There are two themes that emerged form last night’s BOE budget committee meeting. One is that Dr. Corda has emerged from last year’s budget process a little wiser in that he appears to be listening. The second is that the long time entrenched BOE still haven’t figured out that ch-ch-ch-changes are a good thing. The longish meeting covered the bases on questions, concerns and format, and I’ll delve into my contemporaneous coverage below, but I want to focus on the ending of the meeting up front.

Bruce Kimmel brought up the two very important issues that emerged last year here. He proposed requiring a finance director and a contingency budget line. His reasoning was familiar to us here; a finance director would free up Dr. Corda and Opdahal from managing the budgeting process to the degree that they spent months on it last year and the contingency fund would restore the trust and confidence that we the taxpayers have in the budget put forth by the BOE.

Dr. Corda was resistant to the idea of the contingency fund. This is likely due to two reasons that I’ll hazard a guess at. He is politically tone deaf and harbors a superior attitude towards we the people. Little does he know that most of the people who weight in seriously on BOE budget issues have those very credentials that make them experts at finance. I had the opportunity to ask if anyone on the committee was a CPA. Greg Burnett attempted to give props to his BOE members by stating that they had plenty of experience in the budgeting process. he missed the point of my question. Nothing that has previously emerged form the BOE could pass a forensic audit. I’ll attribute that to Opdahl with his lackadaisical attitude about the moving funds to cover his mistakes. Mistakes and bad judgement overshadow any positive contribution that Opdahl contributes.

Now onto the show:

Norwalk BOE Finance Committee Meeting

Chair Greg Burnett
Members: Jack Chiaramonte, Bruce Kimmel, Rosa Murry

Dr. Corda, Stu Opdahl, Mark Gorian, Joanna ???, Joanne Seigan (budget co-coordinator)

Kimmel asks if there is someone taking notes, and Greg says someone is but that there is no evidence that anyone (other than me) is. Then there’s a clarification of what the committee is called, and it is revealed that it’s a Budget Committee Meeting and that they will be talking about operations and capital budgets.

Kimmel asks again about the minutes and Greg Burnett says he said he is taking the minutes. It’s an interesting exchange because Gregg did not say he was going to take the minutes, and Kimmel was right to question this. Notably, I did not see this meeting noticed on the city web site, or on the city main calendar.

Corda outlines the process and opens with a suggestion that a document that goes over the budget in a greater detail will be sent to the BET and the common council. Corda is still gathering and compiling information, but thinks that the principal driver of the increase asked for last year is not there. He explains that the inrease the prior year really came about from actions the previous year.

Got that? Last year 06-07 the year before that 05-06. He again references the “hole” that the agreement in 05-06 created. He then says that fuel oil will be a cost that will certainly rise. He cites plastic bag liners, whose cost has gone up 28% since last year. Obviously transportation and heating will play a significant role. He doesn’t have the preliminary numbers on health insurance.

Just an aside, its been a few weeks since I had to type while listening to a meeting. Typos grammar etc are wholly because of rusty fingers.

Corda hands out something on staffing. He says it goes beyond what they have included in the past. He asks that after tonight they get returned to him. WTF? The explanation that he doesn’t want these numbers circulating around since they are not final. Amazing.

I’m wondering why they are not talking about existing enrollment versus projected and the net staff requirements. Keep in mind I can’t see the handouts, top secret you see. He has broken out the administrative form educational staffs and adds detail about that.

Ah, he is including the enrollment figures. Kimmel jumps in and says the sheet in question showing the fluctuations of staffing by grade level is important. Corda passes out another sheet, which is the description of the staffing. Corda cites an example of Brien McMahon and th 2007-08 enrollment and the projected enrollment. The sheet for the high schools is not including the attrition ratio, although it was done for the middle schools and elementary schools. He then went on the explain why using Wolfpit as an example. The attrition ratio is calculated by looking at 5 years worth of data and calculating the changes over that period from one year to the next.

Of course its easier to calculate attrition at the elementary level since the school populations are smaller and I would hope that they consult with teachers to determine what they know about families in the area. They discuss more variables at the upper levels makes the statistical approach the right one. Corda says that in grades 5-6 attrition ratio is not as accurate because parents make decisions about whether to continue in parochial or public schools. He goes on to explain this in detail, and of course I’m thinking that the more applicable solution is to run a survey of the enrollment population (lie they did when I was a kid) to determine enrollments.

The discussion turns to whether the attrition ratio calculation is presented in the public document or not. Kimmel cautions against being overly detailed. He suggest that they just add an asterisk to indicate the process. Burnett asks if this common in other districts, Corda confirms that it is. Everyone seems in agreement that adding this detail is a good thing.

Kimmel notes that Tracy school is in the bubble that would cause a shift in staffing should the projected enrollment deviate higher than what is expected. There are a few other schools that are in similar situations. Kimmel asks that an explanation be included.

The Board has a policy that allows children in one attendance area to attend in another area usually related to health related or childcare or emotional care. This is only happening if there is not resulting cost, and there’s a cut off date of August 15th.

Kimmel suggests that this policy may cause more problems then its worth. He cites an example that sibling issues can cause problems, and that in his two years he noticed that this is a problem.

Corda kicks it back for the board to decide what to do.

Rosa says that the policy has expanded. It was primarily in elementary school. Now it’s at all levels.

Corda says the approvals are handled at central office now and that there is no transportation provided.

Rosa asks about the breakout of the global studies and Brien McMahon, specifically the financial impact and responsibility on this. Students can be enrolled in global studies but also be taking classes at Brien McMahon. The funding for Global studies is funded through the magnet school grant, according to Corda. The enrollment for Brien McMahon does include the Global Studies program and that those enrollments are carved out of from the budget process.

Kimmel asks what the reimbursement from the grant. Corda says they have to avoid per pupil expenditure. Corda explains that it is not good to use because the if you remove the students the costs do not go down by the per pupil expenditure. So if its 12k and you take a student out of the enrollment population, the budget does not go down by 12k. Corda seems satisfied that removing students, and he cites the out of district students, would not create a smaller budget, or cost savings. To some extend that operations of the buildings, transportation etc do not change. It still costs X to heat the school, clean it etc whether there’s 1 kid or 100. So yes he’s right in that. But the staffing levels do fluctuate so there is a cost associated with that so there should be a reflection on what that educational as opposed to operational costs are affected.

Kimmel circles back to how the Global Studies center grant impacts. They discuss the Arabic language issue. Someone says that the grant covers 7 teachers. Rosa asks about social services etc. Cord says that he doesn’t think the grant covers those pupil personal services. He suggests that there is a request for an additional guidance counselor and that they may come from the center for global studies.

Corda agrees that they will provide more detail on the center for global studies costs.

Burnett asks about the per pupil cost, and what is the coast associated with an out of district student. Corda says it minimal, because you can’t calculate it at that level. He cites an elementary school child, if one is found, not cost savings would occur. They discuss the number of cases where it would be an impact. He says they have not been able to document more than 8 in previous years. This year they have been more aggressive and have found 4 students and that a couple of students are still under investigation. He says that there are many families in fluid situations, mothers and fathers living in different areas. The child may go back and forth.

They talk about the number of kids that are coming off the train in the morning. What they learned was that get off the train and go to Brien McMahnon Center for Global studies. They did find one that way. He says there may be kinds that they have not discovered, but that the number that people bandy about, its not based in reality. They use detective services to conduct the investigations.

Opdahl said they are suing new software to run addresses through to figure out what are legit addresses. OMFG. I bet they pay for that. They should be geomapping on google. Its not like there’s a suddenly new streets in Norwalk that are created every year, and certainly not that many house numbers.

They return to the handouts. They are looking at the ESL numbers. Rosa Murray says detail in this area is good for a discussion of mandates. Kimmel asks if new arrivals are separated out. Corda says that it doesn’t really reflect the answer but that there’s a time period spent in the program. Kimmel asks if costs are increasing based on increasing new arrivals. Corda agrees that there have been increased in staffing. Corda agrees that it might be helpful in clarifying what that number is.

Rosa asks if there’s an information sheet on special ed, Corda said they are working on it.

The next set of information that Corda presents is about what kind of feedback would be helpful. They use Gorian’s department as an example. He walks them through reading the budget which includes 4-5 years periods past expenditures. He asks if the detail of the budget breakdown would be helpful for the BOE budget book. Chairamonte says it would.

Kimmel asks if its for every budget code. Corda suggests that it is not. Kimmel is concerned that if that detail is there the variations on line items might be too much. He suggests that the trends going up or down are more important than the actual detail. Big differences are important, and when it goes down that’s a good indication that cost savings were achieved. They discuss adding a narrative to the document. Kimmel suggests that explanation would eliminate the charge that there’s padding to the budget.

Burnett says there’s always danger in showing numbers. Yegads. I’d like to see the entire operational budget with pro forma quarterly reports online. Put the numbers out there people. The secrecy of financial numbers is such a starling thing. This is the taxpayer’s money. They have to embrace the transparency in government.

Now they talk about a line item pertaining to the thanksgiving day football game and why there are costs associated with it. There’s some confusion about the depth of information. They agree that it was too much information and wasn’t related to the custodial overtime.

Kimmel asks why police chief is making the decision about security at games. Riling said that the Police had to be involved by statute. That eliminated the idea about privatizing the security. Kinda interesting since Police overtime was an issue today. Kimmel suggests what I’m thinking, lets look at other towns to see if we are inline or not. Corda says that up until a few years ago the overtime did not come out of the BOE budget. Kimmel says that in his experience that the police never turn down an overtime situation.

Corda moves on to utilities and water consumption by schools. He asks if that level of detail is useful to the board. Burnett says it doesn’t show the consumption over the past 5 years, like it does on another line item. Corda says he wants to know if its helpful. Burnett says that for the sake of consistency that the same format should be used. Corda says they will give 4 years of history and current and add an explanation if there is significant change.

Opdahl says that 3 buildings have water-cooled freezers in those building so the water usage is high, Nathan hale, Central kitchen and Norwalk High School have the problem. Rosa says that it would help everyone have the same information and say the same things about details.

Rosa strongly states that this level of detail is needed. She confirms that level of detail will be included. Corda agrees.

They move on to electricity and used A Boston consultant Source 1 that locked them into a 3 year price last year. Opdahl brought the consultant in, he says same on is now used by the city and by New Havens schools. He says that the CL &P delivery costs are all over the place, and that the usage will result in $2 million. Fuel Oil has to be looked at with natural gas. Norwalk high is on natural gas. Brien McMahon, west rocks, Kendall and Columbus are locked in at lower prices. Gas usage is up and oil is down as a result. $2.04 is the current rate, and they expect that they will actually be 2.70 by this time next year. (oil) Gas numbers are better. They plan to add 4 more buildings on natural gas.

They speak about transportation they are currently locked in at 2.11 for diesel and think it will be at 2.90 next year.

Chiaramonte asks about high-school students using public buses, the answer is that they are required to provide transportation, doesn’t really answer his questions and Kimmel says that there should be buses for after school activities.

They discuss the bus issue and whether Wheels could get more involved. I don’t think the transportation person answers the question correctly. Yes, there’s a mandate that transportation be provided, however that mandate doesn’t specify how. Meaning that they could subcontract with wheels to provide service and meet the requirement. It’s interesting to note that there si much resistance to change with this staff.

Kimmel makes his proposal as my battery does its sneaky death, but refer to the top of this for that detail.

This meeting is an important first step. I’d have liked to have seen them cover this about a month ago. The reality is that they are compressing budget discussions in a short time period and I still don’t see much of the public involvement being incorporated into the process other than pro forma stabs at meeting the FOI requirements. I suggest that if you are interested in the budget that you start contacting the BOE individuals about making that desire known.

Susan Hamilton
(Chair)
Home Phone: 866-9996
Email:
hamiltons@norwalkps.org

Rosa Murray
(Vice-Chair)
Home Phone: 847-0498
Email:
murrayr@norwalkps.org

Glenn Iannaccone
(Secretary)
Home Phone: 866-5813
Email: iannacconeg@norwalkps.org

Jack Chiaramonte
Home Phone: 984-7293
Email:
chiaramontej@norwalkps.org

Bruce Kimmel
Home Phone: 8487-2301
Email:
kimmelb@norwalkps.org

Jody Bishop-Pullan
Home Phone: 852-1655
Email:
pullanj@norwalkps.org

Migdalia Rivas
Home Phone: 981-7367
Email:
rivasm@norwalkps.org

Greg Burnett
Home Phone: 840-1931
Email:
burnettg@norwalkps.org

Shirley Mosby
Home Phone: 956-7799
Email: mosbys@norwalkps.org