Corda starts the meeting:

The mission, according to Corda is to tkae where the budget is, and reconcile it against where the budget is approved at $141 and change. The bottom line according to Corda is that they need to find 6.1 million to be reduced.

FIrst he describes that there are some additions to the budget :

They have to budget for pension costs for food services workers and add an 500k extra for CL &P rate hikes that will hit the electricity line item.

There is also a student entering the system that requires a feeding tube so they need a half time nurse to insert/remove feeding tube. 2.5 hours it takes to go through the feeding

Vetter and Kimmel asked if that was going to be reimbursed. Corda says they don’t know.

So Corda begins by identifying the $6-7 million extra needed.

There was some discussion about whether to pass out the numbers being discussed or not. There are some papers that the finance committee memebrs have, but I don’t, and neither do the other people attending the meeting. Update Both news papers got the numbers in specifics, so I’m going to update my post with the numbers they confirmed. Corda said he’d do whatever the committee wanted. Bruce Kimmel strongly suggested that this was a public meeting and so the public should be facilitated to get the “right” information. Other members were not so forthcoming. Thank you Bruce Kimmel for getting it and trying to make it easier for the public participation.

They ruled that this was a committee work session, so …. no distribution of the line items and amounts. This is typical short sightedness of the BOE. They have in essence zero credibility about their budget process and should be thinking that they need to rebuild it by releasing information.

This years surplus fund balance of 735k is anticipated. Last year that they used the fund balance to reduce the current budget.

Corda explains that the pllan is to use 735k to purchase items that were planned for next years budget but that are one time. Corda explained that if they bought things that weren’t one time but ongoing then he would be in the hole again. He then goes on to talk about text books that were purchased last year.

In Rowayton they are going to add two mobile classrooms. [ enrollment is going down so what this about?]

Kimmel interrupts to ask where on the paper are these items. Corda responds.

They are going to use to purchase 60K worth of equipment related to athletic dept, 60k worth of paper, art equipment, science and music equipment etc. all of which are enumerated on the paper that I can’t see.

Then there’s a lease for the software, they took it out of the capital budget and replaced it with hardware.

All of the items mentioned were part of the 08 budget. And Corda goes through the explanation of how that reduces the 08 budget, but in actuality it does not represent a cut. They are still spending the money.

So they are taking the whole $327k of textbooks, out of the ‘08 budget. But since the cost is $237k they take the $327 kout and pay for the $230k out of the fund balance plus what they have in the reserve. It seems convoluted as to what the actual purchase amount.. Kimmel questions the math, which as he points out, doesn’t add up.

They have to add fund from the text book reserve to pay for the text books, but don’t say what the amount is.

The discussion then turns to procedural stuff about whether non members of the finance committee can attend. There’s some confusion here, and Jodi Bishop Pullan leaves after Rick Fuller arrives. They are talking about voting versus non voting but I think that they need to be more mindful of a quorum. 4 members of the finance committee plus 2 BOE members would make a quorum of the full board perhaps. Kimmel references experiences on the council committees.

Corda resumes, and stresses what you see is tentative. They asked Fred Wilms to confirm that they can take out the margin on health insurance costs.

Update

Based on current elementary school enrollment they can reduce 2 teachers at Kendell and Jefferson. In the budget document they had highlighted which ones were on the bubble

At middle school at Nathan Hale, they can remove one team, grades 6,7 and 8 they can create a split team. This is used at Roton, so it’s not a new thing in the district.

Looking to reduce staffing at West Rocks by 2, he has met with Lynn to discuss. He again stresses that this is tentative.

At High schools, principals were told to schedule the maximum size of classroom size allowed. If you set it at 28, there may be some classes at 28 but many that will be less than 28. Tony says he thinks they need 2 less teachers. Joe didn’t know what his totals are. They still haven’t done a conflict matrix, where class offerings are stacked at the same period.

Special Ed class size is 15, which Corda confirms is not a state mandate.
Central Office Parent Notification Officer that they didn’t hire this year, and so won’t hire this year.

They will reduce staff turnover reduced by 200k.

They have 21 retireees, they had 19 when the budget was built.

Reserve teachers are taken out at the elementary schools. Corda stresses that they will be living on the bubble.

They think that $500k can be removed {didn’t catch what they are talking about] because of kids aging out.

They can take $1 million out of the health insurance.

They added 500k more to a reserve item. Corda says that they put a stop on health insurance costs over the years.

This puts them at 3 million of reductions.

Corda says the rest of the items are nickel and dimes. He seems very dismissive of combing through a budget to find those small reductions, and in essence this is the heart of why he and Opdahl are such bad financial managers.

Kimmel jokes about asking about postage. Corda responds that postage is not on there because postage goes up on Mar 15. [Note that there is no discussion about what they mail out so much and what they can do to reduce those actions]

Corda then criticizes the efforts made by Mike Lyon’s who demonstrated in a spreadsheet that limiting line items to 3% increase in every single category wasn’t realistic. He explained that the base figure was actual expenditures on 05-06. Corda thinks that is bad. “That’s not the way he budgets.” Of course if they had provided the 06-07 expenditures Mike Lyons would have used those. Duh C’mon Corda stop playing games.

They pick up 800k on these “nickel and dime” items, which is about half of what the Mike Lyons spreadsheet suggested. Corda has contempt for watching nickel and dimes.

Someone asks about transportation. Didn’t catch the answer.

There is a difference between one sheet that has $725 and the $6xx sheet. The difference has something to do with not taking the portable classrooms for Rowayton but that the paper and the culinary arts items accounts for the difference between the two.

Now Fuller makes a joke about paper in the restrooms.

Kimmel adds the numbers up and comes up with $4.4 million in non programmatic cuts.

Now Corda says its $6.7 million that they need not $6.1. I scroll up and see I wrote down $6.1. hrmm…

Kimmel asks about state aide.

Corda says the Mayor committed the state aide for the board of ed. Fuller jumps in and says the council has not. Corda says he doesn’t trust the council since they have not indicated that they would do that. Fuller says you can’t trust the council. Fuller says that there was once council member that said publicly that the state money should go to offset property taxes. Funny, that has never happened, Fuller just makes up stuff doesn’t he?

Kimmel suggests that if after the cuts that they are still in the hole that if they get state aide that there could be a special appropriation.

Fuller says based on the cap he doesn’t see the council will do anything for the BOE, saw nothing no direction that the council will do anything. Fuller alludes that people on the council didn’t even show up, so why bother.

Corda says we can always ask.

Kimmel thinks the council will help out.

Fuller keeps saying that they won’t. [What a bad attitude. ]

Corda thinks it’s a good idea to approach the council with the idea that the state aide be targeted state aide.

Kimmel’s recommendation is that you go through the budget and they show it to Hamilton.

Corda says Hamilton has nothing to do with it. Maybe to call Fred Wilms.

Kimmel said that finance director and mayor did not put us in the hole.

Corda corrects Kimmel and says it was the finance director who said cut the budget.

Corda says we have to go through the budget.

Kimmel says we shouldn’t shut the door.

Fuller says: “you are thinking intellectually Bruce, I’m thinking politically. I haven’t seen an intellectual thing come from the council yet.” Kimmel admits that he’s not talking to the council.

They are not filling carpenters and painters position. [Hey why not get a corporation to sponsor those positions?]

There’s a discussion about literacy coaches versus specialists. They have literacy coaches for the teachers, so they are having to rethink the program that they have. 12 of them are funded through grants 4 are provided by the operating budget.

The discussion goes into the details of the literacy coaches versus specialists. And that coaches do not provide services to students, just teachers. The regulations are murky or not yet available so they are not sure how much grant money they get and how much to reduce from the operating budget. On literacy coach would be available to each building.

Kimmel says that there are no remedial reading teachers in Norwalk. Corda says, hey I told you that there would have to be programmatic impact. Kimmel says extra help in literacy in the early grades. Corda sayas they are exploring if there are other models of using the staffing that they have. [Siiigghhh… Corda just can’t speak English. Talk about remedial literacy.]

Corda stresses this is not final recommendations of budget cuts.

Corda says they took out $30k in summer secretarial help. This is actually back to what they had before.

They will remove 2 clerical positions across the district.

Athletic directors need to reduce budgets by $100k each. Corda doesn’t think they can do it. [Funny, I remember that we raised tens of thousands in my high school for sports teams, and that was way long ago. ]

Kimmel wants to see the items so that it is clear what athletic cuts will be made. Corda says he can’t provide those details because each Athletic Director does cuts. He points out that they have to be mindful of equity and title 9. Those cuts will still come back to to the committee. There combined budget is $1.9 million, so the cut is 200k, Corda says 16 something percent.

There’s some talk about a half time nurse, and the special needs child with the feeding tube.

Special Ed needs to be reduced 250k

Professional Development attendance and travel, will reduce it by [number on the paper I can’t see].

There are 7 teachers were recommended to get rid of study halls, but now they are taking those teaching positions out. Fuller says those teachers were program improvements.

ESL teachers at the elementary and secondary level could be taken out, and the same with the bilingual teacher out. This is murky due to some state criteria. Many times services will be recommend because there’s thinking that it will help a child, but it doesn’t really. Fuller points out that parents with lawyers influence this as well.

This gets them 2 million, and that there is 235 short on the budget.

* $100,000 reduction from the athletic departments at each high school;

* A reduction of four literacy specialist positions in elementary schools, for a $306,000 cut;

* Not filling a vacant substitute nurse position that would cost $69,000;

* Eliminating all of the superintendent’s recommendations for next year: seven high school teachers, an English as a second language teacher, a bilingual teacher, a speech pathologist and a special education teacher, for total of $820,690;

* Not filling two maintenance vacancies, at $90,542;

* Reducing travel expenses by $40,000;

* Reducing professional development funding by $25,000.

Recent updates to enrollment figures and other factors also provided room for cuts that would not directly affect students. They include:
* Eliminating the 5 percent margin for the $22 million health insurance budget, with the assumption that it will be picked up by the city, as in years past, for a $1 million saving.

* Saving an extra $100,000 because of three recently announced retirements. There were 19 anticipated retirements at the time the budget was developed.

* Cutting four high school teacher positions by organizing classes around the maximum 28 students allowed per class, for a $306,800 savings.

* Cutting two elementary school teacher jobs based on updated enrollment figures, which will save $153,400.

* Creating a split team teaching module in the middle schools to eliminate seven teachers, for a $536,000 savings.

* Reducing special education tuition by returning out-of-district students to Norwalk schools, saving $500,000.

Another $800,000 was saved by “nickel-and-diming” costs for items such as boiler repairs, transportation, telephone and diesel fuel, Corda said.

“If we run out of paper next May, is the city going to let us borrow some? This is no joke,” Fuller said

source: Norwalk Advocate, School board looks for places to cut, By Alexandra Fenwick, May 3 2007

Kimmel says that they have done an excellent job, but has a concern that there is some revenue that does come in, that there is way to remove the sports cuts and literacy specialists. His priority is the literacy specialists, and that is so key for the education of the kids.

Fuller sys you can say that about everything on the list. Corda says that he’s also concerned about ESL and other mandated spots.

Kimmel says music supplies and literacy specialits are in the same category. Why wouldn’t we maximize the cuts in music supplies and not in literacy supplies.

Suggestion is to prioritize what the dollars should be allocated towards.

Fuller refers to a put back plan.

Corda says at some point down the road he could do that. Just not now.

Corda points out that there is still a literacy specialist in each building.

Update
Bruce Mellion says that for the most part the teaching positions estimates are pretty good and that teachers shouldn’t be worried that much.

Kimmel says that if they go back [to the council] in June they could find out if the money could get allocated to bridge the gap.

Corda starts explaining how teacher cuts would be made, that you have to look at seniority lists and certifications before you determine who gets bumped. Fuller says that the literacy specialists are senior. Corda agrees.

The discussion turns to the strategy on how to approach the Council. Kimmel and Burnett support the idea, Fuller essentially is against it, Vetter says little on the subject.

Fuller says that its the Common Council that he worries about. That the BET makes the recommendation and that it is approved by the council.

Now a discussion is over whether you need a majority or super majority to approve a recommendation from the BET. The only way for the council to override a BET resolution as opposed to approving the BET resolution. [It seems that they think they can force the resolution to pass by getting around the requirement to get a supermajority to pass by instead getting a super majority to reject a resolution that is worded to actually accomplish a special appropriation. What they are essentially talking about is a political tactic rather than pusuing a reasonable explanation of showing why they really need more money allocated.]

Kimmel says they have never been in a situation as this.

Kimmel explains his experience on the council. The Council would need 10 votes to deny the approval of a theoretical special appropriation form the BET.

Fuller says this council is unique and politically based. He’s disagreeing with Kimmel.

They go back to the list. Corda says that they are going to put the cuts in a priority order, in the event that they get state money and that they can then undo some cuts. They are going to review the numbers and see if they can find more cuts.

Greg Burnett asks if they would consider making a formal request to the BET.

Greg Burnett says the worse thing that can happen is to say no. he points out that before handing out pink slips they should exhaust any options.

Corda says they they would have to go back with a more definitive list and nothing theoretical. Corda says he would go back to the committee with the list.

Fuller for some reason does not want to go back before the BET or council.

Kimmel thinks that all options should be explored.

Corda repeats that it is a tentative list and the meeting adjourns.