This is the second of a two-part interview with Board of Education Chairman Dionna Carlson, who was elected to that position by her colleagues in November.
When the Advertiser requested an appointment to interview the school board’s new leader, an arrangement was made for the questions and answers to be handled in writing, via email.
Carlson submitted her responses, as agreed, on Dec. 17, about three weeks before the superintendent presented his budget for 2017, which includes a 6.4% increase, on Jan. 11.
Part 1, published in the Advertiser Jan. 14 and on NCAdvertiser.com, touched on Carlson’s views of the school system in general. This portion covers budgeting issues and the working relationship with the Town.
The questions are from Editor Greg Reilly.
1. Would you be willing to cut a program (academic or other) to help keep budget increases down and to help the Town pay for capital improvement projects? If yes, what type of program?
The Board, through the annual budget process, is always asked to make tough decisions around its operating and capital budgets. However, when considering individual programs, our focus is on continuously reviewing and assessing programs district-wide to ensure they are meeting our goals and objectives. If a program is not meeting our goals, we look at ways to modify or replace the program in order to improve the program’s delivery for our students.
Therefore, cutting programs to keep budget increases down is not a best practice or an effective strategy, since cutting any program results in a decrease in the delivery of services to our students.
If programs are not effective, we modify, eliminate, and/or replace them as appropriate. Cutting a program to meet a budget number is not sustainable, and can erode the quality of a school district in the long-term. As a board, we are committed to putting forward a budget that meets the needs of our students and schools in the most reasonable and responsible way.
2. If you had to go through a year with no additional money in the BOE budget (contractual increases would have to be offset elsewhere in BOE budget) could New Canaan Public Schools maintain current levels of excellence?
The Board of Education budget is comprised of “drivers” and “enhancements.” Given the nature of school systems, the budget “drivers” are significantly larger and more inflexible than the budget “enhancements,” and therefore account for much more of the overall budget. For instance, salaries and benefits account for over 81% of the total budget. When you add transportation costs, electricity, heating fuel, and outplacement costs to that number, these five budget drivers exceed 90% of the total operating budget.
As you know, and part of what makes them “drivers,” is that these items cannot be removed or eliminated from the district; we must provide transportation, we must heat our schools and turn on the lights, we must meet our legal requirements related to special education, and, most importantly, we must continue to hire the best and brightest teachers to work with our children every day.
As we build the budget, it’s important to consider all of the budget drivers to best understand the reasons for changes year to year. As such a large percentage of the overall budget, unless these budget drivers were forecasted to decrease year-to-year, they will lead to in an increase overall.
However, it’s also important to note that through the years the administration and the board have worked to identify and capitalize upon efficiencies throughout the system, including restoring instead of replacing technology equipment, partnering with the town for grounds maintenance, reducing or reassigning support staff where appropriate, etc. Effective stewardship of district resources is an explicit goal of the board and administration, and we take that responsibility very seriously.
3. My personal observation of New Canaan going back to 1996: A typical budget process sees the Board of Education present a request that is greater than the amount that is approved by the Town Council. For an unofficial example: It appears that if the BOE figures 3.0% might be approved, it will ask for 4.0%, so that if the Town Council reduces the increase to 3% the Town appears to be keeping a tight rein on school spending, and BOE gets what it needs in increased spending.
Do you anticipate that we going to see such a similar budget process this year?
The Board of Education builds its budget from the ground up, starting in the early fall with administrative team meetings to discuss district priorities. After each department submits its budget, the superintendent reviews the proposed budget with his staff to determine a final budget to bring forward to the Board of Education for further discussion, review and approval.
During this time, the budget is presented to the Board of Selectmen for feedback and discussion. After the budget is approved by the Board of Education, it is then submitted for review and approval by the Board of Finance and, ultimately, the Town Council.
A detailed vetting of the budget by the Board of Education occurs prior to anything being submitted to the town bodies for approval. The Board of Education puts forward what it believes to be an appropriate and responsible budget each year, and goes to great pains to help everyone interested better understand the rationale behind the requests.
8. What amount of access to BOE financial records by the Town director of finance do you feel is appropriate? I have heard you say that access to student personal identifying information would not be appropriate, because of state-mandated responsibility to protect confidentiality. No question on that.
8 a. Enough access for the director of finance to sign off on BOE financial statements without relying on letters of representation from BOE officials?
In recent conversations, the Board of Education, the Town Finance Department, and the Audit Committee have agreed that supervised access is appropriate to meet the needs of everyone involved. Furthermore, the group has agreed that, similar to many towns, a representation letter will be signed by the board, along with other town departments, prior to the finance director and first selectman signing the bond lett
New New Canaan School Board Chairman Dionna Carlson The post Cutting programs to meet budget ‘not sustainable’ appeared first on New Canaan Advertiser.