How many of you are getting 3% guaranteed increases every year in your job or business, with LUSH fringe benefits that cost more every year, plus TWO MONTHS off a YEAR every year PLUS vacations in addition to the two months off? Average salary around $50,000 a year (entry level, corrected for partial-year) and quickly jumps up to almost $73,000 to $80,000 a year plus (when corrected for partial year) PLUS benefits, remember....)? And walk in to work at 7:30 or 8 am some mornings and walk out by 3 pm MANY afternoons....how many of you would like to have that life for a working person--oh, plus tenure (another word for no actual accountability in a REAL WORLD sense)...Oh, and do not forget the union that is like a powerful PAC and spends MILLIONS efvery year just in advertising and mailings and "organizing".... Nice! Yeah, what the hee....give them another 3% of our taxes for a few more years....while our country goes broke..... ;)

Here we going again..enough already! I have been unemployed for almost 3 years and cannot find a job to save my life. We're are underwater on our house by thousands but every year since we moved to Brookfield in 2006 our taxes keep going up and up. It's getting harder & harder each month to survive and now this town wants even more of my money! I know many are in the same boat...I've had to cut back and sacrifice..why can't the government do the same!

I hope this does not go through. I will be voting no!

How can we take anything seriuosly form Mr. Bivona who has asked teachers to freeze pay , has asked Para professionals to take pay freeze but who accepted his own pay raise - Hypocrite- We need to consider the salaries of the admin - A simple freeze of thier pays would supplement all the para professionals. I simply can not support someone so willing to take and yet ask others to sacrifice - Lets see a salary of 180k getting a 30k pay raise vs a para at 15k per year - not hard to do this math. Also we have ciriculum leaders for Kindergarten and first grade making 100k - I think that the studies of Kindergarten and First Grade are not that complicated and that we do not need such a highly qualified well paid person in that position. Why can we not use Huckleberries leader or combine these positions like other towns

I would be interested in exactly where you think we should cut back?

Just like for community members, costs for the district have increased dramatically. The price of heating oil and fuel has gone up. The cost of health care for all employees rises every year. And non-tax dollar revenues, such as grant funding, go down every year. These increases are not a result of wasteful or elaborate spending. If you think so, please tell us where that wasteful spending is taking place.

In fact, the BOE has taken great strides in holding increases to a minimum while maintaining schools. This has been achieved through excellent negotiations with employees, renegotiated contracts for services and equipment and other efficiencies that were found in operating procedures.

Education budgets must be responsible to the students and the taxpayers. A "no-increase" budget would be devastating to the school system and would be highly irresponsible as a town.

I implore you to study the facts involved and not be pursued by emotional reactions to any thought of an "increase".

Ray - even though we might not always agree I must say you take the time to respond and have earned my respect for that- Your dedication and hard work done for this town should be commended - Now back to our discussion

1. Have we look at the impact of going to school 183 days vs 180 days - what do those 3 extra days cost us ? These days are usually not productive as the kids are ready for summer vacation anyway
2. Lets revisit the CES ciriculum leader and evaluate pay vs tasks and number of students. I can not see this position being a 100k job- it just seems like a made up position for a well qualifed employee that we did not have a job for so we created a position for.
3. Do we have any contingency funds built into this budget - basically are there any funds that are available to the superintendent for unexpected expenses ? such as employee issues , travel expenes etc..
4. We spend a ton of money for our staff to attend conferences - why do we need to send multiple staff members to these - why not send one who comes back and briefs entire staff. The cost of this is not just the confernce cost and travel costs but those of substitute staff memebers
I could go on

LTR – thank you for the supportive words and the respect is very mutual. I appreciate you asking the tough questions and being open minded on the answers.

The 3 days in question are a difficult issue. First off, to “cut days” and realize any savings we would need concessions from ALL of the bargaining units and be able to renegotiate things like transportation. It is problematic to say the least and realistically not an option. Furthermore, I am not sure that those days are as non-productive as you may think.

I feel strongly about the curriculum leader position and my ability to defend it. However, in the interest of a good open-minded dialogue, let me get a little more information on this before I respond any further.

There is NO contingency funds in the budget. That is an absolute fact even though a few have said otherwise in the past. There ARE certain line items that are estimates because we simply have now way of knowing the final result. One such example is when we have family leaves and need replacements. There is no way to know how many employees may need to take a family leave next year. But when it does happen, we will need to provide substitutes and fulfill our obligations in those situations. So data from past years are used to make a reasonable estimate on how much would be needed to fill our obligations. We do NOT want to come up short in an area like this and have to go back to the town to ask for additional funds (something that this administration has never had to do). Likewise, there is an abundance of wiggle room in these line items at the end of the year. My understanding for this year is that we are just about dead-on, but we will have to see come year’s end.

Again, this is one such example. These lines have been managed efficiently.

I’d like to point out that the schools and the town just received an "unqualified clean opinion" of town finances” in the audit with only a minor communication – NOT DOLLAR – procedure correction that was recommended.

I do not believe our line on conferences, etc is nearly as “fat” as you stated. We have a number of new initiatives and mandates every year and we need to have staff adequately prepared and informed about these changes. We fund their ability to do this, but I do not believe there are “extras” in there.

Thanks for the comments.

Part One: I would like to comment as a parent of a Kindergarten student at CES. HOORAY for the curriculum leader who creates learning opportunities that keep the students interested in learning and engaged in their studies. Programs like “One Book – One School” which engage students, teachers AND parents in promoting positive literacy skills and get kids READING AT HOME are an enormous asset. Bringing programs into CES that help young people learn early math skills, pre-literacy skills, problem solving skills, and so much more, while keeping the teachers up to date on the latest prompts and tools they can use in over-populated classrooms is not a luxury. Stating that “studies of Kindergarten and First Grade are not that complicated” leads me to believe that you have not taught these grade levels or volunteered in these classrooms. I do not mean any offense; I am just trying to establish that I have seen exactly how hard it IS to teach this grade level. I don’t think it’s about the content – I think it’s more about the implementation. Teachers need tools and the curriculum leader gives them those tools.

Part Two: Building a solid foundation of lifelong learning is a critical component to the curriculum at CES and frankly is a benefit to our community at large. The CES kids move up through the system and with their hard work, coupled with the work of the teachers and parents, make Brookfield Schools top-notch, nationally recognized, and help keep our property values higher than they might be otherwise. I know many people with young children here who say that they moved here BECAUSE of the school system, coupled with the quality of life Brookfield affords them (in comparison to many other parts of Fairfield County), and I applaud the BoE the school administration, the teachers and the staff, for their efforts in keeping our schools great. These are tough times. I get that. I also strongly believe that having the schools suffer and negatively impacting our children’s education is not the right answer for me and my family. Parents of current Brookfield School's students – I encourage you to visit http://brookfieldpeptalk.org/ I am NOT going to tell you how to vote on this budget. I just encourage you to understand it and learn how it impacts you and your family. If you have an opinion on it, let your elected officials know now.

Jennifer- Please do not underestimate my involvement in the school system as I have been very intimate with the school system for many years and have more insight than you think. And while I agree all the programs you have listed are great for the kids but lets not lose FOCUS this is Kindergarten and First Grade - Important years YES but 100k for Curriculum leader? What did we do for years without this position ??? I am 100% behind our children trust me- in these tough times we need to look at all ways to save - Brookfield is a unique town that has its elementary school grades split- if you read my post it said why could we not combine Huckleberry leader with Center school leader - LIKE most towns that have a single school for K-4 - We have 2 curriculum leaders for K-4 so I am really not be-littling the position as much as you think just trying to look at this from a fiscally responsible view. We simply need to look at all ways to save

Jennifer - I totally agree we need to look at cuts with little or no impact 100% - Unlike you I did not move here - I was BORN here and lived here all my life. No one cares more for our childrens education than I do. I just want to look at all options. If we need everything in the budget then we leave it in - I just want to vet the items thats all - So lets go back to my statement- Does Bethel, New Fairfield etc.. have 2 cirriculum leaders for K-4. We are a small town in unique position I am just looking at synergies and consolidations that will have ZERO impact on OUR children

I will have 2 children in the Brookfield school system in the fall. I've also attended some of the recent Board of Education meetings on the budget and read the documentation. I have seen just a small piece of the work that has gone into creating the current budget. The administration and Board of Education were extremely thorough. They went over line item by line item, more than once. They asked questions. They asked for different scenarios. They looked at multiple options. And as I said, I saw just a piece of the work that was done.

I don't say this to deter anyone from asking questions. On the contrary, I think we need more people involved, particularly parents. I make this point because I don't want other parents to read one Patch post (and the ensuing comments) and draw the inaccurate conclusion that the Board of Education and Administration didn't look at ways to be efficient and save money at every single step of the discussion. They absolutely did.

Parents, if you support this budget, as I do, you need to say so. You need to find out what's in it, what services will be lost if it's cut and how it will impact our children.

One point of clarification, curriculum leaders are NOT administrators. They are paid according to the teachers' contract.

As I said before, they are ALL very busy getting busier. I will qualify that fact shortly.

I have 3 children in Brookfield Schools. I moved here 7 years ago for the schools. Since then the 51 program at center school has been cut. That's a shame, it was a great experience. It is hard to know exactly what's the best decision. We all want the best for our kids. But times are really hard now for another increase. I agree it should be better looked over to find savings on many items mentioned above.

Sorry I meant T1 program

Ray - in regards to the Cirriculum leader at CES - Does this position actually teach a class? Are students assigned to her on an hourly basis ? Maybe I am confused but you can pay this position under a teachers contract but it looks more like a admin position. So this position performs no admin functions ?

Also what happens to any money not spent from prior year budget ? Is there a surplus at end of year or do we start the next year off at a defecit? Also has anyone ever tracked and analyzed monthly spend pattern ? Have we vetted out the old " Spend it or lose it " menatality at end of fiscal years - Not saying this is done at all just asking.

Rob- SPOT ON exactly what I wanted to say 100% you are are the same page as I am. in response to Laura i would say this - I am not disagreeing that this budget may be BARE Bones and most of the FAT is gone - however natyral budget process progression is to look where we can CONSOLIDATE efforts to achieve more savings in this tough economic time. This is not something new and is SOP practice in corporate world. Not looking in anyway to damage our education. I think Ray's comments are perfect- We have HIGHLY educated , Professional staff memebers in place that are well compensated - Lets maximise this talent and get best bang for our dollars and put forth a budget the whole town can get behind. You can even look at this like a general mission statement - Our Goal it to provide our customer ( Our Children) with the highest quality product and services ( Education) by giving them the best possible tools and enviroment while increasing value to our Shareholders ( Tax Payers) . The area I asked for review would follow this - The REAL cost of 3 extra days of school that are generally non productive as everyone is ready for summer vacation, and why cant we consolidate some of our K-4 positions.

Eliminate the paraprofessionals and hire competent certified professionals, you'll need less people. Do you know the education difference along between a paraprofessional and a state certified educator? There's a reason that people want state certified and highly educated personnel handling their kids.

Think about it. When you go to the doctor for an ailment, do you want the doctor or someone who is not recognized by the state to be a doctor? Same fee.

I have never supported the use of paraprofessionals in a childhood development environment and am on the record consistently as saying so. A child is much to precious to parents to be left to the hands of amateurs. With a ratio of 14.3 students to each teacher why is there a need for classroom assistants? Also, having bachelor degrees in other than developmental education is of no use. Lastly there are thousands of unemployed certified teachers out today who are eminiently qualified and need no taxpayer funded training in child development. Just advertise it and see all the applicants with the employment situation over the last five years. Brookfield would be better off getting the union decertified and moving towards highly qualified professional degreed in the job they are going to perform. At the very least the district shouldn't be collecting the paraprofessional union dues. That doesn't help education at all. Let the union collect what's owed them from their members directly.

Steve- how can you make a blanket statement like all PARA Professionals are incompetent - These staff members do provide a service tou our children at a VERY low cost - Can anyone from BOE post the avg para salary - My guess is less than 15k annual. These PARA's are not just people off the street but mostly people who are the threads of our community. I agree with Rob 100% AGAIN- Wow not sure i have ever said that so many times in a couple of days - These are edcuated people working very a very small pay that provide VALUE - The PARA's are more the solution than the problem

$15K per Para is about right for most paras.

As to Administrators, we looked at this last year and what we found is that we are, by no means, an administator heavy district. The facts actually showed the opposite. Whether you looked at it per pupil, per building, per teacher, etc, we genrally have fewer administrators than most districts.

As to budget "surplus", I can tell you that there is generally no surplus over the past few years. We have come in at nearly the dollar amount budgeted. However, this discussion was raised last year and what was said was that if there was to be a line that was slightly over funded, it usually would need to be transferred to a line that was underfunded. Also, occasionally, there may be a small capital project scheduled for the following year. If the budget allowed, the district may do the job in the current year. What this does is effectively remove an expense for the coming year.

All of the expenses are reviewed every month by the BOE Business and Facilities sub-committee and their report and the financial reports are distributed to all BOE members each month. These are also public documents.

As I said, I am getting more details about the curriculum leaders, but I will reiterate that they are very busy and each doing a tremendous amount of work. But, yes.. they are on the teacher’s contract and not paid as administrators.

Longtime Brookfield Resident,

Please point out where I used the word incompetent.

You are correct that they provide "a" service - but so does the custodian. I didn't discuss cost as that - in my opinion - would be like saying I went to a "very low cost" doctor as opposed to a "top quality" doctor. Is that how people value their health? They why value the town's children that way? Let's FOI the credentials of each paraprofessional and then we can discuss it with all the facts. Can you imagine a dental hygenist doing a root canal instead of the dentist because it cost less? There are reasons for certifications and licenses and they are to assure quality performance that is monitored. Paraprofessionals have no credentialing in terms of the state. Having a degree in basketweaving, Shakesperian literature or industrial arts does not qualify one in the special requirements and process of a child with special needs. Living in the same community doesn't bestow the years of specialized training and examinations as well as the advanced degrees of a State of Connecticut Certified Teacher. The fact that the Board of Education got help "on the cheap" does nothing to assuage the concerns of parents who want - and deserve - only the very best for their children with special needs. Giving them the "cheap help" doesn't pass muster in my view.

Can we download a version of proposed budget ?

There is an abundance of Budget info here: http://www.brookfield.k12.ct.us/subsite/dist/page/district-budget-1070

But the BOE adopted budget is being refined and finalized by the Administration as per the directions of the BOE. That report will be available shortly and is due to the First Selectman no later than the end of the day on 1-31.

Here is the link for the budget (http://www.brookfield.k12.ct.us/subsite/dist/page/district-budget-1070). In it you will see that while the rest of Brookfield are lucky to keep the salaries they have, the administration and the BOE are giving teachers over a 6 ½ % raise over the next three years (page 56). Page 58, over a 10 % raise for the curriculum teacher. If you continue to read you will see that in almost every single category, there are significant increases. Is this BOE really telling us that they could not find a way to reduce this budget? Please.

During the last election, every member of this board, Democrat and Liberal Republican alike joined a unified ticket and asked this town to vote for them because they can work well together. Well they are working well together and now we are paying for it.

That is not the link to the budget. That is a number of budget related informational items and the Superintendent’s proposed budget. While much will not be changed, the BOE proposed budget has not bee finalized yet. It is due on 1-31 as I stated. Incidentally, that is the same link that I provided above.

I find it ironic Chris, that you stood in front of the BOE and attacked some of the members for bringing political party into the discussion of the book issue. Yet, here you are doing the exact same thing.

Also, you have presented selective and incomplete information. The 10% increase in that line item is NOT for a single "curriculum teacher" and it states very clearly what it is for: "This line item reflects the salaries for the district’s 3.0 FTE curriculum resource teachers (one each for grades K-1, 2-4 and 5-8) which will increase
by a total of $4,004 or 1.7%. Additionally, the funds that are contractually required to pay for teacher degree changes, merit increases for union
administrators and anticipated sick payouts for retiring teachers, are included in this line item. No changes in the Personnel and Curriculum certified
teacher staffing level of 3.0 FTE are proposed."

These are negotiated and contractually agreed increases. We cannot lower them. We could cut them, but what impact will that have on students?
"A significant one" is the answer to that question

I am not attacking anyone, I am just stating the facts. The document that I linked to is titled, “Brookfield Public Schools Superintendent’s Requested Budget”, sounds like a budget to me. I think it is sad that more than half this town knows how to reduce their professional and personal budgets and still get what needs to be done, done, yet year after year under your leadership, the BOE has not found a way to do the same. Let the folks read it themselves and decide if this is what they want.

Ray,
The bottom line is that the administration and the BOE does not seem to understand that you cannot raise the budget year after year. It does not matter if the 10% increase is for one teacher or three teachers; right now we are in an economy that simply cannot support that. No one (Or very few) people are getting raises; most people are just hanging on. You cannot tell me that as the head of the BOE, you cannot find a way to reduce the budget so that we don’t need the increase without affecting the education of our kids. As for the other issues I have, you are correct this is not the place. I will sit down with you anytime you want to discuss them.

Keep raising those taxes Brookfield.

http://darien.patch.com/articles/ct-home-sales-worst-in-new-england-in-2011

Steve - absolutely that is what I am looking for - something that would allow a deep dig and understand what we have - The era of just adding 3% to each line item is long gone in the corporate world - Each year now they are built from ground up - Examining each job despcription and job function to see where where we can eliminate redundancies.

As far as where you used incompetent it was implied with your statement "Eliminate the paraprofessionals and hire competent certified professionals" once you say replace with competency the implied is imcompetent.

Bottom line is we all want the best eductaion for our children and need to fit it within a budget that we can all afford without wasting hard earned funds. we live in a VERY diverse town where salaries range form 20k annual to million a year annual with most of us falling in between. Many have lost jobs and are struggling so we need to keep that in mind. I really do believe that with some MORE hard work and some ideas form OUR community we can achieve a ZERO increase budget without pain. I would really like to see MR Colleys savings reach bottom line one day.

LBR,

Not quite. I simply didn't want any incompetent teachers hired. That's it. A misunderstanding. I'm sure paraprofessionals are competent at what they targeted their education for. That's not an issue with me at all. It's just that they did not study or become licensed and certified in childhood development or teaching. If they had, they have every right to demand with other professional teachers are earning. No qualms about that at all.

I believe that if the community tells the Board of Education to live with the same funds and staff as last year....and they'll have less enrollment...with a 0% teacher salary increase .... they could do so with ease. The Board of Finance just needs to tell them that.

Contract with Energy Education and save $100K a year for starters. A no-brainer that has been recommended for 10 years and rejected. The list of schools and their savings is available and they will come with a moneyback guarantee. Something Morganti did not as was evidenced by three football fields in one and the town stuck with an overage for the high school renovation.

Teachers have no proof of their credentials without certification and in public schools in Connecticut are not permitted to teachers.

It is interesting how some folks can with ease talk about a no increase or a zero % budget. If the BOE were to adopt a budget without ANY changes whatsoever to the services provided to our kids and just continue as is, then the increase to the 2012/2013 budget would amount to 2.11% - this is a fact as this specific figure was determined as per the BOE request. Significant increases in diesel, oil, health insurance, etc are the major drivers of this budget aspect. Even with the recent savings realized from the teachers contract, there are still contractual increases from the remaining unions in our district. We all know this because we all are faced with the same increase when we stop at a local gas station or get a delivery from the local oil company or see the increase in our personal health insurance company, the list goes on. Why are we not demanding the same consideration from them? Don't they know that we, their customers, are going through very tough economic times? Well, the same applies to every school district in this country.

Now let's consider a zero budget. Essentially this means a guaranteed  reduction in services, teachers, support staff, etc, etc...
This translates to a direct and a detrimental impact to the kids in Brookfield.
A complete reversal in the progress that has been made in the last decade in terms of quality of education. I am not sure exactly how the parents in this town would react to anyone suggesting something like that, but I would venture to say it would not be pleasant. So the BOE is asking for 0.75% more than the status quo in order to move the district forward and ensure our kids get the best education we can provide, while remaining cognizant of the  economic climate. I would like to challenge anyone who is talking about a zero budget to show a concrete plan that can achieve that with a zero negative impact to our kids. Until then please stop suggesting what the BOE and the Administration can or can not understand.

Many, many people in Brookfield believe that the ever rising taxes are forcing them from their homes. What do we say to them ?

Dr. Appleby,

The elected Brookfield Board of Educatin is apparently not capable of executing the office to which they were elected. They can't figure out how to manage a budget that worked this year, next year. They claim they already locked in the increased costs years ago and people just need to pay it now. They "challenge" people to do their thinking for them as they are incapable of creatively dealing with a half decade of joblessness, frozen salaries and contraction despite a declining enrollment the entire time. Other district are closing schools and they refuse to consider closing Center School to lower the Board of Education operating costs and cafefully condensing, reorganizing and redeploying the assets the community has entrusted them with. Instead they ask for ideas then tell people they can't and why. Apologists for the Superintendents apparent inability to communicate with the towns finance office. Give them the same funds you did this year. Don't cut them down to the lower enrollement they have. That's a built in increase and they should be able to manage that. After all, isn't that what they ran for to be elected? To govern the schools as state, not town, officials? You owe them no answers or discussion. That is withing their domain. They tell you that all the time anyway when it suits their purpose. Let them come up with the plan on how they will or resign and let others do it who can. That's the way the system is supposed to work.

Hi Dr. Appleby.
I am not sure how to quantify "many people" at this point of time, however I can tell you that over 2800 kids will be affected with a zero budget. What do we say to them and their parents?

I agree with Dr Appleby, and how can someone quantify that ZERO increase will effect 2800 students - I find it hard to imagine that 2.8% can impact that many students. I am not saying it will be easy but we need to challenge our BOE to try. What we say to everyone is that we need to find the best answer for ALL - the ones that can afford , the ones that cant afford . Anyone associated with any budget process knows that there is always a way to find a way forward. We just need to find the way. I believe we have a solid BOE in place and they will find a creative way to help reduce for those who have not had any increases in pay in years in fact many have been decreased

The increase represents $380 per student - Impact ?

LBR, I feel like I need to add a point of clarification here in terms of the Budget approval process. The BOE has been working on the Budget since late last calendar year. During this time the BOE has gone through various scenarios and scrutinized the budget down to the line item detail. At the BOE meeting last week the Budget was adopted and now it's up to the First Selectman, BOS and subsequently the Board of Finance to review it, make changes (if so inclined) and put it forth to a Town Meeting and lastly a Town Referendum vote. While the BOE is always seeking feedback from the community via all channels available (Patch is no exception), at this point it's out of the hands of the BOE so to speak. At this moment the only entities that can influence the actual Budget % are the BOS and the BOF.

As far as being able to quantify the impact of a ZERO budget on 2800 + students.
As I stated earlier, a maintenance budget alone translates into a 2.11% - never mind anything else. With a ZERO budget, the 2.11% is then gone which amounts close to $800,000, which is the amount required in order to move along AS IS. Again, this is driven by a double-digit increase in health insurance costs, fuel, oil, loss of state grants, etc - all things that we can relate to on a personal level. Such a significant loss of funding would absolutely mean loss of staff in some way shape or form. The impact is: increased class sizes, especially in lower grades, reduction of services, and so on. I hope you can see why I made that comment.

Mr Katz- I agree with you I missed boat and am a little late to the party. I need to start my discussions earlier so yes this is my fault. As for your statement then I can live with the 2.11 % increase and move us a long and get creative for the remaining % - However the things you mention for the drivers of these expenses happen to EVERY household and like we have all stated they dont get a CHOICE on thier ZERO percent raises and have to keep thier houses a float wuth the same finances form years past - NO increase - How can we add more burden to these already underwater community memebers - do we hand them a lead weight or try to hand them a life preserver. Thats all. I still feel in my heart and soul that there is a way to remove more form this budget without MAJOR impact to our children.

Good question. Do you have any detailed suggestions or are you just going to point out the generalized issues? Regarding the impact on our children, what type of MINOR impacts would you claim are acceptable? Times are tough on the parents. That is true. But a child has only one chance at second grade. The lost educational opportunity can only be made up in the future at the expense of the time to teach other, new material.

This has been a fairly busy thread since my last post. I will say that there have been some good ideas and good questions that I will continue to follow-up on. However, some of the personal attacks including accusations of being dishonest, incompetent, or simply uncaring for community members are not appreciated. I welcome the questions from people who I may ultimately disagree with, like LBR. But LBR engages in honest discourse and seems to be interested in what is best for all of Brookfield. I can respect that.

Unfortunately, others would rather focus on attacking the efforts of the volunteers that serve on the BOE and make this personal. I generally make a practice of not engaging these conversations, although I am human and get drawn in on occasion. However, I generally like to point out some facts that may come up in any comments:

(Continued)

FACT - Our budget increases for the past 4 years - through 2011-12 - have been:
2008-091.24%
2009-10-0.26%
2010-114.15%
2011-122.06%

Total 7.19%

Avg % - 1.80%

FACT - With a growing elementary enrollment, closing CES is absolutely not an option. Other districts - such as Monroe and Ridgefield - are closing schools due to plummeting enrollments. A projected drop of 1% is not a plummet nor does it warrant the closing of a school.

FACT - we have cut our staff by almost 34 FTE since 2004-05 in the BOE operating budget a reduction of 8.8%. At the same time, enrollment dropped by 9.2%. We have been continually cutting back where drops in enrollment warranted and allowed for such cuts.

I made this point at our last meeting; cost per student is a bit of an illusion regarding enrollment reductions. For instance, we project about 30 less students next year. It would seem that you could multiply that by the cost per student dollar amount and come up with substantial savings. However, here is the real application: 30 students are spread over 13 grade levels (K-12). That is an average of 2-3 students per grade. So if we have about 9 or 10 sections per grade that is far less than one student per class.

So, let’s say you have 22 students in a given class. Now let’s apply the enrollment reduction of 1 student in that class (most classes will not see this one student reduction). Now the class is 21. Well you still pay the teacher and his/her benefits at the same level, that student’s bus still uses the fuel to run that route, and it still costs the same to heat that class room, etc. There has been virtually NO COST SAVINGS as a result of that lower enrollment.

Now if all 30 students were in one grade (they aren’t), then you can see a real cost savings through a teacher reduction and no longer needing to supply that classroom, etc. But this is not the case. I should also point out that the projected reduction in enrollment was off significantly. We ended up with considerably more students than was projected.

FACT - The BHS project WAS NOT managed by the BOE or the administration.....the appointed Municipal Building Committee was charged with this task.

I appreciate the economic climate and the struggles people are having in our community and country. I think we probably disagree on how we got here and what needs to be done to fix things. But that being said, the BOE tried to come up with a compromise to accommodate all. To some extent, I think the best compromise is one where nobody is completely satisfied with the results. We may have that here.

As to a 0% increase, we are talking about a $1million dollar reduction in the proposed budget – the vast majority of which is to simply maintain what we currently have. The idea that there would not be significant teacher cuts and significant student impact is simply a pipe dream. Support a 0% if you want to, but don’t fool yourself into believing that the BOE will be able to figure out a way to make it work without significant impact. There will be and I don’t believe that is fair at all. Do I think increases are fair to people who are struggling? In terms of the school budget, if I didn’t believe it was as fair as it can be, I would not be supporting it.

Finally, I enjoy these posts and the discussion, but I will not always be able to respond to each quickly. The BOE wants your continued input and you can access all 7 BOE members through our email: brookfieldboe@gmail.com

Let’s keep the good discourse going.

FACT - We have reduced electricity from a high of $788,084 to $570,000 in the 2011-12 budget, a reduction of over $218,000 - a 27.7% reduction, This is due to negotiating better rates through Constellation New Energy (for both the BOE and Town) and the completion of energy efficient lighting projects in all buildings and parking lots. With a rate reduction of 11% effective 6/1//2011, we anticipate further reductions in 2012-13.

Regarding Education Energy – The BOE and the administration have never received any communication from anyone regarding this firm. The link is below. While they say they will save 20-30% off our utility bills, it requires the hiring of an Energy Education Specialist to coordinate the program. However, we will investigate further. But we have still controlled our costs exceptionally well.

http://www.energyeducation.com/OurServices/tabid/58/Default.aspx

Ray- Thanks so much your points are well taken and show the work you and the board have put in. Many thanks for ll your efforts and especaily for your responses as you put in the extra work to make these posts. I think we all need to review your responses and if ANYONE has any suggestions for us ALL that may have been over looked or a new way of thinking please post. In the end I would love to see a reduction but will VOTE YES for our children in the end.