Regional 7 Board Proposes to Up Spending by Four Percent

By Wiley Wood

On Wednesday, March 19, the Region 7 Board of Education presented its working budget for the 2014-2015 fiscal year to a sparse audience in the cafeteria of Botelle School.

The proposed total of $19.7 million represents a 4.59 percent increase over the last fiscal year. Norfolk’s share would increase by $118,787, to $1.86 million.

Chairman Molly Sexton Read pointed out that in each of the four previous years, the school district’s budget had risen by less than two percent, or well below the national average for the increase in education costs.

The larger increase this year, said Read, includes one full and one part-time math teacher to bolster students’ performance in algebra. It also includes a science lab technician, someone who sets up experiments for the teachers. The board found that after the position was eliminated, science teachers performed fewer experiments.

Recognizing that the participating towns—Barkhamsted, Colebrook, New Hartford and Norfolk—might find the cost too high, Read said the regional board was looking for cuts to bring the increase below four percent. The next version of the budget would hold increases to 3.82 percent. The math department might get only one full-time new teacher, and the lab technician might be made a part-time position.

Read further pointed out that Region 7’s high school is one of 15 in the state to be ranked by the Department of Education as “Excelling.” The middle school shares that ranking.

In response, Michael Sconyers, chairman of Norfolk’s Board of Finance, said that the Selectmen’s Office of this town had brought him a budget with a zero increase and that his Board of Education was about to present him a budget that also showed a zero increase. Sconyers characterized the regional board’s four percent rise as simply too high.

The Region 7 Board of Education will hold a budget hearing at Northwest Regional High School on April 21. The budget will then be put to a referendum in the participating towns on May 6.

Also on March 19, the Norfolk Board of Education presented its budget at a special meeting of the Board of Finance. Superintendent George Counter held his budget request to a zero increase, despite a negotiated 2.2 percent raise in teacher salaries and a 5 percent increase in medical costs.

Thanks to a $10,000 grant donation from the Norfolk Children’s Fund, Botelle will start to bring iPads and tablets into its technology program in the coming year. The 2014-2015 budget will also maintain all the programs currently in place at Botelle.

Counter did warn the Board of Finance that a number of capital improvements to the school’s plant will need to be funded in the years ahead, particularly security upgrades. Sconyers concurred. “The safety of the children is very important,” he said. “Upgrading security is something we can’t defer much longer.”

The Board of Finance will deliberate on the budget at its next regular meeting, on April 8, reviewing the town’s operations budget as presented by the Board of Selectmen, a $180,000 request from the Norfolk Volunteer Fire Department for a new utility truck, and the town’s education budget.

The annual budget hearing, where the Board of Finance presents a consolidated budget and hears comments, will be held on April 28 at 7 p.m. in Hall of Flags auditorium.

CORRECTION

In an article in the March issue of Norfolk Now  the decline in the grand list was erroneously reported at 12 percent  (“Norfolk Property Values Down 12 Percent in Last Five Years”). In fact, the grand list lost 4.6 percent of its value. Real estate accounted for 9.4 percent of the decline. Motor vehicles and personal property both rose slightly in value.