Note: This is my article for next weeks Enfield Press. I am putting this on The Stokes Report early because of the need to give this information, so to fight off rumors.

Budget Advisory Report...Just the Beginning


Last week the Enfield Budget Advisory Committee gave their report at a special meeting of the Board of Education. I was privileged to serve at Co-Chairman, along with Mary Ann Harris, of this committee.

I first want to complement the team of people who worked over the last three months to make recommendations about the 2007-2008 school budget. The committee members were Ann Palmer, Bob Tkacz, Richard Zaczynski and Pat Droney. The Board of Education liaisons were Judy Apruzzese-Desroches and Chuck Johnson. Both were great assistance to the team of community members. We also were blessed with vast knowledge of Chris Drezek, the school systems business manager, and Art Pongratz, director of facilities.

I should also acknowledge the administration staff, principles, teachers, nurses, and guidance counselors who provided valuable information.

The Budget Advisory Committee (BAC) recommended a fixed cost budget the fiscal 2007-2008 school year. That simply means that only contracted and fixed increases should be implemented in the coming year.

The main reason for this is the just completed re-evaluation of residential properties in the town of Enfield. This year’s budget season will be greatly impacted by the re-evaluation and adjustment of the town Mill Rate.

Other items that were involved in our recommendation were energy cost, staffing levels, enrollment size, and unfunded mandates. All of these affect the cost of operation for the next fiscal year.

As we progressed through the process we visited schools, interviewed administrators, met with teachers, reviewed past budgets and looked at the past Budget Advisory Committees recommendation.

What we found is that much of the budget has been explored over the past few years and by the time we met the school system has been faithfully gone over to find efficiencies. My complements to the former BAC for doing a great job.

We also estimated that the Enfield school system will not see a great increase from local, state, and federal funding. Of course, this report was given prior to Governor Rell giving her State Budget Address where she is looking at increasing State funding to schools. Her desire still has to make it through the House and Senate in Hartford. If help does come from Hartford it will blessing, but until then we need to plan for no increase.

We did attend the meeting and reviewed the Demographic Report, but as I mentioned last week that report is flawed and does not reflect reality. The Board of Education members are doing their best to clean up this report and make use of what they can…..good luck on this one.

Now, I want to mention before the rumor mill goes too far that we did not recommend Pay to Play, closing pools, or adding fees to students as part of initial recommendation. We did close our report with a contingency plan (worst-case scenario as if the Town Council cuts funding to the schools) and some of these items were mentioned. It is not that we are in favor of these cuts, closers, or fees. It was just important for us to advise the Board members of options if things get worse.

At this time no want wants to see a worst-case situation arise and I am confident that Council members and Board members will do everything possible to lesson the burden on students.

We were mandated by the Board of Education to advise them on how best to move forward financially over the next year. In doing this we had to make tough choices and be open to all possibilities. Nobody on the BAC wants to see anything taken away from the students or put a burden on parents.

After my experience with this process I am confident that your elected officials will do their best to manage this tough budget year. Citizens should feel free to give their input and concerns, but also realize this is just the beginning of process and not the end. So take it easy on those elected and give them a chance to work out the financial picture for 2007-2008.

Best wishes to all involved.

Greg Stokes