Wilton Board of Education Refuses Request for Three-Year Projections

The State of Connecticut does three-year projections for its education budget. Board of Education member Dick Dubow sees that as a reason for Wilton's BOE not to do it.

"I don't think the state of CT is the one to look to," Dubow said at Tuesday's budget workshop between the Board of Finance and Board of Education.

Wilton's Board of Finance requested that the BOE produce three-year projections for its school budget to help town officials more accurately gauge long-term trends and patterns in the hopes of budgeting more efficiently. That request was rebuffed by the BOE on Tuesday, on the basis that it would "provide information that would be misleading rather than helpful," Dubow said.

"To whom?" responded BOF chairman Warren Serenbetz. "It will be helpful to us."

BOF members recognized that, by law, the Board of Education cannot forecast or comment on what most school system salaries will project to because of contracts with those unions. But BOF members were miffed as to why the BOE would not issue projections for the rest of their budget.

"To hear 'we need 5.3 percent or our kids education will be destroyed' is not very helpful and it's not very realistic," said BOF member Andy Pforzheimer. "There is rhetoric that surrounds these [potential] cuts that sounds pretty bad...I think you missed a pretty big opportunity to come at us with a longer term projection and some thought on it."

Tuesday's meeting began with an exchange, largely between Serenbetz and Dubow, about the BOE's refusal to provide the long term projections. And the refusal generated noticeable tension. The issue was tabled while the boards moved on to discuss smaller, individual questions.

But Pforzheimer took a moment as the meeting was drawing to a close to raise the issue again.

"We didn't get [to this difficult point in the budget process] overnight," he said. "We've seen this coming for four years. We're not getting out of it without teachers on the same side of the table as a solution. And it's not just the money. I don't see how we're getting out of the situation we're in this year, just like every town around us, without either looking at the current contracts or without looking at money being fronted this year by taxpayers in return for a reasonable three-year solution.

"[Those are] really the only two things that would put a significant dent in getting a [feasible] budget this year," Pforzheimer continued. "I haven't seen a huge willingness to work with us [the Board of Finance] on either of those two things. And I would feel remiss if I didn't say this and I spent the entire evening asking how we can save $10,000 on laptops."

Board of Education members defended their decision by saying that the single largest portion of the education budget is salaries. Wilton is coming to the end of its current teachers union contract this year and will have to renegotiate those terms for next year.

So, they argue, without the ability to know how those negotiations will proceed, and thus without the ability to accurately model those salaries for the next three years, providing the three-year projections the BOF is requesting is not helpful and could be misleading. It should also be noted, however, that the decision not to provide the forecasts was not unanimous among BOE members.

A lengthy conversation followed on Tuesday night that compared Wilton's education budget request to many surrounding towns. According to the Board of Finance, Wilton's request was the highest of any the towns discussed by a significant margin.

Dubow responded by saying that all those communities are in various stages of development and, therefore, it is unfair to compare their budget requests. Where one town might be having to spend a large portion of its budget on technology, perhaps another one bonded some of the technology with recent construction improvements, for example, thus necessitating a lower budget request.

"That argument holds water except that every single one of these towns came in lower [than Wilton]," Serenbetz replied.

BOF members said that large budget increases have already and will continue to have far-reaching implications for Wilton's future, pointing to a changing real estate market for evidence.

"It's interesting that Westport is budgeting an extra $800,000 in conveyance [revenue] because of the real estate boom that's happening there," said BOF member Lynne Vanderslice. "We're hearing over and over again from realtors that because Westport's taxes are lower and their real estate prices have come down, it's a major competitor to Wilton."

"If we reach a point where compared to the Westport of the world we look like Westchester county, we've got a serious problem," BOF member Al Alper said.

For those who would like to see the questions and answers between the two boards, as well as the full Board of Education budget, all of that information is available here on the BOE's website.