the exact same conversations sure I can I can offer some uh perspective on the educational side and anyway probably year the town side but um in in Broad Strokes uh there's a lot of commonality when you look at uh even beginning with say the percentage of the budget the the uh the 6040 split that that we talk about that's very
040common across the state that rough the education budget is kind of the the bigger slice of the pie but by by 10% you know you know from the 50/50 so 60% uh that's not uncommon at all um and and the in terms of the state partnership plan a lot of districts not every district has gone into has gone into that and you you see some of that benefit cost increase um we used to have our own we used to have a separate plan um and we would face some significantly High you know it's kind of like a roller coaster we Face some significantly high cost L low and the movement to the state partnership plan overall has been a benefit because those cost increases have been a little bit more stable because you have this
041larger pool you know it's a greater number of folks it's all the state employees it's a lot of town employees it's a lot of boards of Education employees so um overall we've had greater predictability and lower cost increases with that for for a fair amount of time um and anyone that's in the state partnership plan is being faced with that um our salary in increase uh as I mentioned it's a market driven increase uh we were right at the market average for um for example for our teacher salaries which is our largest largest Union largest group of employees in in the town so that's very much the same conversation that's happening uh and then lastly is the uh the special education tuition costs um I meet monthly with the superintendent group from the entirety of
042Hartford County um I've met with not only our West Harford delegation uh but we've been invited to some other pieces uh with the legislature in to to really talk about um the existing shortfall um that is 100% an issue um that is of dramatic concern and is the budget driver for a number of folks this year um I don't know if I mentioned to this group but um West West Harford was was uh faced the sixth highest dollar value shortfall in the state of Connecticut based on the r you know based on our rise of special education students again not uncommon uh we are we are just below the state average with the number of students we service for special education uh but I have you know I have colleagues in other districts nearby here
043as I said that are that are posting you know they're calling it a crisis in their District because the the level of increase that's needed based on their shortfall is so dramatic that it's driving their budget um even more significantly than ours um several of those districts that are in the top 10 have not yet uh published what their budget uh increase is they either haven't had the meeting yet or it hasn't been sent out on a you know we have a shared document that that that we should look at so we can kind of see where we rank relative to other towns of similar size are geographically close um and so several that are in the top 10 have an IT rank but pretty much anyone that's that's up at the high end like
044we are is posting a large number this year because that's a driver that we can't control um you know for me to take another percent off of the budget um the equivalent of over $2 million uh that would be the equivalent of you know the elimination of fourth grade the elimination of the high school English language you know it's it's 20 20 teachers or more yep and I would um so and and we do the same thing we monitor all of the Town budgets and City budgets around the state um and we're we're early in the process we'll know more in the next week or so where most other communities are coming in I've seen a 10% and I've seen a 3% so um but I haven't seen a lot so we're just we'll just
045start to see some of those increases I think our uh our Dilemma on the town side is a little bit unique to this year um similar to what Paul just said in terms of the healthcare increase like last year was a 2% increase um we probably you know hopeful we wouldn't see this kind of increase back to back so I think next year we could expect to see a much manage much more manageable increase in our healthcare costs um we have some issues we're dealing with on our risk we have a risk management fund that we make a contribution into to fund our health care and then our workers compensation and all of our insurance programs that uh cover all of our town we're dealing with a couple of litigation issues uh that have forced
046up some uh premium increases on one of our accounts so that's unique to this year for us on in the risk management side as well our salary side a salary increase would not be at the level next year that it is this year um because of that um you know settling a couple of un contracts that had been outstanding for several years so um so I think those two um issues are are more unique to this year um than most years and I think we'll see more stabilization in uh in those line items next year um but certainly there are other things that we'll have to take a look at as we manage this budget this year a couple other things I'll just say that are unique to West Harford um we actually have seen
047higher Grand list growth than most other communities um around us um you know a municipality like Harford uh is seeing Grand lless growth decline um uh Manchester saw Grand lless growth decline we're seeing a increase which is a very good news and there's more in the pipeline um and so th that's good every municipality is different in the makeup of who the taxpayers are uh an example of that is Farmington Farmington has a much smaller percentage of residential property than they have corporate and um and actually State um with Yukon a pilot uh grant money that comes in so the makeup's a little different in West Harford almost 90% of our Revenue comes from property taxes uh and uh less than you know more I would say a lot of the larger communities around us
048have more State support we have the 10 10% well a little less than 10% which you heard um about uh but also out of that 90% most of our property taxpayers are residential top property taxpayers it's not even like commercial and other so a lot falls on our residents in a way that um is is different in other communities the dynamic is a little bit different I don't know um my my um my dad would like to ask a question uh before I ask you a question uh so my name is Aaron buuck I'm uh not only a resident but also a business owner in town um so as well as my friend Matt here but I'm coming from more of a uh less emotional logical side of like the comment and sort of question
049than I have really um Matt will I don't want to speak for him but he'll come from a clinical side of uh of things um I don't know that anybody in the room disagrees first of all with that West Harford is a great place to live it's a great place to live it's a great place to raise a family what did you say work in retire in right you know so that's the reason why my wife and I chose to you know plant Our Roots besides you know I was here before her for the last 25 years but um I normally wouldn't come to something like this um this is sort of like a preparation for something bigger I think I I think the public hearing is on the 26th if I'm not mistaken um
050it's more of education for you know for our two 10-year-olds I'm not sure how often you have a couple 10-year-olds you know show up to a meeting like this um there's a much larger group that is poised to make an appearance on the 26th regarding uh something specific in the Board of Education um budget U uh and I think that yes do I think that special education and some other areas definitely need some attention but U I think it raised a lot of red flags with some uh call it potential reductions to the quest program and that's that's raised all kinds of emails and emotional responses and um even there's a couple TV stations that are now calling us and going to cover some of this stuff too so I'm I'm I'm sort of like
051letting you know ahead of time it's not a threat but I'm letting you know ahead of time that that there there's a bit little bit more of a wave coming for that meeting right um what I would say is um I think that when I was growing up the gifted and talented program was something that a bunch of kids didn't have the aptitude to be in right it was a very select group right and I always viewed it myself not being in that program as the super smart kids right and what both of these children here today are in the quest program okay and what I would say is while they are very smart children um I'll speak specifically to my son he's also a very different type of child he thinks differently and he's
052not what I would have thought growing up as to be a gifted and talented child he's an outof the Box thinker he doesn't fit a specific mold some would say he even falls under even though it's Quest he would fall under the special education category so it's something that like where is that line between Quest because there's a specific high level of intelligence in some areas that if fostered and pointed in the right direction could be something really really special but if not could really be a detriment to the children right so it's uh it's it's a very fine line and that can speak to probably the emotional and some of the clinical side of things but um I'm supposed to follow that yeah so well my name is Matt Gallow I actually own Pinnacle
053Behavioral Health which is the Intensive outpatient program that's in town that treats a lot of the uh kids in your school district I'd actually at some point really enjoy um being able to learn more about the outplacement cost benefit of not just drive and and reach but um cuz that's something that we'd be very interested in supporting the town in producing and creating something that uh really can support not just the K in the town but the budget as well because we we we do see the the costs that go into that I I think with the quest program from the clinical perspective because my background is actually in gifted and talented counseling gifted and talented kids um and something that I've seen over the last 25 years in the field is that kids in
054those Arenas that don't get serviced appropriately end up on your behavioral charts and end up in the out outplay so if we're going from a cost benefit I think it's an interesting thing and I know it's not a major reduction yet but I think a lot of the concerns at this point is um is gifted kids are looked at as the well they're smart enough so why are we going to spend money there and then as those programs become eliminated um at least in my experience we're working with a lot of school districts those kids end up uh costing the school districts a heck of a lot more money on the back end uh being sent out to different types of schools because they they're underserved or unserved in those in those General so I'm
055just curious like is that something that's being considered in this process and how would you guys kind of approach that you know yes they're they're not special education per se however you know it's a population of kids that um that I feel become underserved when when the budget you know when you guys are and maybe it's requirements but you know when we're adding positions to special ed and we're subtracting from those like what's the kind of the cost benefit of that if that makes sense great question I'm glad so for the benefit of the room I'm glad to know I was aware that there was a a buzz around potential cuts to our Quest program our gifted and talent program however um I got I got about 20 or 25 different emails uh I read
056about half of them last night uh at the uh um at the presentation of the Town budget and I was kind of tied up in a lot of interviews and some things today so I was going to read the other half of them before I had the budget workshop and I know I have at least four or five on Quest and I haven't gotten a chance to read them all through yet to understand exactly what the concern was so I'm I'm appreciative because the cuts to the quest program um that we're proposing are are not that significant um in total uh we'll see at the budget work chat tonight when we go over it is a it's a 7 so it's it's less than one teacher um and it's based on what an analysis of
057how those teachers are scheduled um without any Cuts whatsoever to the services that we're providing specifically within gifting and talented and so the way that it works um our provision of gifted and talented occurs um really in grades four and five students are tested grade three and we have two forms of we have we have well we have three forms we have we have quest which is a general enrichment program we have math quest which is specific to uh an accelerated and enriched program in mathematics and then we do have an Arts Quest program which occurs after school um but because of the limited uh grade levels that are serviced um typically one fulltime teacher would be split across two schools and then based on how they're going to be able to access the children
058the school schedule um you know if I only need to access the fourth grade and the fifth grade and then move on you know that could that could theoretically be done if if schedules were perfect within a couple of hours in all reality there's a long reading block the kids have to have recess before this point of day where is lunch placed um so there's some gaps there and our Quest teachers during those gaps are doing enrichment with other classes with nonidentified students and so what we're looking at is can we tighten um some of that Gap time to trim the Staffing from grades uh essentially from the elementaries in the middle schools and we feel that we can probably realize a trim of about a 7 without impacting the overall services will there be
059a little bit less enrichment in all honesty yes there will um and that is a concession all by itself and we will hear I do expect to hear from parents who benefit from that enrichment who want that enrichment and we will do our best to provide that enrichment um in consultation with the classroom teacher or in doubling up that but I'm not proposing the cessation or the curtailment or the reduction in in the quest programing itself we are expecting to keep that programming whole I know that in years past and I think it probably goes back s or eight years we also had a very difficult budget at that time and and there was the laundry list of everything that we could do cut I can't remember the number it was something like $10 million
060from the budget was it was an ungodly number um and we were talking about U elimination of the quest program elimination of an Arts rotation at Middle School from 2 to one elimination of Athletics you know it was those were the kind of sweeping cuts that would be required to be able to hit such a large number um my reductions um my reductions are as phisically responsible to to to be able to provide as much relief as I can from the from the significant nature of the cost increase for next year while protecting and preserving program so um so I'm I'm here today to represent that I think that we can preserve cust and I I respect the what it brings for for our community and I recognize how much our community wants it um
061without you know but at the same time I I got an email this morning from a World Language teacher wanting to know why World Language the first thing that was being cut from the budget and I had to go look for was being cut and it's a tiny little sliver um just based on the reduced number of sections of the elementary um and so I I I think um people can be nervous when anything's being cut like that is the beginning of the end um that is not the int thanks for all that I well I would say that the you're right there's a knee-jerk reaction and EM somewhat emotional reaction right there's all these other parents that are up in arms and Matt nights and tend to be more of the level added in
062the group uh tend to be not always by the way but um the uh I think what what concerned is I think we saw something in the some information that got sent out to us that showed a trend in the quest in year over-ear over the last maybe five or six years it's been reduced so it continued to be reduced and then I think it's like okay at what point does it completely disappear or does it really adversely affect the kids right so I think some of that may be I don't know we've also had um primarily at the elementary uh year-over-year declining enrollment and I I'm interested to go back and look at the trend because I want to be responsive to what concern you know I'm I'm here saying we're we're there's there's
063no secret plan to okay that's good you sir thank you for your question I want to say what an awesome you have because as you were talking he just was getting direct eye contact and great posture so wonderful job and thank you all so much thank you no no problem well this this form is really nice I rarely do I have seven seven Town officials answer my questions more behind you oh wow great um my question is about educational cost sharing and how that's changed like within the last five years because I know that this has been a thorny issue since I've lived in West Harford which is a full for six decades so are we getting more in terms of educational cost sharing do we feel like we're getting our fair share that's never
064okay so yeah just in general like or or just even educ like give a broad overview of our educational cost sharing well I'll I'll um I think both of us can probably contribute to an answer because educational cost sharing dollars it's a grant from the state of Connecticut um that's provided to towns directly um to offset costs within the town budget related specifically to education um and this year we are getting uh an increase it's a smaller increase than last year that was work done within the legislature to uh to accelerate the the full I don't know if it's the full funding or to accelerate funding promis funding within educational struction and so uh this year we're getting just over $640,000 more than last year and I think in your presentation there you could probably
065say the exact total number of dollars 25 million 25 million uh that the the town receives for educational CAU that so so there is more and we're glad about that it's not as much more as it's not as much as an increas as we saw last year uh that said um you sort of asked the question are we getting enough uh the educational curing formula is based on the number of students who are English language Learners um who reside in the district and the number of students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged as identified through their participation in programs um what's interesting about that is the group of students uh who also represents some of the highest needs relative to educational costs that are not part of the formula are the students uh with disabilities special students
066rece Educational Services and there is an effort under underfoot with the legislature to amend the educational cost Shing formula to be able to give credit uh to towns uh and to be able to give you know Equitable credit to towns who have a larger number of special education students versus a smaller number of Education special education students currently there is this thing this excess uh cost reimbursement that we've been talking about that addresses students uh students with disabilities who have very exceptional needs students who who require programming and services well above uh well above their you know not only their their grade level peers but their peers within special education so sort of a complexity issu students who have very complex needs um students who just have maybe some more routines needs uh something that
067that and I say routine I don't want that to sound wrong but needs that we can service more routinely Maybe we need to provide a co- teer resource teacher some check-ins um you know their services their service demands are more limited um right now we don't get anything uh from the state we certainly get funds through IDPA uh but that that's the effort that's underfoot with changing the educational C formula that way a district like West Harford that has right about the uh State average um would get some money whereas perhaps a smaller District that doesn't have as many um special education students um we or or any District do didn't have as many special education students you know we would get you just slightly proportionally more under the ACs which which pretty appreciate well
068I don't de with I just wanted to explain there is a task force um at the state level that actually has made recommendations to the state legislature on ECS funding including uh as as superintendent shared special education and also reducing the 4 and2 times excess cost number to something um a little bit a little bit less 3 32% so all that is is something that the state l is working on anding um you're also talking about including Transportation I think in in end discuss the13 million something that adds that thre as well and that has not been addressed um so all of those pieces the other thing that state of Connecticut is an outliner on is providing um guidelines and it's kind of to Ma um guidelines and limits on what is spent out of
069District or any over really any over May the only state or or so I I elected leaders around the state and managers around the state are uh have said and as well but um but the impact on the AR are are so profoundly impacted by uh excess cost um and small town can be so profoundly impacted that interest so there is this cide to help in that all of that formula to also have over uh and have it check and and have recommendations there's also uh a lot of um work being done to and I think the government has to regionalize and do something smaller Reg but also having the resources more local than having it you know even in state far away or or out of state so uh and working with other municipalities
070together too we've have conversations with mayor Harford and uh and other municipalities that are very interested in doing that as well going to be a little bit of a you know it's not going to this budg or we can't count on itec but um but it is something that is very much in the everybody what I was going to say much speaking about and I think it's important to know that the challenges we see are not new ones and especially with respect to the educational cost and reimbursement not getting what we hoping for that has been an ongoing Pride for health and support and I think it can be a misinterpretation that because W does well and because we do have wealth distribution that we do have we know that we have the challenges also
071and we also know that in spite of those challenges that will not have us to reduce our commitment to those children and students being prepared to serve so we may do with what we have and we've done quite well with that but at the same time we certainly do need additional supports and so as mayor was talking about the advocacy on the state level our delegation has been quite receptive to the concerns that we have we are superintendent has advocated board members have advocated different ways as well and the be Advocate and that's why we're reaching out to the public and saying please help us in squeaking the wheel because it is something that has been long time coming with supporting us in a way that we can provide the best supports to the children
072are Community I know question so I've been in town a long time thank you all very much for being here appreciate that very much um off unfortunately I was hoping be larger group of citizens here a large myself so um oh thank you Jennifer I have um so that's my Global statement so I I tend to pack a few questions into one the first one I hope doesn't sound ignorant but do we generate enough Revenue to pay for all of our expenditures across the board I'm assuming because of our rating we must have a balanced sheet but I'm asking the question anyway because I know how in accounting sometimes you can not necessarily have things be necessarily evening so that's my first question um and that gets to the heart of of the this discussion
073um so the Board of Education sort of is this universe separate from town government and your needs are uh part of the Town Council consideration but also unique in that respect and as I listen to this a lot of discussion about the increase in expenditures for special education which correct me if I'm wrong has been driven by we've done such a phenomenal job of attracting people to our town that people are moving here specifically for that which is driving up the need for services across the board and the question is as we're looking all of the new development coming into town um have you already factored in or anticipated that that's even going to cause more of an impact and requests for services needs how are you going to pay for them actually that gets
074to my bottom line question um with increasing um demand for services Rising costs reduction or elimination of funds from either the state level for anything roads School launches special classes how are we paying for this to M Canter's point maybe um not maybe I think I totally understand that our Revenue primarily comes from property taxes correct So to that extent how do you propose to in the next few weeks convince individuals in this town who love this town and are here for all the wonderful reasons have been articulated that this challenge that they're going to face in taxation as a result of trying to keep everything even kill kill um is going to set set with them I'm just curious because it seems to be the elephant in a room that nobody wants to directly
075address and I think it's wonderful to talk about all the Glorious wonderful things here and your hard work and your dedication and commitment but I think at the end of the day people want to know things are going to continue pretty much it seems Rising shortfalls reductions how do you have a plan of action so um yeah we'll start with the first so your first question do we collect enough taxes to cover our expenses and we do um so we do um in my 25 years and prob I'm not sure we've ever had a deficit um and we wouldn't I know the Board of Education can't have a deficit because the Board of Education members are a fiduciary uh um responsibly for that so um in this year we you know the superintendent mentioned the
076excess cost reimbursement we were looking at a potential shortfall in this particular year and the amount we were getting reimbursed from the state and these three individuals one to my left and two to the right were very influential and working with our delegation to to um to work with the governor to reverse that so very fortunate that we will not be looking at a um a any kind of shortfall on the board of education side uh this year and um we do have we're AAA rated Community uh we are required to have a um a fund balance and we do have a fund balance that's 10.1% of our overall budget so um but we've never had to tap into that we did a little bit back in 2011 uh during the storm we all remember
077um and and we uh tapped into it very uh quickly um and replenished it um within a matter of uh a half a year so um so yes we do collect uh an 86% as the mayor said 86% of our uh revenues are generated by our proper our property taxes right here in town um you know we get um roughly $35 million um from the state and and various grants so but the rest is unfortunately on the backs of our taxpayers which is a little unique uh here in the state of Connecticut uh versus states around the country who have opportunities to with sales tax and things like that there is a bill on the floor right now um that would provide um sales uh restaurant and hotel tax to municipalities that we're hopeful to
078to see some um legs with with that particular bill that would help certainly uh as we move forward so uh in terms of development and the impact that that has on our school so most everything you've been seeing uh around the town has been in the multifam um genre so in with the ones based on the experience of what has been built and is up and running we've had very very little impact on our school district in terms of adding to um the number of student overall population within our school district District so and looking at what we're doing as we're moving forward I I I'd see a similar impact uh we you know we work very closely with our school district with every development um that we're proposing and trying to assess what impact
079that may have on our school district and I I don't see any signif even even a blip of a of an impact on our school district um that being said to your point we we are a draw um which you know we're very proud of it's again our C and I know that comes with a balance you know we don't want to you know we we always look to minimize the impact on our taxpayer but we do provide an exceptional educational opportunity for for so many and and that's so important to us um but we will look to uh to minimize any impact as we move forward as best possible so um anything you you would add to that yeah so so I think uh what Rick is saying structurally Connecticut is a very we're
080very tied to a property taxes more Reliance on property taxes than any state now I think in the country maybe New Jersey but Massachusetts used to be ahead of us it's no longer ahead of us so that that's a structural change that has happened increasing over time that um that I do municipalities around the state recognize it I'm not sure sure our legislature recognizes it um or the leadership honestly at the state level understanding affordability when you talk about housing affordability when you talk about business of you know business friendly business affordability property taxes is a a huge component of it um and so that is a real real challenge for us to balance as we we we are not I mean a there's always a plan but um plans change I mean we did
081not when we joined the state partnership plan we did not think we would get a 10% increase this year after a 2% increase the uh we didn't know they were going to allow glp1 you know distribution for weight loss and all of the things that are maybe going to drive that those costs up so we we're going to have to react to that we're going to have to figure it out sometimes it's a lag uh but we we we're going to have to raise our hands and and and do that um property taxes have increased in our in every municipality throughout the state every year for decades and decades and decades um so the only way to and and ours have been less than a lot Although our mill rate is high because the state
082contributes less and we have less corporate uh investment in our community uh which is something that we continually work on and we we did have a corporate uh investment in our community that has expanded and and that's good small but still um but we are you know the 1% Hospitality tax is something the the state takes revenue on on everything dog license how much is a dog license now $10 $11 I don't know the they take it all the re no we get $1 we get $1 cost us more to process um dog licenses uh than it it is to there's no Revenue stream that we've been able to get that has that that is beyond property taxes that one % hospitality and um Restaurant Hospitality tax was earmarked for municipalities 100% of it it's
083above a little over 100 $110 million and it was uh then split to half to municipalities as a proposal uh split by the legislature half to municipalities half to Workforce Development and uh another half to tourism okay that benefits the restaurant industry and okay that's fine and then it was swept completely and is now has been $500 million gone to the state into their general fund uh and we as a draw for uh restaurants and uh have again structural costs we have Public Safety we have road we have parking a land that we have to commit to parking that has all cost the town um money and so that's something I've testified on I've been working with our our our delegation um and the Restaurant Association on changing that cannabis was one of the first
084I think that allowed the municipalities to keep a little bit of the revenue and it's a little bit um uh opioid that's a little bit of a a revenue stream that's been coming in um one of the things we're going to be voting on in the next month is uh camera uh enforcements for speeding um and that is a a unique thing that the state legislator has legisl legislature has said if there's a lot of uh restrictions on it um maximum of $50 um there's a a lot of restrictions on it that money can be kept by the municipality and can be reinvested back into road safety I mean and we will be testifying on that but it part of the what we need to do is change some of those structural drivers pension was
085one of them that was was a decision that was made I think I've talked to you about the scale before it was made 30 years ago there was a holiday there was no pension payments for a 10 to 12 year period of time similar to what the state did and um there was even negotiations for employees not to pay into their pension plan we are paying for that now if that had not been done 30 years ago it would have been a very different Dynamic for West Hartford um the bleeding has stopped in that we were going up so much I mean we actually were we're cutting our school budget on the on the and our town Budget on the backs of our pension plan that has stabilized um and hopefully for the remainder and
086that will go away that is not you know in 20 years it's going to be a very a good drop from our um that that's good I won't be here but whatever but anyway but we have to look at those structural things we have to fight for new revenue streams um and but this is a dynamic that every municipality is facing in Connecticut and and you know and I it gets me it does get me a little riled when we have such a surplus at the state level and such um you talk about how we're decreasing taxes when really it's a shift what's happened is you you haven't funded things to the level that have been agreed to and have been required and what other states have done and then um that has not you
087know that then it shifts to the municipalities so um anyway but a little bit of my soap I just think it's important that the public he that discussion or comenting as well um because I don't think a lot of people get that in terms of how this town or town um is PID andet and to the superintendent we just want to say I mean my children went to school here and did well my son got a full scholarship to a second tier I Le School my daughter chose not to go college but he did such a wonderful job of public education uh that she's a manager in the law fir she works she's legal manager so you know we train educate students and accommodate very very well clearly so I just wanted to let you
088know that I there's a lot of thoughts but I just wanted to say everyone gets it with respect to the education but for those people who are now without children at home they're do other appreciate it thank you than you bye thank you oh yeah you need the mic yes it's for the notation recording I didn't realize what this was all about so we've had about 64 65,000 residents my entire life is that pretty not true I don't know yeah we did have 70,000 residents in the 70s okay all right it's but it has been it was a little were probably a lot people well that's an interesting discussion but um and as far as I know our school enrollments around 9200 it's been like pretty flat for the last at least five years last
089couple years so we went through a period of En just just under2 okay just curious is that a very typical ratio yeah just across yeah I'm just curious if like that sounds like about one out of every six and a half or so is that like a typical ratio I honestly that's a great question I haven't studi I haven't studied it from that perspective terms ofms i'mm infastructure of town so I I don't have a that question because that would also prove the point that we are really attracting you know more people on the basis of our schools which I've heard and I think is true but that's all sort of anecdotal that I think it's true well there very few towns the state of con that have had either a stable enrollment or Rising
090en very like okay yeah but most mpali and then great job on the presentation on the grand list growth I was not aware that that was going on do you see that the tradeoff is density do you worry about density in terms of our town because as I say I when I grew up Bishop's Corner was a sleepy part of town seriously no one went to Bishop's Corner and how that has changed probably more as a result of Avon and Canton than anything we've done but just terms of like how do you see how do you see that changing our town we see it changing our town in a very positive way I mean we have you know we've always had the center and bl Back Square that's kind of been our you know forever
091our draw to our community um and for us there's been our Council um focus on looking at developing other parts of town not like the center of Blac necessarily but for example a great uh example is what we're trying to do down in hel so we have the Brit Avenue and we have new Park Avenue and our Council two years ago um adopted a Transit oriented development District so they our goal is to create more dense housing opportunities and mixed use opportunities along Avenue New Avenue that are close to Transportation public transportation so we have the Connecticut fast track station that's right there at the corner of new parking new Britt Avenue and our goal you know hopefully we'll all be around to see this come to fruition is to have a train station there
092as well um and we're also redevelop re renovating New Park Avenue so some to what we did on North Main Street right out here we're going to create a four lane road and create a two lane road with left hand turning lane and then protected bike LS so we will then have the opportunity to connect trout Trail to New Park Avenue into our to district and then connecting we just adop signed off on a grant to study connecting our truer Trail New Park Avenue to Harford and Newington to their developing by P Trails as well so really bringing that to District life we have two projects that have been approved through our to that working on financing right now they're working on financing so the old Puritan uh would be a um 115 unit um
093multif family with a commercial on the first floor dense development right up on the street um less parking taking advantage of that uh public transportation uh affordable housing as well so 30% of the units would be affordable uh in that development and then another one further down on New Park Avenue at 57 new part down there so two new developments for that part of town that will really bring Elmwood um it's it's a great place right now it'll really even bring more to life um and enhance what we have in the center in Blue Square and then we recently approved uh the council recently approved the development right over here at Yukon um where we'll have on the parking lot side the 1700 Asylum we'll have four apartment buildings with about 300 units uh with
094about 7% affordable uh affordability in that location there and then across the street for real mixed use development so we will have um a small organic grocery store and then uh we'll have a couple restaurants coffee shop a spa an assisted living facility and then the opportunity to own along Asylum Avenue and la and again creating you know a mini dense Center and blue back on the north end of town as well to kind of enhance everything that's happening here at Bishop's Corner so we're really excited about this type of of growth uh here in town uh certainly it will help with our grandis which is always great for our tax payer you know for our residents to minimize those tax impacts but really um like I said taking something that that's really special here
095in town and even and and making it more special and has the demand for the new developments been been steady as charts the charts housing is an issue it's it's we're in a crisis not just here in Connecticut but Nationwide um and part of that you know I talked about our Ro Rising home values you know we're up 35% here in West Harford um so there's like you think about when I think about my kids' Age Now who are you know they're all out of college now and living in an apartment uh in various places around the country but I think about being their age trying to buy a home right now and I I couldn't do it they can't do it so this is you know there's just a tremendous demand uh for this
096multi housing so um and that's why this invest we're seeing records record levels of investment in our community that we've never seen um that um you know I I talked about Yukon that parking lot side Yukon was purchased for $23 million just for the land just to have the opportunity to invest in our community um that's not something you see everywhere so very very fortunate to to have that level of interest just about at 5:00 and um so I think we should wind up I just um I one last this is really quick sorry if I understand correctly it's the increase is about 7 and a half on the education budget about 5.7 7.2 on the education 7.2 okay 7.2 okay just that's my recommendation turn it over my board we have our work first
097Workshop tonight workshop for two weeks on April 1st they'll uh they'll vote on the budget and send the figure to and what you is does anything like typically change between the proposed phase and the actual okay and I know we're at limits so last question thank you thank you very much this was delightful really nice to have you it was delightful for me all right we have card a all right e