School Enrollment, Finances, Charter Revision Topped 2010’s Local Issues

By John Voket

The past 12 months brought a lot of looking to the past and crunching numbers as Newtown officials moved toward a new year filled with economic and political uncertainty. While 2010 boards and commissions sought more cooperation and communication with each other, the year also saw some spirited disagreements, even accusations of wrongdoing against elected officials, with some of those issues reaching resolution and others hanging fire as the New Year arrived.

Among the most resounding and recurring concerns that the Boards of Selectmen and Finance and the Legislative Council grappled with was finding the financial resources to govern the town, with First Selectman Pat Llodra reporting at every opportunity about income generated from local fees and permits, as well as grants, and state and federal aid.

Following up on campaign pledges after a new set of officials took office in December 2009, and with a focus on long-term planning, selectmen seated and charged a committee to study issues involving the future use of Fairfield Hills. The council, in turn, seated a Charter Revision Commission, which, under the chairmanship of Judge William Lavery, comprehensively examined the implications tied to its limited charge and delivered recommendations by its suggested deadline in mid-December.

Even the town’s most comprehensive and admittedly underutilized strategic planning tool, the Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD), got a jump-start more than two-years ahead of its statutorily mandated review, with hopes of integrating findings on that front with the work of school and municipal space needs studies.

Enrollment And Economics

On the evening of February 8, finance board member Michael Portnoy suggested that rapidly declining elementary enrollment may justify an imminent consolidation of classes — and the possible closure or “mothballing” of one of Newtown’s four elementary schools.

Mr Portnoy acknowledged that nobody had studied the idea yet, but in studying enrollment numbers he noted that in the K–fourth grade segment, “The numbers go down substantially.”

Finance board member Martin Gersten said he concurred with his colleague’s observations.

“If you look at some of those schools, you might save two-and-a-half million dollars if you mothball them,” Mr Gersten said, adding that looking at mothballing the “neediest” elementary school would also permit the district to temporarily defer some or all renovation costs, as well.

Less than a month later, another member of the finance board countered that while current and foreseeable enrollment trends were dipping at the elementary level, there might be a “boomlet” of unanticipated growth just a few years out.

Just before the close of the first finance board meeting in March — during which a recommendation was passed to reduce the school district’s requested budget increase by $2.5 million — Vice Chairman James Gaston expressed concern that a suggestion to consider closing an elementary school as a cost-cutting measure might be unwise.

“As far as enrollment goes, we’re planning the budget for next year,” Mr Gaston said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in 2013 or 2014. But I was reading in The New York Times that in 2007, there was a significant increase in the birth rate. Well, in 2013 those kids are coming...the question is are we going to be ready?”

To address, and better minimize these and other areas of conjecture, a joint gathering of the finance board and council received a report on likely local growth trends by a specialist who had worked with the local school district several times in the past. On October 6, Hyung Chung of H.C. Planning Consultants of Orange presented his latest findings. The demographic and urban planning expert reiterated that his projections were based on a combination of data that include home sales, births, housing net gain, and Newtown’s unemployment rate.

Both Council Chairman Jeff Capeci and Vice Chair Mary Ann Jacob felt that Dr Chung’s median projection of a 25 percent or more decline in overall school enrollment justified the immediate exploration of consolidating and possibly repurposing town and school facilities.

Mr Capeci said while the projections in Dr Chung’s report have a population drop variance between 20 and 30 percent going out ten years or more, he thinks the wisest course is to follow the same suggestion tendered by the consultant during his presentation this week. “Dr Chung suggests about a 25 percent drop is what Newtown should plan for,” Mr Capeci concluded.

The Politics Of Full-Day Kindergarten

The issue of declining school enrollment was not the only district-related issue that carried over into the general government arena.

While town and school officials began gearing up a local space needs study — one of the strongest directives from an ad hoc committee that examined possible consolidation of town and school services a year earlier — district officials also began discussing the possibility of initiating a full-day kindergarten program.

This action was particularly concerning to First Selectman Pat Llodra, a lifelong educator and former district administrator, who saw the early stages of full-day kindergarten exploration as an indirect but likely influence over the district’s space needs findings.

On November 1, Mrs Llodra informed the Board of Selectmen that she issued a letter to school board Chairman William Hart regarding his board’s intentions to move forward in considering, and possibly adopting a full-day kindergarten program in the district.

While Mrs Llodra and Selectman Will Rodgers both pointed to declining enrollment projections and the ongoing space needs study during a brief discussion, Selectman Bill Furrier said the move to try and fill space left empty by declining enrollment made sense to him.

“If you knew you were facing increased space because of declining enrollment, then I would be thinking about taking advantage of that,” Mr Furrier said. “If I had specifically been holding off on [implementing all-day kindergarten] because I knew I didn’t have the space for it, given declining school populations, that is the first thing I would put back on the table to discuss.”

Mr Rodgers countered, “This just doesn’t seem to be the environment for such expansion.” Mr Rodgers added that he would not fault the school board for considering the idea, but given what he described as “town crises,” he thought the idea of considering full-day kindergarten was “ill-advised.”

Mrs Llodra took pains to ensure her board that she wanted to approach the issue diplomatically, as the Board of Selectmen has no role in dictating school board policy.

“There’s no value judgment on the advocacy for full-day kindergarten,” Mrs Llodra said. “But talking about using space the same time we are studying space needs seems to be inconsistent. It could be given the circumstances we still support a full-day kindergarten. What I’m pitching for is to just not have those decisions be made before everyone weighs in as a community.”

During a council meeting eight days earlier, School Superintendent Janet Robinson said she expected to have cost parameters for implementation of a full-day kindergarten by December. Dr Robinson said the space committee of the school board has footprint plans of all school facilities and that they would make a recommendation about where and if such considerations for the full-day program are even logistically feasible.

Dr Robinson added that perhaps the biggest proponents were the kindergarten faculty themselves, who are supporting the full-day idea from purely an educational perspective. The superintendent told the council that according to those teachers, more time would translate into better academic preparedness, a concern echoed by first grade staff.

Just a week after the first selectman announced her ideas vis-à-vis her memo to the school board, the finance board also weighed in on the matter. Vice chairman James Gaston said the school board has an obligation to thoroughly examine the need and merits of full-day kindergarten, and to provide the best education possible.

Finance board member Joe Kearney wondered how the district could even begin discussion of full-day kindergarten without having a space-needs study completed first.

Finance Chairman John Kortze reminded his board that its role is not to determine the merits of full-day kindergarten. He suggested that candid public discussion about the role of the district’s space needs study in relation to the district’s overall assessment of a full-day program should be required.

In the end, the finance board opted to support Mr Kearney’s resolution supporting the idea of looking at townwide space needs in regard to both the town and board of education and understanding what those needs are before moving forward.

At the next council meeting November 17, that body agreed to support the completion of both the school and town space needs assessments to determine the best use of the space for the town as a whole.

Financial Management

For several years, Newtown has been recognized for its sound financial management and policies by both its auditors and the nation’s top bond rating agency, Moody’s Investors Service. Since last upgrading the town’s bond rating to AA2, Moody’s elevated Newtown to a positive outlook, which led officials to expect another bump into one of the highest rating designations.

But after Moody’s failed to upgrade Newtown from AA2 to AA1 or AAA status, officials decided to see what might happen by seeking a bond rating from a competing bond rating agency, Standard & Poor’s. That decision paid off.

In a memo issued in early February, Barry Bernabe, Newtown’s bond consultant at Webster Bank, announced an upgrade. And he related Standard & Poor’s recommendations, which, if followed, would position Newtown for a AAA rating — the equivalent of a perfect credit score.

“Standard & Poor’s assigned an AA+ rating with a Stable Outlook to the Town of Newtown,” the memo read. “Congratulations — as this is an upgrade from your Moody’s rating of Aa2. The AA+ rating is one notch from an AAA bond rating. This AA+ rating will allow the town to capitalize on the historically low interest rate environment and minimize interest costs.”

Just a few days later, Finance Director Robert Tait participated in a bond offering that achieved a lower interest rate than a similar offering completed by AAA-rated Wilton just a few days prior. That local bond transaction resulted in a borrowing rate of 3.149 percent, compared to a similar transaction by Wilton which fetched a 3.4 percent rate.

Mr Bernabe correlated that savings on the proposed $14.32 million bond issue to be about $250,000. “And the town will save money for every future bond issue in the future assuming you keep the AA+ rating,” he added.

Fiscal Reporting Controversy

At its regular meeting September 7, the Board of Education, on a 5-2 vote, approved a change in its budget reporting practices to what is described as an “encumbrance based” system. The change was recommended by the board’s finance committee and employed during most of the last budget cycle.

School board Vice Chair Kathryn Fetchick and member Debbie Leidlein opposed the measure, which would only employ transfers in the event an error is discovered or a correction is required. In making the motion, board member Lillian Bittman said the new practice would improve accessibility to financial information while making the month-to-month financial statements more clear to the board and the public, and would provide for improved year-to-year comparisons.

“This really was something the finance committee felt this would give us clarity, not just in how we look at it today, but when we go to next year and look backwards to get a year-to-year comparison,” Ms Bittman said.

Ms Fetchick said that state statute clearly outlined that transfers need to be presented for approval before they are made in the school budget, or immediately following emergency transfers that may be required by the school administration before they can be discussed by the Board of Education. And Chairman Bill Hart said the state mandate allows the board to define the accounts from which transfers are made to be identified as broadly as the board deems appropriate.

Newtown’s Board of Finance, however, was not as positive about the change and voted unanimously September 13 to request school officials reverse their recently adopted change in financial reporting practices.

The primary motivation for the request was to ensure the district not only conformed to state statutes and local charter stipulations, but to also maintain maximum accountability for the district’s $67 million budget on a monthly basis.

Neither the finance board nor town Finance Director Tait suggested that encumbering funds within the operating budget was improper or inappropriate. Mr Tait said both encumbrances and transfers are a routine part of the management of the town-side budget. But they did agree that state statutes appear to mandate any transfers be discussed and approved by the school board before they are put into effect, except in the event of an emergency.

Concerns about the legality of the new financial reporting system in the school district were underscored in December when Newtown’s latest municipal audit, which reviews town and school finances, raised concerns about the failure of the school district’s business office to properly report financial transfers to the Board of Education. The auditor’s management recommendations note that the proper administration of transfers is “required by state statutes and board policy.”

The auditing firm, Kostin, Ruffkiss and Company, concluded that the school board “is not in compliance with the state statutes and board policy regarding approval of budget transfers.”

For the future, the auditing firm has recommended that the school’s business office begin submitting budget transfers to the Board of Education as required by state statutes and board policy.

Reacting to the recommendation, Mr Hart said, “I read it, but I don’t know if I fully understand it. I think we need to understand what that assertion is based on.” He added that the board has been waiting to speak to the auditor “for quite awhile,” and said later that he had asked Superintendent Robinson to set up a meeting with town auditors “three months ago,” but that meeting is still not scheduled.

As the year drew to a close, the meeting between the school board and auditors was not yet scheduled.

POCD Review Sought To Put Planning Tool To Better Use

Two of Newtown’s three selectmen who were in attendance July 19 for a regular Board of Selectmen meeting heard the first of a series of presentations by local land use officials. First Selectman Pat Llodra and Selectman Will Rodgers both told The Bee following the meeting that the presentation motivated them to determine how to put enforcement “teeth” and implementation processes into Newtown’s Plan of Conservation and Development (POCD).

The pair — Selectman Bill Furrier was absent — was also interested in learning how to compel local agencies and departments to produce and report back measurable outcomes when using the comprehensive planning tool.

George Benson, Newtown’s director of Planning & Land Use, and the agency’s Deputy Director Rob Sibley came to the meeting to begin discussing various points in the POCD where the Board of Selectmen are specifically referenced, or are listed as playing a role. Mr Rodgers said the introductory presentation was particularly valuable because up to that point, neither he nor Mrs Llodra were fully aware of all of the specific points where the selectmen were mentioned in the plan.

Mr Benson told The Bee that in preparing for the selectmen’s meeting, he and Mr Sibley, along with the assistance of two department interns, combed through the lengthy planning document to locate every reference to the town’s elected executive board. His department then created what he thought would be a practical appendix for the revised plan, that would break down not only the selectmen’s roles, but the specific roles of any other town agencies and departments referenced in the POCD.

“People say Newtown has no long-term planning, but there it is,” he said, hefting the phone book-sized POCD, which was last revised in 2004. “It’s just not being utilized properly, or it’s underutilized. We just need to update and reorganize the document so everybody will be able to use it.”

Mr Benson said the land use agency is the primary user of the POCD. But in identifying the various roles and references to the Board of Selectmen, he related a need for specific language that would tie the board’s support to mitigating issues the land use department developed related to town-owned property or buildings.

“The presentation did a really good job focusing on seven of the 14 identified recommendations that connect the Board of Selectmen to land use, and where the selectmen have a primary role,” Mrs Llodra said. “I think what is most important is determining how we can build a culture around the POCD so it has processes to implement.”

She added that the POCD was not serving as a driving force behind decisionmaking, and that whether by policy or ordinance, she would seek to clarify points in the document so departments using it can “not only report on how the future will look, but then be held accountable for an action plan to get there.”

Mr Rodgers explained that state statutes mandate the establishment and a schedule to revise the POCD, but the statutes fail to direct how town departments should utilize and follow the plan.

“That’s why a lot of local plans end up sitting on the shelf,” Mr Rodgers said. “Since we are charged to do so in our charter, it will be up to the selectmen to develop an implementation policy.”

As the year drew to a close, the board of selectmen was near the end of the process of hearing from town officials, and appeared ready to begin formulating ideas about how the POCD could better serve the community beginning in 2011.

Charter Review Moved Quickly

When taxpayers go to the polls in April 2011 to vote on the next municipal budget, the ballot may look very different thanks to a fast moving charter revision process that spanned less than four months in 2010.

“This will have to be a very strict process that the full council will have to follow closely,” Legislative Council Vice Chair Mary Ann Jacob told The Bee July 29. “The Charter Revision Commission, once seated, will have to move quickly and be tightly focused if the next budget referendum will be impacted.”

Council Chairman Jeff Capeci agreed, saying he would like to see a revision commission seated by September 1, and a draft of revisions determined and presented back to the council by the first of the year, and “certainly no later than mid-January.”

While a subcommittee of the council examined the charges put to the previous two local charter revision panels to help expedite the new commission’s marching orders, another subcommittee reviewed possible candidates for the commission, and developing questions for the interview process.

While Mr Capeci said there were other “inconsistencies” in Newtown’s constitutional document, he hoped the focus would primarily dwell on whether to split the budget vote, providing taxpayers an opportunity to accept or reject the town-side and school district budgets independently; and whether or not advisory questions specific to the budget or other issues could be included on the ballot.

Following an expedited cluster of committee meetings August 11, 12 and 16, most of which were held in executive or closed session because they involved candidate interviews, council members James Belden, Mary Ann Jacob, Chris LaRocque, and Richard Woycik voted to seat Judge William Lavery, Bob Duero, Pete Spanedda, John Godin, Eric Paradis, Carey Schierloh, and Joseph Golden.

While state statutes provided the Charter Revision Commission latitude to take up any considerations as it reviewed its related document, the council urged the panel to stick to its limited charge, which stipulated final recommendations be received back by December 15.

Besides considering a bifurcated budget, the commissioners looked at ballot questions specific to the school and town-side proposals, as well as considering including nonbinding advisory questions as to whether the budget in question is too high or low.

After a number of meetings taking input from residents and local officials who were both invited to speak, and who showed up or dispatched letters to the panel, the Charter Revision Commission began wrapping up its current, abbreviated duties, setting its final public hearing for December 8

At its November 22 session the panel voted to have its chairman draft a letter to the council pointing out the other points of concern or interest that developed during the commissioners’ discussions, and from concerns expressed by various officials and members of the public during the current revision process.

Among those points were the a decision to drop a proposal to mandate finance board involvement in the event of a budget failure; creating consistency in the process for all appointed officials; considering whether some current town officials should be elected, appointed, or hired as staff; and a proposal to formalize the Sewer Commission within the charter.

First Selectman Pat Llodra, who was on hand, also suggested a future panel consider enacting language preventing the finance board and/or council from voting against labor contracts negotiated in good faith and approved by the Board of Selectmen. On December 8, resident Robin Fitzgerald, joined by her husband and Legislative Councilman Kevin, and First Selectman Pat Llodra turned out for the commission’s final public hearing.

And a few days later, Newtown’s Charter Revision Commission’s duties ended as Chairman William Lavery dropped a several-inch-thick blue file folder onto the desk of Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia containing the committee’s final recommendations to the Legislative Council.

“There, we’re done,” Judge Lavery said with a smile. “And we were told to have it by December 15, so we have met the deadline.”