Hebron Dollars & Sense

Taxpayer ... I do know that the nominations/elections for board positions occur in December and are documented in those minutes. I also do NOT approve of private conversations from board members whether they are conducting a meeting or in the public audience. It is too distracting and what are they discussing that cannot be spoken out loud at a public meeting. Remember, we had one BOS chair (actually viewed on taped meetings) talking privately with other members and "passing" notes across the table. HOW RUDE!!

I do not know the answers to the questions re: middle school/high school representation in the DRG statistics--yet. However, since Cornwall has the highest cost per-pupil expenditure rate in DRG C, let's compare data from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) for Hebron and Cornwall. According to CERC, this info is from the 2010 town profiles.

Hebron 2009 population: 8,982
Cornwall 2009 population: 1,463

Top 5 Grand List (2006) Cornwall:
C&D Farms LLC $11,265,850 Percent of net grand list 5.1%
Ivan Lendl Tr $5,325,370 2.4%
Roy S Walzer $2,151,340 1.0%
Jacqueline Dedell $1,719,390 .8%
Cornwall Hsng Corp $1,305,130 .6%

Top 5 Grand List (2006) Hebron:
Easter Seals CT $5,103,370 .9%
Blackledge Country Club $2,539,380 .5%
Village Shoppes LLC $1,862,980 .3%
Biss Inc $1,116,160 .2%
Hebron Prop LLC $1,092,950 .2%

Net Grand List Cornwall: $220,801,300
Hebron: $538,922,540

CERC Lists the actual mil rate for Hebron at 34.89 for 2007
and the equalized mil rate at 17.58

For Cornwall: actual 21.8
equalized 8.36

Total elementary school enrollment: Cornwall: 142
Hebron: 1,198

I'm not statistician, so I'm not sure how to read all of this. One thing I would say is that the small number of pupils probably contributes to the cost per-pupil figure. If you've got to have a school, staff it, maintain it, heat it, etc., it's going to cost more per student the fewer students you have. I realize this is simplistic, but it makes sense, doesn't it? I will admit that their CMT scores are lower in Cornwall than in Hebron. Significantly at the 6th grade level. They look like this (numbers are percent above goal):

Grade 4 Reading Cornwall: 64
Hebron: 72
Math C: 57
H: 68
Writing C: 79
H: 80

Grade 6 Reading C: 64
H: 88
Math C: 57
H: 78
Writing C: 64
H: 84

Students in both towns go to a regional school district in the higher grades. Grade 8 for Cornwall, and it's grade 7 for Hebron, isn't it?

So it appears that Cornwall isn't doing as well with their spending as Hebron is. It also appears that homeowners are carrying a significantly higher portion of educational spending in Hebron than Cornwall due to our lack of industry. Beyond that, I don't know. Maybe someone with more training in analyzing this type of data would like to step in here?

This may not be the place to post this but each time I read "approved" board minutes I find interesting statements. For instance in January 8, 2009 under public comments:
Rob Thompson- Hope Valley Rd.- Do we have benchmark to measure Hebron students against?Ellie responded that the bar is set to (Darien) REALLY?!?

I thought that was strange since HEBRON is in DRG C and Darien is in DRG A. (Is it appropriate to compare C to A??) Do these folks simply make "inaccurate" statements on purpose? CLICK here for DRG MAPPING By the way, Hebron and Darian were never in the SAME former Educational Reference Groups (ERG's) either. The ERG's were replaced with District Reference Group (DRG's) View Page 2 of this link

I also could NOT believe the minutes publicly identified the name of a family that was in arrears for a cafeteria billing. Yes, a bill for a child's food! Doesn't this prove there are folks in our town without funds to support their current school budget? This was made PUBLIC in spite of all the "executive sessions" that are held by this current board! What was also documented ... they were going to ask them to PRE-PAY for the next year!! It was a small bill under $200 anyone on that board could have paid the bill and if they took a collection ... it would have probably cost less than $5 from each each teacher, para professional, support staff, folks on the board (folks who do what they do because they love kids) to pay OFF this bill. Yes, a lunch debt of $299!! I can't believe this was made public (WITH the family name exposed)! HOW SAD!!!

Thank you for the data comparing the two towns. This is a classic example of apples to oranges given population size and need to support a small number of children in a school system. I agree someone with a background in statistical analysis could garner so much more information than either of us. As I am new to the area, I am unfamiliar with frequent referencing and comparison to other towns. I feel it is more beneficial to look at our own (Hebron) situation and statistics.

That said, Ms Cruz and the admin team do an outstanding job advocating for the gold standard in education for out town. As they should!! By contrast, the BOE, our elected volunteers, has a more nuanced role as advocate for education AND taxpayers. The town charter is clear that in the absence of a firm number from the BOF the BOE may present any number it feels appropriate to the BOF. Responsibility lies with the BOF to be the check and balance. The BOF may also defer responsibility of holding to a specific budget goal by sending the numbers directly to the electorate. That appears to be what is happening this year.

"I also could NOT believe the minutes publicly identified the name of a family that was in arrears for a cafeteria billing. Yes, a bill for a child's food!"

You've got to be freakin' kidding me?! The way those minutes are abbreviated and summarized--someone actually considered that piece of information was justified to share publicly? That's got to be a violation of privacy, right?


Loreta,

I assumed I was responding to this line of questioning:

"How is the unified RHAM budget reflected in this DRG (district reference group) data? Does the Cornwall number of $19,793 reflect a Middle School and/or High School calculated in the same way RHAM is calculated? Is industry present in any of these communities or is the tax base like ours personal and property tax? Statistics and data are subjective as well as objective."

Maybe I misunderstood your comments? It sounded like you felt the need to look at other towns within the DRG to see how their situations compared to ours?

But anyway, isn't that exactly what a DRG does? Compares Cornwall to Hebron? Doesn't the supt. make reference to other towns within the DRG on a regular basis? How can we assess Hebron's educational spending and competency in a vaccum?

And yes, I agree that the supt. does an excellent job pursuing the very best for our students. I also think that the BOF/BOS could be a little more forceful. No one wants to be the bad guy, right?

Taxpayer, your response was right on the mark. If we are going to continue to compare ourselves with other towns we should delve into the similarities and differences of the statistics. I would just prefer to focus on Hebron and its issues.