REGION 9 BOARD OF EDUCATION
Special Budget Workshop Meeting Agenda
Joel Barlow High School
Monday, March 11, 2019 – 7:30 p.m.
Minutes
ATTENDANCE
Region 9 Board of Education Members: D’Agostino, Hocker, Denny, Graziano, Coppinger, Johnston, Williams
Absent: Hancock
Administration: McMorran, Pin, Reiss, McTague,
Others: Videographer and 2 members of the public
CALL TO ORDER
Mr. D’Agostino called the meeting to order at 7:32 p.m.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Motion: move to approve the minutes of the March 7, 2019 Region 9 Board of Education Budget Workshop Meeting. Coppinger, Denny. Approved. Unanimous (Williams abstained).
PUBLIC COMMENT
Jeff Fligelman, Redding – spoke in support of reinstating Latin I, which had been cut from the program in the current budget; supports the idea that the program should be driven by student choice.
BOARD MEMBER COMMENT
Ms. Graziano acknowledged Barlow’s recent first place achievement at the Connecticut Drama Association Festival.
DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: PROPOSED 2019-2020 OPERATING BUDGET
Dr. Pin and Mr. Reiss presented information on the budget in response to questions raised at the March 7 Budget Workshop. Mr. Reiss distributed a handout showing how the combination of significant decreases and increases from the current year had resulted in a net decrease of approximately $100,000. Dr. Pin, Ms. McTague, and Mr. Reiss responded to specific questions from Board members. Mr. D’Agostino identified an $8,000 maintenance item that Mr. Reiss agreed could be regarded as part of a larger capital project and therefore excluded from the operating budget.
Motion: move to approve a budget of $24,133,114 for the 2019-2020 fiscal year, representing a decrease of $107,378 (-0.44%) from the 2018-2019 budget. Hocker, Johnston. Approved 5 – 2 (Coppinger and D’Agostino against).
Mr. Coppinger noted that the apportionment of the budget based on student population would be $13,903,087 to Redding (an increase of 3.72%) and $10,230,027 (a decrease of 5.59%). Mr. D’Agostino noted that the following two budget years were likely to show a significant shift in the apportionment to Easton, following two years of significant shifts to Redding.
PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
BOARD MEMBER COMMENT
– Mr. Johnston thanked staff for their hard work and expressed the hope for additional creative thinking about the budget in future years.
– Ms. Graziano echoed Mr. Johnston’s comments and supported continuing budget-related discussion during the year, not just at budget time.
– Mr. Coppinger said that he had voted against the budget because he believed it should be lower given continued enrollment declines, but will support it.
– Mr. Hocker thanked the Budget Committee for working with staff to clarify and realign important budget components.
– Mr. D’Agostino said that he had voted No because he believed there were items that did not need to be reinstated, but that he would support it.
– Ms. Denny and Ms. Williams both expressed appreciation for having been given a “big picture” view of the budget.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion: move to adjourn the regular meeting of the Region 9 Board of Education. Coppinger, Denny. Approved. Unanimous.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:58 p.m.
Recorded and Submitted by
Chris Hocker, Region 9 Board of Education Secretary