Board of Finance
Minutes of the Special Meeting of March 8,2007
Present: Ralph C. Gold, Anne Ingvertsen, Sally Hart, Tom Bechtle, members; John LaPorta and Ginger Betti, alternates. Barbara Gold, chairman of the Board of Education, Wynne Kavanagh, Catherine Tatge, members and Susan Gingert, BOE Clerk. Gordon M. Ridgway, first selectman.
Chairman Ralph Gold asked John LaPorta to sit for Celia Senzer and Ginger Betti to sit for Earl Brecher; both members were absent.
Barbara Gold told the Finance Board that the BOE increase, with all cautions in place, is 2.3%, the smallest increase in 11 years. The cautions are that non-classified negotiations will occur post-budget and the level of the Title I grant is unknown at this time. If the latter comes to the school, the budget increase will go down to 2.03%.
Other circumstances the budget is responding to are the level of the fixed contracts and costs and declining enrollments at CCS. Region One owns 85% of the Cornwall education budget.
Highlights from Barb’s presentation:
Staff changes include: the art teacher reduced from .7 to .6 time; a part-time secretarial position eliminated; and on the upside, a psychologist, MSW, will be added for one day a week to address issues of the 7th and 8th graders;
A $1,000 saving by hiring an outside contractor to maintain the gym floor instead of doing it in-house;
Legal Fees are down;
The telephone budget is at $9500, more than the actual figures for past years. Sue Gingert explained that the phone company gives back the universal tax changed in every bill -- maybe. Therefore the amount stays high in order to cover the original bills;
Increase to $2,000 to cover asbestos inspection, a once-every-three-years event;
Insurance for public liability is unchanged as part of an agreement with CIRMA to hold costs steady for three years. Worker’s Compensation goes up only 3% to represent changes in salary costs;
Textbooks are set at about 20% of the current year when new Spanish books were purchased;
Region One costs, in spite of the spike in Pupil Services, are up only 2.7%. This is partly due to the reduction in the assessment from 11.9808% to 11.7541% and a reduction in the number of Cornwall students at HVRHS from 135 to 129; and
The Capital budget of $40,000 has been allocation among several projects such as $10,000 for fixing leaks in the flat roof at the school, grading and repairs to the playing fields.
The Title One information, which will reduce the CCS budget, will not be available until after the budget is passed.
The meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.
Lisa Lansing
Clerk