Hebron Dollars & Sense

ALL, the BOE is conducting roundtables to allow the public to provide input on the schools, school budgets, anything you want to discuss. This is a good opportunity to provide your input early in the budget process. The BOE is taking extra time and offering three times to get community input. This is the best time to provide your feedback, not really fair to show up late and whine when the BOE is giving you the opportunity to provide constructive input now. The remaining dates are Sat 10/16 from 10-12 at the Douglas Library and Weds 10/27 from 7-9PM at GHS. The first round table was tonight with only (7) people from town at the meeting,disappointing.....

After Last yrs Budgetary Fiasco, Shading Of The Truth & The Various Sordid Actions Of Ellie, Doobie & The HBOE (ADK, AVP Amy Vonda & Collins) For Starters, The Trust & Credibility Factor Of Ellie, Doobie & The HBOE Is In Tatters & At A All Time Low With No Hope Of Recovery :dr

Many Of Our Townies That I've Talked To Think That These "Roundtables" Are Just "Window Dressing" Cooked Up By Their "Media Consultant" To Put Up A "Appearance" Of Listening To The Public.

ALOT Of Townies Are Still Urinieced Off About The HBOE Hiring a Media Consultant

Many People are Just Not Buying The Roundtable Charade To Put It Bluntly

Will Give them Credit For 1 Thing.

A Few Hrs On A Saturday For Those Who Choose To Put Forth Their Ideas Is Not a Bad Idea Hmmmm

Hello kevin. The point of view you express makes it clear to me you're either on a board or you're a board sympathizer. I seriously doubt this wouldn't be a waste of my time to go. They won't listen (Alliban) and will do whatever they want anyway. I find your post offensive in the respect that you call us whiners when the education portion of the town budget is over 70% of the total. If you're telling me the boe doesn't recognize that people are having a hard time a couple of round tables won't fix that. I wonder what the tax collection numbers were this year. I also am having a hard time not calling you a troll seeing as how you post so often

Kevin wrote:


Since the BOE generally refuses to engage in dialogue with the public once prelim budget information is known, this roundtable concept is easily seen as more sizzle than steak.

Generally, the public wants to provide a very good education to our students. The BOE and administration want to provide a great education, but most taxpayers don't want to, or better said can't afford to, provide that much. There are, and always will be, a vocal minority who will be happier providing a "good enough" or merely "adequate" educational system.

The public is dissatisfied with the direction the BOE has taken with respect to sharing information with taxpayers. Providing the taxpayers with a the final budget of which did not specify exactly which programs or how many positions would be cut, was seen as disrespectful. At that point, it was clear to at least the superintendent and chair, that there likely would have been a surplus in the prior year budget (heating oil, etc.), so they knew without telling us it wouldn't be so bad.

The public is upset with the binding arbitration process - and why the teachers' union gets 3% raises on top of the length of service schedule raises, at a time when many of our neighbors are out of work, had compensation frozen or cut. Our teachers have a wonderful environment to work in - with supportive, engaged parents, especially compared to many or our neighboring cities. Yet, we consistently lose in arbitration because, as we get reminded, when we get compared to these cities we are paying our teachers less. We should be paying them less because it is an easier job, and arguably more professionally rewarding as more of our students succeed.

We want the BOE to be tougher with the teacher's union. If as much time and effort was made showing the arbitrator how especially tough it is for homeowners here in Hebron (where we don't have a meaningful commercial tax base), as the effort was made to rush through ADK, perhaps we'd have a more reasonable budget.

The public wants more information about what we are spending our tax dollars on, and why? The board meeting agendas refer to seperate exhibits that presumably contain meaningful information, but since the exhibits are never included with the agenda, and no detail is given in the meeting minutes, the public is left wondering. Video-recording the BOE meetings would be a good start. However, since much of the information is only discussed at a high level during the meeting, taping meetings would not be enough. Meetings I have attended - where the public cannot see the information being discussed by the board members - are extremely frustrating to the public. Comments from the Superintendent or chair or finance manager as they review financial information are broad - along the lines of "as you can see from Exhibit blah blah...we are showing the results of year to date expenses compared to our approved budget". While there occasionally may be small discussion about certain line items, there is never anything mentioned in any of the meeting minutes.

If the numbers support what they are trying to accomplish, great. If not, they should be questioned.

The public wants to know what will happen to the remaining 176,640 from the recent state grant (that initially was 220043, but they spent 43403 reinstating the custodian position and restoring the cut hours).

THANK YOU KEVIN for a great post ... now is the time to offer input. I plan to go to one of the next meetings. They need to be reminded that there needs to be better communication with the voters. Last year, they simply filled a curriculum director position about the shouts of NO,NO NO!! Other towns are more creative with resources. They share principals and vice principals -- we have one principal and one vice principal per school in this very, very small community.

I sent this out in an email to all our boards in town:
Town voters (in Hebron and all over New England) have been asking for more clarity - especially with school budgets. Last year's RHAM budget was clearly defined and had no trouble at referendum time. Their budget presentation at a public meeting was excellent and all our questions were addressed and definitive answers were given.

I located one CT school budget that is an excellent example of "how" clarity can be achieved through a budget format - I am sure there are others. I share this example because when items are not clearly defined to the public and there is a perception of "fuzzy" math or confusion -- the budget, itself, must be set up to be self-explanatory. We can all agree that the administrators understand how they will transfer "X to Y" and possibly share Teacher "abc with def" -- but the public needs more information. The budget example (found in the link below) is detailed. It contains notations near budget line items, explanations of revenues, definitions of certified and non-certified salaries, required contractual increases, definitions of services provided and teacher student ratios in the classrooms etc., etc. It is a great format!!

If the HBOE budget was as detailed and presented in this format, the approval processed would be streamlined because just about anything that impacts on the budget is EXPLAINED and easily found. These following pages are excellent examples of the details found within this format: pages 11-16, pages 17-19, page 40. Last year, the last column on the HBOE budget given to the public was not filled in. Anyone interested in the percent increase or decrease had to fill in that column by hand.

Any effort to have some of this detail in our HBOE budget would be applauded. I encourage all of you to read through some of these budget pages. Here is the link to the document: www.newtown.k12.ct.us/site/files/boe.proposedbudgetbook.pdf

Wow, some interesting responses. A couple quick comments. The intent of the post was intended to inform add'l people in town that the round tables were going on and are an excellent opportunity to provide constructive input early in the process. The negative commentary about the past does nothing to move us forward. Feels good I'm sure, but does nothing to improve things. Soooo, if you can take the time please show up and provide your input. Auntie and Marie had great items that should be shared in person at one of the roundtables. I'm not on any boards although I attend as many meetings as possible. I would bet noone would call me a sympathizer. Last item,I use my real name on the site and won't write something here that I wouldn't say at the BOE meetings....