Question 1: How can we increase revenue without raising the mill rate?
Answer: Reducing our reliance on residential property taxes is critical to maintaining the quality of Redding long-term. That is not an easy task. It requires better planning, better thinking, and better collaboration. There is limited commercial zoning in Redding. We must maximize the revenue potential from all of those areas and explore, with the Planning & Zoning commission and other Boards, other areas that have the potential for commercial or mixed use zoning that do not compromise the character of the town. Georgetown is the town’s primary commercial zone and must be vibrant. The mill development initiative must be solved successfully, but the rest of the Georgetown commercial zone must also be successful as well as all other commercial zones – West Redding, Black Rock, Route 7, etc. All commercial zones in town must be nurtured and enabled to prosper.
The BOF should play a leading role along with the Board of Selectmen and other town boards, in identifying other potential long-term revenue sources. We need to explore solutions that other, similar small towns across the country have pursued. Economic development is not a secret; there are best practices and case studies that Redding can learn from.
For example, with the acquisition of Aquarion, Eversource will be Redding’s largest landowner. Their interests are inextricably linked to the town’s and they have the environmental and economic development expertise, not to mention the resources, to help us successfully realize our Georgetown goals. We must engage Eversource in the Georgetown solution.
Question 2: Would you have voted to use bond interest to reduce the Selectman’s budget increase for FY17-18 as the BOF did and why? Or would you have used the funds differently and why?
Answer: Just like with a public or private institution’s endowment fund, the interest income from bonds and other asset investments the town earns should be considered as part of the revenue that helps fund the annual operating budget. Whether the funds should be earmarked for the Selectmen budget or some other aspect of the operating budget is not the issue; the interest earned should help fund the operating budget.
Question 3: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and services?
Answer: Some values as reflected in questions I would ask include:
1) What can the town afford without jeopardizing our AAA bond rating?
2) What is the tax burden on the median value homeowner?
3) What spending does the two Boards of Education believe to be essential to retain our top tier school district status (which I believe is paramount to maintaining and growing our property values).
4) What are the per capita cost of services compared to benchmark towns?
Question 4: Would you have supported the Gilbert & Bennett foreclosure action and why? And how would you approach the Gilbert and Bennett site going forward and why?
Answer: I am enormously appreciative of the efforts of Julia Pemberton and the Board of Selectmen and others to find a way out of the mess that the town is currently in and to propose a solution that will be consistent with the values of the town and contribute to the tax base. And I pledge to help in any way I can as a Board of Finance member and taxpayer.
Foreclosure serves notice to the default taxpayer that the Town of Redding is no longer tolerant of false promises and inaction. It was an important catalyst step to accelerate the development of favorable solutions.
That being said, I am also risk averse. I want to make sure that we strive for the upside, while protecting the town from the downside — and that means developing alternatives. I am uncomfortable with the town getting into the development business, and I am loathe to the idea that taxpayers take on major financial risk. In the event the revenue or cost assumptions prove false or there is an economic collapse, it will be the taxpayers who will be saddled with bailing out the project.
As I said above, we firmly believe we need to engage Eversource in the Georgetown solution. Nearly 90% of Redding is classified as water supply watershed land. That restricts the type and amount of development that Redding can pursue. Georgetown is part of the Norwalk River watershed which means Eversource has a vested interest in the smart development of Georgetown too.
Question 5: Would you advocate for the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget? If so, what per-pupil cost do you believe is appropriate, and what cuts or additions in the school budget would you recommend or support?
Answer: Spending per pupil is a metric often cited, but it is not the true marginal cost of educating a child and I do not advocate for its use as the definitive measurement of the return on our education dollars. I don’t believe adding 20 more kindergarten children justifies a $500K budget increase, nor does a 20 student enrollment decline justify a $500K cut.
Redding spends nearly $35M a year to educate our children. As a percent of our Grand List, the spending is comparable to Easton (2.1%), lower than Weston (2.3%), but higher than the other, larger DRG A towns.
Compared to other small, high-rated school districts (~5 schools, <4K students) around the country, Redding’s spending appears to be in line. So I don’t think we are “punching above our weight.”
Better long-term planning, better visibility to future budget challenges, and better respect and collaboration among our elected officials and town employees will help us continue to deliver education excellence at the best cost to the taxpayers.
Question 6: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: Excellent schools in Redding are a shared value among Democrats and Republicans. In fact, just like the Redding Democratic platform, the Redding Republicans “advocate an excellent, progressive, innovative, and balanced education for our children.”
Excellent schools keep property values high and our town attractive to new residents. Along with beautiful open spaces, nature trails and parks, and less dense residential development, quality public schools are what the town is known for and critical to our future prosperity.
I am committed to keeping the Redding and Easton schools in the top tier of schools in Connecticut: DRG A. The peer group towns of Weston, Ridgefield, Wilton, New Canaan, Westport, and Darien are the benchmark towns that keep Redding’s appeal to prospective homeowners high and our property values more robust.
Question 7: Would you have joined in the vote to cut $400,000 from the 2017-2018 school budget, and why or why not?
Answer: For me, this is a false choice. If I had been on the Board of Finance, I would have insisted that the Boards of Education [and taxpayers] were aware in the fall – at the start of the budget season – of what the “top down” budget targets were based on the judgment of the Board of Finance on what the town can afford in the fall. There would never have been a process or a series of interfaces with the BOE and BOF that resulted in a vote to cut $400K.
Question 8: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Finance and the Board of Education has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: The distrust and lack of respect among the town boards is very disheartening. It is corrosive and results in weaker thinking, poorer solutions, and less effective budgets for the town. The four boards are all elected officials, entrusted by the people of Redding to represent them and protect the values we hold dear. This issue is very important.
I plan to work to restore mutual trust and respect. I believe the solution is part process including a frank discussion of our long-term budget pressures, and part attitude. The process I advocate for is to change the way the BOF engages in the annual operating budgets. We need to have a 3-year rolling budget. We need to kick-off the annual process in September with a presentation from the BOF on the financial health of the town and its perspective on what the town can afford over the next 3 years. That “top-down” process will enable a public discourse on the operating budgets upstream, well in advance of springtime demands for cuts that seem arbitrary and capricious. Those responsible for the “bottom-up” budget development need to know what the targets are before they spend days and months developing their recommendations.
The attitude part is to remember that the other three boards – the Board of Selectmen, Board of Education, and Region 9 – are also elected officials. Sworn to do what’s best for the town of Redding. They sincerely believe that what they advocate for is best for the town – both in breadth and depth of services and the cost to deliver them.
I have that attitude and respect for the other three boards and I will bring that to the Board of Finance this fall.
Question 9: Do you think the Board of Finance has been sufficiently open to citizen input? What tools or techniques would you advocate for to make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens?
Answer: No; I do not think it has been sufficient – particularly in the key budget finalization months. I think the BOF should have a social media/digital public comment portal so that public input can be collected often and not limited to those townspeople who have the ability to attend weekday evening meetings.
Question 10: Do you support advisory questions on the annual budget referendum ballot and why?
Answer: I believe advisory questions are an interesting vehicle, but I am not sure how practical they are. They are non-binding, so as an elected official, what do I do with that information? It’s an aid to judgment, but I believe there are other methods to capture voter (and taxpayer – which are not the same group) opinions.
I am intrigued with the idea of having multi-tiered school budget referenda; for example, one ballot question that is the “maintenance” budget and another ballot question that is a targeted investment or supplemental education budget.
Question 11: Do you believe the BOF has adequately planned for Redding’s future, and what would you do differently in terms of long-term planning?
Answer: No. I do not believe we are adequately or effectively planning for the long-term.
The next BOF should implement a rolling 3-year budget planning process. This process should begin each fall with a review of the 3-year pro forma annual operating budgets from each of the three boards (Board of Education, Selectmen, and Region 9) along with a similar review of the rolling 3-year projection of our town’s financial health and revenues.
This more transparent public discussion at the start of every annual operating budget cycle means greater and earlier visibility to the financial challenges facing the town and will provide a more meaningful opportunity for town discussion and debate.
Finding sustainable efficiencies in the budget may require more than one budget cycle to identify, regional or public-private partnerships which can be complicated and take time to explore and implement, or require new ways of thinking about delivering the desired services altogether. We need to kick-off the annual process in September with a presentation from the BOF on the financial health of the town and its perspective on what the town can afford over the next 3 years. That “top-down” process will enable a public discourse on the operating budgets upstream, well in advance of springtime demands for cuts that seem arbitrary and capricious. Those responsible for the “bottom-up” budget development need to know what the targets are before they spend days and months developing their recommendations.
Question 12: Following the upcoming election, the Board of Finance will be selecting a new Board Chair. What factors would you use to decide how you will cast your vote for the BOF Chair?
Answer: Experience in town government. Critical thinking skills. Empathy and respect. The recognition that the three boards – the Board of Selectmen, Board of Education, and Region 9 – are also elected officials. Sworn to do what’s best for the town of Redding. I plan to work to restore mutual trust and respect between the town boards, town employees, and townspeople.Question 1: How can we increase revenue without raising the mill rate?
Answer: The only way to increase revenue without raising the mill rate is to introduce new commercial uses in town. Redding lacks a normal distribution of taxable properties, with very little commercial property, and it is difficult to pay the town’s bills only on the taxes from our individual houses.
In reality, we can’t afford new residential development unless we can pair it with commercial development. And since 89% of Redding’s land area is primary public water supply watershed, commercial development of any significance can be successful only in Georgetown which has the appropriate town services (i.e. water and sewer), and is outside the watershed. West Redding is not another Georgetown; it is completely encumbered by the headwaters of the Saugatuck River reservoir system, and has unfeasible road access for significant development.
I also have heard suggestions about seeking fees for town services, or reducing or eliminating the Senior Tax Credit. I would not support creating new taxes on town residents in the form of fees for service. Also the Senior Tax Credit is a pragmatic and successful incentive to keep older taxpayers in Redding, despite many existing incentives for them to move to lower-taxed communities. We must retain a healthy mix of ages in town – both for the social benefits of having active older residents who are the core of Redding’s volunteers, institutional donors, and carriers of our institutional memory, and for the absolutely essential presence of households that deliver net positive tax revenue to the town.
Question 2: Would you have voted to use bond interest to reduce the Selectman’s budget increase for FY17-18 as the BOF did and why? Or would you have used the funds differently and why?
Answer: I would not readily criticize the Board of Finance’s use of a relatively small one-time credit to support current operations, given the Board’s record of sustaining AAA bond ratings, relatively low debt levels, and successful-albeit-delicate annual funding of the town’s expenses in the face of a marginal tax base. This Board has not been well-liked, but they have been skiing for years on an expert slope and have earned their credibility in these kinds of decisions.
The town at present is being whipsawed by a number of negative financial trends. These trends won’t last forever and so applying small windfalls to support current operations can be a way to bridge across the problem.
In future decisions of this type, we obviously need to be looking past the current year to assure that a hole is not being dug that will be hard to get out of. On the other hand the political reality is that, in the past under similar circumstances of budget stress, the town has become even more polarized than it is now, leading to Redding’s voters turning down the town budget if the mill rate creeps up too high. The Board of Finance plays a key political role in avoiding this kind of disaster.
Still, the Board of Finance needs to “show its work” in evaluating the use of one-time credits – and if it doesn’t, the lack of transparency can in itself become a problem. The Board should always be prepared to present its evaluations to the public.
Question 3: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and services?
Answer: My key values in balancing taxes and services are:
– Redding must increase its non-residential tax base without giving up its soul.
– Any significant new residential development – whether single-family or multi-family – must be paired with new commercial development.
– Redding is a frugal place, and this is enforced by its limited sources of tax revenue. This requires a high dependence on volunteers, stringent priorities at budget time, and strong community involvement to assure that limited resources are spent wisely.
– We must provide an incentive for older residents not to decamp to low-tax retirement locations. The Senior Tax Credit is a successful, pragmatic strategy for achieving this and it is essential in making our current mix of tax revenue sources work.
– Redding’s residential real estate values are dependent directly on the reputation of its schools. Thus the schools must be excellent, in reputation and in fact. And the schools should be more than a list of statistics; they should be a word-of- mouth asset that draws Fairfield County’s most interesting families to Redding.
– Redding must support and sustain its home-based “knowledge worker” and weekender community, since these groups are the foundation of cultural depth in town. They also raise our per-capita income statistics and our net tax revenue more than any other group.
– Redding must find its future in its history – which is a story of a planned community crafted by intensely creative people in the arts, culture, conservation, and historic preservation, with strong institutional ties to New York City. We must make Georgetown the centerpiece in renewing and sustaining this vision.
– Georgetown is encumbered by some serious real estate limitations, but we must make it our tax-base salvation. The village can overcome its limitations by being developed on a slow track, building added- value step by step at relatively lower capitalization. We must not seek a “quick fix” with large-scale, high- capitalization, high-risk development schemes that will push us away from our values; large-scale development schemes have already failed us twice in Georgetown.
Question 4: Would you have supported the Gilbert & Bennett foreclosure action and why? And how would you approach the Gilbert and Bennett site going forward and why?
Answer: Since I probably have greater depth of knowledge about Georgetown than anyone else in Redding, I feel the need to draw upon that depth and this takes more than 400 words. So far, we have survived 30 years of factory closure followed by a classic development story of successes and failures; if you haven’t seen the movie “Other Peoples’ Money with Danny DeVito, based loosely on Georgetown’s story, I suggest watching it. However, unlike in the movie we are still looking for our happy ending.
We continue to survive a long-term shock to our community with the character of our town intact, but we have paid a price in the stresses of living with a marginal tax base. Paradoxically, the best way of improving our tax base involves conserving and building upon Georgetown’s character in a carefully staged way, rather than giving in to what might be sold to us as pragmatic large-scale economic development. Most people don’t know that we are in the town’s second round of foreclosure, the first having been 15 years ago. The town has tried in the past to be pragmatic, but this has only revealed the limitations of the Georgetown site in a conventional real estate sense, and the distinct risks that can afflict a naïve actor in the real estate marketplace.
In the aftermath of the first foreclosure, I was the person who brought national award-winning planning to the G&B site – and this included a week-long on-site Charrette in which the Master Plan was created by a world-famous team in intensive communication with the people of Georgetown and Redding. I made a memorable trip to Washington with the developer to receive a prestigious national award on behalf of the town.
However, concurrent with my physical-planning efforts the town was making some very naïve financial decisions. The town’s two well-intentioned financial mistakes, which I noted at the time but was unable to influence, were:
– The town set some sophisticated and successful conditions on the developer at the time when they were positioned by the town to foreclose on the property, including accelerated payment of tax arrears and their financing of the Charrette-based master-planning process in which the public and the town would be a full partner. However there was no continuing mechanism, surviving the initial transaction, by which the town could keep score, or to step in if the developer’s efforts ran off the rails.
– The developer later brought to the town a proposal to have the state legislature form a separate taxing authority in Georgetown, limited to the boundaries of the development site, that would provide some town-center services but mainly would give the developer the right to enter the public-sector bond market on their own to raise money for on-site and off-site infrastructure improvements. The town accepted and supported this concept based on a naïve assumption that this would control the town’s financial risk and would avoid potential encumbrances on the town’s own bonding capacity. As the history has rolled out, though, perverse sources of risk for the town have emerged that are now staring us in the face. The bonds issued by the taxing authority are now in arrears, and the bond asset is in the hands of aggressive investors who intend to use this leverage to see their own priorities drive the outcome of real estate development and the disbursement of tax revenue. The town is currently in litigation with the bond holders and the outcome is unclear.
When the current foreclosure began to be discussed, my advice was that the bond holders would hold all the cards, and that the town might activate a process it would not be able to control. Foreclosure was a possible last resort, but the town should not expect an amicable outcome. I advised having serious discussions with the developer about the possibility of foreclosure, with the intent of separating the developer’s interests from those of the bond holders and to give them a long-term path to a solution that did not empower the bond holders.
I predicted that if this did not occur, the foreclosure would be likely to be redeemed by the developer with new investors who would then carry out a dense mixed-income housing project under CT Gen Statutes 8- 30g, the Affordable Housing Appeals Law, under which a developer can write their own ticket without reference to local zoning. I predicted 600-800 units of housing, which continues to be a realistic prediction.
The 2008 recession prevented this immediate redemption from happening, but the protracted litigation now underway leads in the same direction. If the bond holders gain unfettered control of the property, it is a real-estate certainty that there will be development based on the Affordable Housing statute, and this will create a tax-base disaster for the town.
The town must gain control of this property, and sustain control as an astute owner of real estate. It should not try to be the developer, but should patiently obtain one or more development partners who will be working under contract, with the town retaining an ability to keep score, measure the results, and step in if the process goes wrong.
Ultimately the development that occurs must include some multi-family housing, and if this is done wisely it can bring a richer mix of household types, opportunities for working families, younger residents that are currently being driven out of Redding, and for aging empty-nesters. This also will give Redding the opportunity to get out of its dead-last ranking among CT towns in the provision of affordable housing; this will reduce the risk to the town from the state’s onerous affordable housing statute.
Along with this, though, the G&B site must catalyze the development of a commercial sector and a vibrant, walkable social/cultural center for the town.
This is a tough nut to crack, and the town should not be afraid to let the site sit fallow until the right opportunity can be orchestrated. In fact, due to the vagaries of the statutes related to the Georgetown foreclosure, it may be less risky for the town to defer development for a number of years, rather than to once again let the reins slip out of its hands. We don’t have to look for someone who can put together a $500 million dollar deal; we are better off to sustain a longer development period with smaller development entities and lower capital requirements.
The G&B site is not a high value site in a conventional real-estate sense. There is too little density within a 5-mile radius for national or regional retailers, and the 9-mile distance to the nearest highway on-ramp gives the site no current potential for regional office or other similar commercial uses (the original shutdown of the factory in favor of real estate development was premised on the construction of the Super-7 highway, which will not be built). In short, we need for the G&B site to “fight above its weight” in the real estate marketplace.
Successful redevelopment of the site must draw upon Redding’s presence in the New York metro area as a green haven, with strong professional ties and a direct rail connection to New York’s cultural and commercial-arts/creative-arts scene. Georgetown must not be permitted to become whatever this year’s real estate trends make it possible to finance, only to fail when those trends evolve. Rather, the village must re-emerge as the quirky, beautiful, walkable and sophisticated place it can and should be.
This will best be catalyzed by searching out one or more high-profile, high-creativity enterprises as a core. These may be commercial enterprises, or may also include non-profit institutions who will “pioneer” the site with added value for the rest of the village and a constellation of related tax-paying entities.
Conservation also must be part of the solution, and the concept of phyto-remediation in the contaminated portions of the site would be worth looking at in the context of a long-term, carefully-phased rollout of development. One of the key benefits of phyto-remediation is its low impact and low capital cost in comparison to other forms of remediation.
In 1969, Buckminster Fuller wrote a book titled “Utopia or Oblivion”. To apply those two words to Georgetown would be hyperbole, but each of us is invited to stand at the old Norman Rockwell train station in Georgetown and see that the track goes only in two directions. We are past the point of muddling through, and we must not set out on an unknown path through the weeds.
Question 5: Would you advocate for the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget? If so, what per-pupil cost do you believe is appropriate, and what cuts or additions in the school budget would you recommend or support?
Answer: It is invalid to compare one town to another on the basis of cost per pupil, since there is no standard model for determining the cost per pupil. However this measure is more valid as a tool for comparing costs within a given town over time, since each town’s modeling should be reasonably consistent from year to year.
It is a fact, though, that whether this statistical model is fully valid or not, the statewide data from all sources show that Connecticut’s smaller towns generally have higher per-pupil costs, and suffer more when their student populations shift rapidly up or down. We are experiencing a downward shock now, but there will be an upward shock in a few years; this is a continuing generational cycling that started with the Baby Boomers, and that every town needs to become more-expert in addressing.
We need to find ways to measure whether we are getting maximum value for our education dollars, and whether we are properly managing our educational resources in recognition of cyclical rises and falls in student populations. We need to see our relatively small school population as a positive feature, and should be developing educational methodologies that benefit from the flexibility available in a smaller setting.
Our school budgets will be far more credible if they arise from this kind of thinking. If there is clearly- visible value, there will be less fussing over gross measures of cost.
Question 6: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: This is not something Redding gets to choose. The state’s DRG classifications represent a measurement of demographic factors – chiefly measures of affluence – and are not specifically educational in nature. This classification was started innocently by the State as part of measuring and managing disparities of education outcomes in towns of varying wealth, but it has become a real estate marketing tool and so we are forced to deal with it as a factor in our town’s reputation as a real estate market and as a place to live. DRG A means simply that we are one of Connecticut’s most affluent communities.
Our DRG classification may not be very relevant educationally, but it is extremely relevant in sustaining the real estate tax levels that support our schools. I have observed that affluent home buyers moving into our area are advised in a very direct way by real estate people to choose their hometown based on its DRG rating. If our measures of affluence remove us from the DRG A classification, these buyers will pass us by – and this will lead to a spiraling decline in our home resale values and per capita income levels that will make it more and more difficult to pay for superior schools.
Whatever we may think of this kind of economic siloing of our communities, we have to deal with it and we have to stay in DRG A. This is a matter of development policy, not education policy, and is more important in Redding than in other towns since we depend so heavily on residential real estate taxes to fund our town.
Question 7: Would you have joined in the vote to cut $400,000 from the 2017-2018 school budget, and why or why not?
Answer: Recent-year budget actions by the Board of Finance have involved cuts in the requested Board of Ed budgets, but only in the 1% to 2% range. In Redding or any other town this kind of minor trimming would be viewed as normal fiscal oversight – and the fact that the schools then have underspent their trimmed budget by 3% to 4% should be expected to result in skepticism by the people exercising oversight. I would not guess how I would have voted this year – but from most measures the school budget has not been suffering on purely a “dollars-in” basis.
However there appears to be genuine public concern – which I share – about the budget and program priorities of the school administration, and both the Board of Ed and the Board of Finance have been amazingly tone-deaf in hearing and responding to these clearly-stated public concerns.
Everyone in Redding must defend the quality of the schools – they are a big cost, but they are the life blood of the town. Doing so is mainly a matter of having effective management within the school administration and Board of Ed in structuring school programs, sensitivity to public concerns by all elected officials including the Board of Finance, and a businesslike process of communication between the Board of Ed and the Board of Finance.
To see this important management process boiled down into a theatrical showdown and argument about the last 1% or 2% of the budget is silly – and must stop by means of vastly improved procedures and communication.
Question 8: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Finance and the Board of Education has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: I don’t care why it started; here is how a grown-up would fix it:
Question 9: Do you think the Board of Finance has been sufficiently open to citizen input? What tools or techniques would you advocate for to make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens?
Answer: As vice-chair of the Planning Commission, I frequently ran public hearings. Both the chair (Diane Taylor at that time) and I were intensely aware of the due-process requirements that applied to every word said in these meetings, and the fact that more information and transparency, at the time of decision, was a key part of risk-management in a process frequently fraught with litigation.
I worked to assure that all parties were treated with respect, and all viewpoints, no matter how friendly or adversarial they may have been, were heard. At the same time, skewed or false statements were not permitted to stand uncorrected and relevant expert opinion reflecting the regulatory interest was always present in the record. The amount of litigation declined significantly during the time when I served, despite a very active development environment, and I feel I can take direct credit for some portion of this change.
I have not seen a similar awareness, or similar procedures, in the Board of Finance. I recommend that the BOF should:
For the BOF to bring varied constituencies together in an informal setting also will force people within individual constituencies to hear the viewpoints of other constituencies, and should help in building community consensus.
Question 10: Do you support advisory questions on the annual budget referendum ballot and why?
Answer: When the budget reaches the ballot, the decision should be a simple yes or no. Open-ended ballot questions do not have a history of leading to good government decisions.
The time for public communication should be long before people are standing in the voting booths. The communication process during the preparation of the town budget should include workshops by which people in all constituencies may be heard, and this will give the Board of Finance the ability to incorporate these inputs into what can become much more of a consensus-based budget document.
(see also my answer to Question 9 above)
Question 11: Do you believe the BOF has adequately planned for Redding’s future, and what would you do differently in terms of long-term planning?
Answer: The Board of Finance is not the town’s principal planning agency. The Planning Commission is that agency, and the Board of Selectmen are the overall executive authority. I spent 19 years as the key voice on the Planning Commission and have contributed very substantively to the planning process in what traditionally has been a very carefully planned community. I was instrumental in the writing of 3 editions of the town’s decennial Plan of Conservation and Development.
However this planning process needs to be reinvigorated and in particular, development planning must become much more financially focused in relation to building the town’s tax base and building a vibrant village center in Georgetown. This is the main reason I am seeking office on the Board of Finance after having retired from Planning several years ago.
The tenure of Alvin Ruml as chair of the Board of Finance during the period when modern Redding was being shaped, is a model of the how this Board should participate in planning – contributing its fiscal expertise in close partnership with the Planning Commission and the Board of Selectmen. We have the opportunity to do this right now, as critical decisions are approaching in Georgetown, and we need to succeed at it.
Question 12: Following the upcoming election, the Board of Finance will be selecting a new Board Chair. What factors would you use to decide how you will cast your vote for the BOF Chair?
Answer: The new Board of Finance Chair needs to be a lot more like Alvin Ruml (chair from 1972-1999) and less like its recent leadership. Alvin engaged the Board of Finance in the basic decisions that shaped the Redding that we know, not only in formulating long-term budget and funding priorities but also in contributing to basic planning decisions within the town government. He also shaped the town’s relationship to its partner institutions like Region 9, the Land Trust, Redding Open Lands, etc.
I feel that the new Board of Finance must be as good as the previous board on a technical level but must be better in listening to and learning from people in the community. It must also step up to the task of future-oriented planning, contributing its fiscal expertise in partnership with the Board of Selectman and the Planning Commission.
Like Alvin Ruml in his 27-year tenure, the new chair will need to be more of a community-wide leader than in the recent past, with creativity, an open mind, the ability to respectfully engage with others.
One half of the personnel on this Board will be new, so the first order of business will be to figure out who can best exercise this kind of leadership.
Question 1: How can we increase revenue without raising the mil rate?
Answer: The Board of Finance has no legal authority to increase revenue beyond raising the mil rate. That is why carefully reviewing budget proposals is so important. Some people have suggested increasing the commercial tax base of the town, but that would fall under the domain of the Zoning Commission. As to Georgetown, Redding is a number of years away from seeing tax revenue from any development there.
Question 2: Would you have voted to use bond interest to reduce the Selectman’s budget increase for FY17- 18 as the BOF did and why? Or would you have used the funds differently and why?
Answer: Bond interest cannot be used to fund expenditures. Interest is an expense (the cost of borrowing) that the town pays to its lenders, the bondholders.
I will be happy to answer a clarified question on this topic.
Question 3: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and services?
Question 11: Do you believe the BOF has adequately planned for Redding’s future, and what would you do differently in terms of long-term planning?
Joint Answer: I have answered Questions 3 & 11 together:
Question 4: Would you have supported the Gilbert & Bennett foreclosure action and why? And how would you approach the Gilbert and Bennett site going forward and why?
Answer: The Board of Selectmen made the correct and only possible decision, which is to foreclose on the property. The town cannot allow property taxes to go unpaid. Here, the foreclosure has also served to get the parties together to work toward an overall resolution that may revive the important process of developing Georgetown.
Question 5: Would you advocate for the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget? If so, what per-pupil cost do you believe is appropriate, and what cuts or additions in the school budget would you recommend or support?
Answer:
Education Metrics:
Per-pupil costs are one of a number of metrics that every school district is required to report to the State of Connecticut in its annual “District Profile and Performance Report.” This concise, informative and easy to read report is public and downloadable and includes a number of useful breakdowns, including:
The District Profile is available beginning with the 2002-3 academic year and can be used to compare to other districts or to trend information over time. I assume these metrics and many more are applied by the BoE and school administration in preparing the annual school budget. As to the role of the Board of Finance, please see below.
Role of the BoF in the Budget Process:
The Board of Education is charged with compiling the annual school budget request. This budget, along with the Selectmen’s budgets, are presented and reviewed publicly in January of each year. They are then aggregated into one initial budget. At this time, serious questions are asked of each department and any adjustments made. The budget is then presented to the town for a vote.
Essentially, the BoF is charged with comparing estimates of the grand list and current mil rate (tax per $1,000 of assessed property values) and other sources of revenue against budget requests. Because some types of expenses tend to grow in a compounded fashion over time, note must be taken of budget increase types—ongoing or short-term– as well as amounts, as tax rates must be sustainable over time and provide flexibility for emergencies. Capital budgeting and the acquisition of the necessary funds are also part of the process.
The overall budget recommendation is then presented to voters at the town meeting, or more typically today, as a referendum. Once approved, the BoF sets the mil rate so that tax bills can be rendered and mailed in June.
Taxing authority in Redding lies with the Board of Finance, with the exception of the fire departments and Region 9, which finance their own operations.
Question 6: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: That is a question for the Board of Education. The Board of Finance has no role in determining whether Redding remains in DRG A. Also, my understanding is that part of the input for the state’s classification into DRG groups includes municipality demographics.
Question 7: Would you have joined in the vote to cut $400,000 from the 2017-2018 school budget, and why or why not?
Answer: After two years of surpluses, the BoF voted to request the BoE to reduce its budget request. Although the amount differed among the board members, the final amount resulted in a unanimous vote from members of both parties.
Every department in every organization presents budget requests from a “silo” perspective. This is why it is important to have checks and balances or “speed bumps.”
Question 8: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Finance and the Board of Education has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: My values and approach for working with other elected officials:
Question 9: Do you think the Board of Finance has been sufficiently open to citizen input? What tools or techniques would you advocate for to make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens?
Answer: The Board of Finance conducts public budget hearings every year for the precise purpose of listening to citizen input. It also invites public comment at nearly every meeting. I think that soliciting public comment should be a standard part of the agenda for every regular meeting.
Question 10: Do you support advisory questions on the annual budget referendum ballot and why?
Answer: In theory, this idea may have merit. However, serious study would have to take place in terms of practicality, cost and methodology.
Question 11 was combined with Question 3 and answered above.
Question 12: Following the upcoming election, the Board of Finance will be selecting a new Board Chair. What factors would you use to decide how you will cast your vote for the BOF Chair?
Answer:
Question 1: How can we increase revenue without raising the mill rate?
Answer: The Board of Finance has no legal authority to increase revenue beyond raising the mill rate. That is why carefully reviewing budget proposals is so important.
However, broadly speaking, there are several ways in which the Town’s revenues can be increased without raising the mill rate. That is, by obtaining additional state and federal aid, expanding the commercial base, more charges for municipal services, and maximizing income on deposits and investments while strictly investing in instruments authorized by the Connecticut General Statutes.
Given the State’s financial problems, obtaining additional state aid is highly unlikely and in fact, there will be a reduction to the Town’s state aid.
While some Redding residents have suggested increasing the commercial tax base of the town, others have been historically wary of expanding the commercial activities in town. In either case, that would fall under the domain of the Planning and Zoning Commissions.
Question 2: Would you have voted to use bond interest to reduce the Selectman’s budget increase for FY17-18 as the BOF did and why? Or would you have used the funds differently and why?
Answer: No “bond interest” was used as suggested in this question. Approximately $347,000 had been budgeted to paydown the principal on bond anticipation notes (BAN’s), with an expectation that additional BAN’s also would need to be issued. The bond sales occurred before using the $347,000 to paydown the BAN’s and the proceeds from the bond sales covered the outstanding balance of the BAN’s. Also, $60,000 had been budgeted for bond fees, but was not spent. Therefore, a total of $407,000 was not needed for its budgeted purpose.
The Board of Finance used a portion of that money to avoid a sharp increase in taxes that would have otherwise resulted this year. Fortunately, some old bonds will be paid off shortly, and that will also help to smooth out changes in the mill rate when the full cost of the refinancing kicks in. The decision by the Board of Finance to avoid sharp increases in taxes and to help maintain a consistent mill rate was appropriate.
Question 3: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and services?
Answer: I will balance the needs of all constituents and act in the overall best interests of our town. In my many years as a Certified Public Accountant, I developed the skills necessary to weigh financial decisions and to obtain the greatest benefit in services for the least cost to the taxpayers. Additionally, I will listen and seek to understand the views of stakeholders of all types, carefully and objectively weigh those views, and to be transparent.
Question 4: Would you have supported the Gilbert & Bennet foreclosure action and why? And how would you approach the Gilbert and Bennett site going forward and why? (Please answer in 400 words or less.)
Answer: Absolutely, the Board of Selectmen made the right decision. If anything, the foreclosure was overdue. No property owner should be allowed to let taxes go unpaid. The foreclosure also has served to get the parties together to work toward an overall resolution that may revive the important process of developing Georgetown.
Question 5: Would you advocate for the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget? If so, what per-pupil cost do you believe is appropriate, and what cuts or additions in the school budget would you recommend or support?
Answer: The State Department of Education requires towns to supply this metric every year, so it must have some relevance. It is one of many metrics that the Board of Education and the Board of Finance might use to assess how Redding compares to peer towns, but it should not be the methodology that drives the determination of the school budget.
Question 6: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: That is a question for the Board of Education. The Board of Finance has no role in determining whether Redding remains in DRG A.
Question 7: Would you have joined in the vote to cut $400,000 from the 2017-2018 school budget, and why or why not?
Answer: I honestly cannot respond to this question without having the same information that was available to the members of the Board of Finance. Any response at this point would be based on incomplete information, and I do not make decisions without having all the facts.
I favor the actual result taken by the Board of Finance particularly because it had no effect on the high-quality education being provided to the students. This statement is supported by a current Board of Education member in a published article dated September 5, 2017 that stated that school programs have not been changed because of any cuts.
Question 8: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Finance and the Board of Education has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: Only the members of those Boards can precisely articulate the originating sources of strain. Please see my candidate statement published in The Redding Pilot on October 26, 2017 that focuses on working together.
Question 9: Do you think the Board of Finance has been sufficiently open to citizen input? What tools or techniques would you advocate for to make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens?
Answer: The Board of Finance conducts public hearings every year for the purpose of listening to citizen input. It also generally invites public comment at its monthly meetings. However, as a regular attendee of those meetings, at times, there have been requests made of the public to keep their comments to a limited amount of time. I think that soliciting public comment should be a standard part of the agenda for every regular meeting. One tool that would make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens that I would advocate for is to hold semi-annual meetings dedicated solely for citizen input.
Question 10: Do you support advisory questions on the annual budget referendum ballot and why?
Answer: No, there are many regular and special meetings during the budget process that occurs between November and the end of April, leading up to the Town of Redding and Regional 9 Budget Referendum which occurs in early May. During those meetings, input can be provided on whether the budgets brought forth to the Board of Finance for its review are too high or too low. Some voters will always consider a budget too high and some will always consider it too low. Even if one preference is higher than another, it does not give meaningful guidance on what precise action the Board of Finance should take considering the results to those questions are not binding.
Question 11: Do you believe the BOF has adequately planned for Redding’s future, and what would you do differently in terms of long-term planning?
Answer: By law, the Board of Finance is charged with approving the overall annual budget. The general statutes also give the Board of Finance specific responsibility for: setting the mill rate for property taxation, approving all appropriations, determining how town financial records are to be kept, arranging for the annual audit, and publishing the Town’s Annual Report. Long term planning, however, is a town-wide responsibility that the Board of Finance shares with all other boards and commissions. I would like to see greater communication through an active and engaged Long Range Planning Committee that has broad representation.
Question 12: Following the upcoming election, the Board of Finance will be selecting a new Board Chair. What factors would you use to decide how you will cast your vote for the BOF Chair?
Answer: Those factors would include: the ability to conduct a thorough, efficient, and civil meeting; experience with the varied issues that come before the Board; fairness to other Board members, other town officials, and members of the public.
Answer: For a town like Redding that is over-reliant on residential property taxes this is a huge priority for the town that the Board of Finance (BOF) has ignored for too long. There are several things the BOF needs to do. First, the BOF must conduct an overall assessment of taxes and fees and measure those against best practices to evaluate areas where revenues can be expanded. For example, Eversource is one of the largest property holders in Town but pays a per-acre tax rate that is far lower than one would expect.
The BOF also needs to work with other Boards and the Selectmen on a plan to maximize and expand our commercial tax base. We should gather input from commercial property owners about steps the town can take to facilitate their success. Strong local businesses will translate into long-term increases in commercial tax revenue. The West Redding commercial district, for example, is a prime opportunity for increasing long-term tax revenues, which will only occur if all parties are involved in the plan. There are also other opportunities to expand our commercial tax base. That will only happen if the BOF does the work necessary to develop and implement a plan that we all support.
Question 2: Would you have voted to use bond interest to reduce the Selectman’s budget increase for FY17-18 as the BOF did and why? Or would you have used the funds differently and why?
Answer: No. I believe that action was fiscally irresponsible and is an example of the BOF’s poor focus. The BOF for too long has focused solely on property taxes at the expense of the town’s long-term health. In this case, the BOF used funds that were dedicated towards paying down long-term debt to pay for operating expenses, in an effort to lower this year’s mill-rate increase. As a small town with an over-reliance on property taxes, we need to be careful about the size of debt we accumulate. Therefore, I would have voted to use the money for what is was intended: paying down debt.
Question 3: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and services?
Answer: I love Redding. My family and I have lived here for 17 years; my son was born here and both of my children attended public schools. We are all active participants and volunteers in many town civic institutions. Therefore, it is vitally important to me personally that we ensure the long-term preservation of our community pillars – the things that make Redding special and protect our important assets, including home values. Those pillars include open space, our schools, the Mark Twain library, our Senior tax credit and our Park and Recreation programs (including our concerts on the green!). At the same time we need to protect taxpayers by using precious tax dollars wisely and also by finding additional sources of revenue beyond residential property taxes.
Question 4: Would you have supported the Gilbert & Bennett foreclosure action and why? And how would you approach the Gilbert and Bennett site going forward and why? (Please answer in 400 words or less.)
Answer: I wholeheartedly support the Gilbert & Bennett (G&B) foreclosure action. I believe developing the G&B site presents the town with a very important opportunity to expand our overall tax base, including our non-residential property tax base. However, it is also full of potential risks for the town. Mistakes made in the past – by allowing private commercial developers to issue bonds against future taxes, for example – need to be avoided.
The BOF has not conducted the long-term planning necessary to ensure we are avoiding potential pitfalls and maximizing success. The town needs to understand exactly what the future costs and benefits look like under the varying development alternatives. We also need to understand better the financial risks that come from the differing options. The BOF needs to be a partner with the Selectmen on the G&B project and must lead on developing and analyzing the long-term financial plans.
Question 5: Would you advocate for the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget? If so, what per-pupil cost do you believe is appropriate, and what cuts or additions in the school budget would you recommend or support?
Answer: No. The cost-per-pupil methodology is a flawed way to look at school budgets. First, there is no standard method of conducting the calculation; cities and towns do not include the same expenses in their calculations. In some towns, for example, some human resources expenses are included in the calculation while in other towns those expenses are in other budgets. Second, it ignores that large budget drivers in educational budgets are both fixed and unique from town-to-town. For example, Redding’s school buildings are relatively old and require higher maintenance expenses than Easton’s.
More fundamentally, we should be measuring our educational costs against performance while ensuring that we are providing the best education that taxpayers can afford. The BOF therefore needs to be a better partner with the Board of Education, spending more time analyzing educational outputs compared to DRG-A districts.
Question 6: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: Redding must stay in DRG A. First, if Redding is dropped from DRG A our property values will collapse by 30% or more. While Redding is a wonderful place to live, we offer very few amenities. The leading amenity we offer is outstanding schools. Dropping from DRG A sends the signal that our schools are not among the best in the state, and potential residents will pass us by.
More fundamentally, being in DRG A drives us to compete with the best schools in the state and succeed. We should be proud of this success and strive to maintain our excellence. We owe it to our children as well as the children who will attend our schools in the years to come.
Question 7: Would you have joined in the vote to cut $400,000 from the 2017-2018 school budget, and why or why not?
Answer: No. That cut was irresponsible. The BOF was presented with a highly responsible budget that not only amounted to a reduction year-over-year but was actually, on an inflation-adjusted basis, about the same as the 2010 budget. The BOE spent many hours at multiple meetings considering areas where cuts were possible without sacrificing educational quality. It rejected some, adopted many, and in the end did the hard work necessary to present a budget that maintained our schools’ excellence at a price the town could afford.
Some members of the BOF, without identifying any specific program or activity that it felt was wasteful, imposed additional cuts. The only area discussed was a reduction in the health insurance reserve below the long-term amount that the BOE had maintained as recommended by outside independent experts. Such a cut would have been financially irresponsible and exposed taxpayers to unnecessary risks.
More fundamentally, the proposed cuts were driven by members of the BOF who have damaged the respectful relationship between the Boards. I will work to restore that respect and create a more functional relationship, built on trust and facts rather than mistrust and ideology.
Question 8: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Finance and the Board of Education has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: I think the relationship has become strained because some members of the BOF have been motivated more by anti-tax ideology than the long-term health of the town. In recent years, the leadership of the BOF has seemingly held one principle sacred: no tax increases. Holding true to their word, property taxes have remained flat the last 4 years. But at what cost? I believe that this dogmatic approach has degraded our schools, our home values and ultimately our town. This rigid approach has also led to a breakdown in the relationship between the BOF and BOE. The budget process is broken and we all suffer as a result, as home prices are stagnant and our schools are beginning to show the results of irrational budget cuts.
At the same time, some members of the BOF have not done the work required to truly understand the effects of their cuts. They say things like, “in a $20 million budget you can always find more cuts” without really understanding how those cuts will damage our schools. I will follow a different approach. Where the BOE adopts a budget that honors the values Redding has always held dear at a price the residents should reasonably be expected to afford, the BOF should submit that budget to the voters to allow the voters to decide. Anything less denies voters a chance to express their views.
Question 9: Do you think the Board of Finance has been sufficiently open to citizen input? What tools or techniques would you advocate for to make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens?
Answer: I feel very strongly that the BOF has not been open to citizen input. I have been at meetings were public input was not even allowed. I have been at other meetings were citizens were treated discourteously and insulted. I have seen BOF members treat community input as if it was a waste of their time.
The fundamental essence of Democracy is having a say in our government. I can only imagine how it feels when a busy person, juggling work and family and other demands, comes to a meeting to express their views and is treated with disrespect; or told to “keep it short because it’s late.” One woman asked a question about finding other sources of revenue and was told that the Town “can’t host bake sales,” a comment many found troubling.
This is unacceptable. We need to restore civility and respect to the Board of Finance — the BOF needs to repair its relationship with volunteers on other Boards, and needs to be more open and respectful to citizens who have ideas and concerns. Here is what I would demand:
• Community input to the BOF is a right of ours, not a privilege. As a member of the BOF I will respect and value that input and treat every resident with the respect and civility they deserve.
• Every BOF agenda should include the opportunity for public input both before and after BOF action; many boards, including the Board of Education follow this practice and the BOF should as well.
• Every BOF members should have public email addresses and provide those email addresses to the public so that it is easy to reach them and provide input.
• The BOF needs to explore opportunities to share information to the Town via social media and other platforms to ensure citizens are kept informed on important issues.
Question 10: Do you support advisory questions on the annual budget referendum ballot and why?
Answer: I do support advisory questions. For too long the signal sent by the BOF has been that if a budget is rejected by voters it must be reduced. This effectively disenfranchises voters by not allowing voters to reject a budget that the voter believes is too low. Therefore, I believe the budget referendum should give voters three options: Yes; No (budget too low); No (budget too high). This would give all public officials, including the BOF, more information about exactly how Redding voters feel about proposed budgets.
Question 11: Do you believe the BOF has adequately planned for Redding’s future, and what would you do differently in terms of long-term planning?
Answer: No, the BOF has not adequately planned for our long-term future. I will work to ensure that the Board develops a long-term plan to ensure Redding’s fiscal stability. We need to preserve the pillars that make Redding special, including our schools. We need to understand our long-term capital needs and ensure we do not overburden the town with debt.
It all starts with the development of a long-term plan that forecasts capital and operating expenses and the effect of those costs on taxes. The plan will then inform all town decisions, including zoning, planning, the G&B development project, long-term debt, etc. As the saying goes, failing to plan is tantamount to planning to fail.
Question 12: Following the upcoming election, the Board of Finance will be selecting a new Board Chair. What factors would you use to decide how you will cast your vote for the BOF Chair?
Answer: We have an incredible opportunity for change at the BOF. In addition to a new Chair, half of the members of the BOF will be new to the BOF. Thus, my vote for Chair will go to someone who holds the following values and experiences:
• Is a recognized leader in Redding and has served in multiple positions of public trust;
• Has strong financial acumen and experience and is respectful of our precious tax dollars;
• Respects our citizens, welcomes community input and will strive for openness and transparency;
Question 1: How can we increase revenue without raising the mill rate?
Answer: The obvious answer is to increase the commercial tax base. This includes looking at developing West Redding. We should also consider rezoning the area near the Redding Ridge Market for further commercial development. Options for commercial development, however, are limited. Therefore, I believe we should look at whether the property owned by Eversource is properly valued for tax purposes.
Question 2: Would you have voted to use bond interest to reduce the Selectman’s budget increase for FY17-18 as the BOF did and why? Or would you have used the funds differently and why?
Answer: Bond interest should not have been used to reduce the selectmen’s budget. Day-to-day operational expenses should be funded by current revenues. Using bond interest in this way is like paying your mortgage with a credit card.
Question 3: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and services?
Answer: The two values Redding holds dear is open space and excellent schools. Open space is an integral part of the quality of life in town. Excellent schools serve two purposes. First, they fulfill our moral obligation to prepare our children for the future. Second, given Redding’s remote location and lack of amenities, excellent schools are essential in order to maintain property values.
I believe that the role of the Board of Finance is to send to referendum a budget which honors these values, at a price the town may reasonably be expected to afford. A balanced approach, where moderate tax increases are used to support these twin goals, should be left to the electorate to decide.
Question 4: Would you have supported the Gilbert & Bennett foreclosure action and why? And how would you approach the Gilbert and Bennett site going forward and why?
Answer: I believe that foreclosing on the Gilbert Bennett property was appropriate. I fear, however, that the drive to develop the property, in an effort to reduce the tax burden from homeowners, will result in the town taking financial risks that are beyond its capacity. In order to generate even $2mm in tax revenue, the Gilbert Bennett property must involved a development of approximately $100mm. I have grave doubts about our Town’s ability to manage both the practicalities and risk profile of such a project.
One approach would be to develop the property through a Regional consortium, including Wilton and Ridgefield. This will allow us to access contiguous property abutting Route 7. A regional approach will also allow us to spread the risk as well as leverage the expertise of other towns.
We should also consider whether the town would be better off leaving all, or some, of the property available for active and passive recreation, i.e., a park. This amenity may make Redding more attractive to young families, while also reducing the risk inherent in such an intensive and risky development. Therefore, a balanced approach, including light development and park land, should also be an option. One concern is that intensive residential development will result in additional strains on the school system that are unaffordable.
Question 5: Would you advocate for the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget? If so, what per-pupil cost do you believe is appropriate, and what cuts or additions in the school budget would you recommend or support?
Answer: Cost per pupil is a hoax. As a member of the Board of Ed for 12 years, I am intimately familiar with the problems inherent in using per pupil costs as a metric for measuring the cost of education. The primary problem with using cost per pupil is that there is no uniform methodology used in determining the cost. For example, one town may pay for snow removal, while another may not, leaving the school system to absorb the cost. Cost per pupil also does not take into account that in a regional High School system, like ours, fixed per pupil cost is divided over 8 grades, instead of 12. This makes it more difficult for the district to take advantage of the degree of economies of scale available to other towns that have a K-12 school system.
Question 6: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: Loss of DRG A status will result in an approximate 30% decline in home prices. Approximately 10 years ago, Redding was about to be removed from ERG A (the predecessor to DRG’s) to ERG B. It was only through the Herculean efforts of Alan Fossbender the, district superintendent, that we were able to stay in ERG A.
Those who advocate removal of Redding from DRG A will then use this to justify additional budget cuts to the schools.
Put simply, we must maintain our inclusion in DRG A because it is in line with our values and historic support of education.
Question 7: Would you have joined in the vote to cut $400,000 from the 2017-2018 school budget, and why or why not?
Answer: It does not appear to me that the additional $400,000 should have been cut from the school budget. The Board of Finance did not justify its decision, or explain its reasoning, or even allow public comment during the BOF meeting in which this cut was ordered. Before any cut of this magnitude was ordered, the BOF should have engaged the BOE in a collaborative discussion about the reasoning behind, and ramifications of, such a cut, none of which happened.
Instead, the BOF appears to have taken the position that the Board of Ed can just find the money somehow.
As the chief negotiator for the district, along with Jamie Barickman, of the collective bargaining agreement between the Board of Ed and the teachers, I’m very much aware of the fact that approximately 80 to 85% of the school budget is comprised of fixed costs. These include wages, benefits, and all other operational aspects of the schools. To suggest, as the Board of Finance did, that the schools can simply sharpen a pencil to find $400,000 to cut is to be willfully ignorant of the budget process. I firmly believe that the additional $400,000 cut was made simply because the board of Finance wanted to maintain no tax increase, without appropriate consideration of the impact of such a large cut a pond the educational mission of the schools.
Question 8: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Finance and the Board of Education has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: During my more than one decade on the BOE, I had many opportunities to present and comment upon the school budget before the BOF. At all times, the BOE was treated respectfully. More often than not, the BOE would be given the benefit of the doubt. As it turned out, that confidence was warranted as the schools thrived during this period. I am at a loss to explain the breakdown in the relationship between the two boards, except that it is apparent that the BOF has one interest in mind, no tax increases. Because of that single-minded focus, the BOF fails to consider the impact of its cuts upon the quality of education afforded our children.
More than that, the Board of Finance has adopted this imperious, top-down hierarchical approach, in which the BOE budget is seen as nothing more than an impediment to maintaining a flat mill rate.
The BOF also has used declining enrollment as justification for it’s Draconian reductions in the school budget. Although declining enrollment, over time, will reduce the school budget, such reductions are not linear. That is, a 10% reduction in school student population does not translate to a 10% budget cut. Despite this fact, the BOF uses declining enrollment to justify budget cuts that are not otherwise appropriate or justifiable.
Question 9: Do you think the Board of Finance has been sufficiently open to citizen input? What tools or techniques would you advocate for to make the BOF more open to community input and improve communications between the BOF and citizens?
Answer: The BOF has done a poor job of including the community in the budgetary process. Certain members are openly hostile to community input. Oftentimes, no public comment is permitted, or is curtailed to the bare minimum. One current member has been reported to have told members of the public that nothing the they say will influence their vote.
The best example of how The BOF views the public is when they refuse to present the referendum a budget that is otherwise reasonable, and which will surely pass, simply because the budget is contrary to their own personal political philosophies. It’s often been said that a budget is nothing more than an expression of one’s values. If this is true, shouldn’t people be given a meaningful opportunity to express those values in their vote?
By refusing to present to the public for referendum a budget which included a 1/2% cut in the school budget, and then ordering another 250k in additional cuts (without offering any rationale for these further cuts, or permitting public comment on the matter), the power of the ballot was effectively removed from the people. In fact, it was this imperious attitude that prompted me to run for office.
1. Mandatory public comment before and after deliberations, with extended public comments on critical issues.
2. Allow advisory opinions to be included in the referendum. For example, is the budget being voted on too high, or too low?
3. Engage the Board of Education in Selectmen in a year-long budgetary process, wherein the BOF expresses its expectations, and then works closely with these stakeholders throughout the year to discuss circumstances which may affect achieving these goals. This more engaged process will reduce the adversarial nature of the relationship between the BOF and BOE, leading to better results. The BOF must better understand that the BOE is also an elected body, and that it also represents the wishes of the people.
4. The BOF has often said that if a budget is voted down in referendum, further cuts will be made. This is undemocratic and further disenfranchises the voter. Instead, if a budget is defeated, a public hearing should be scheduled so that the BOF could learn why the budget was not passed. This is especially important in light of the fact that the BOF has declined to include advisory opinions in the referendum.
Question 10: Do you support advisory questions on the annual budget referendum ballot and why?Answer: I am in favor of advisory referendum questions. For too long, the BOF has not seriously listened to the voice of the citizenry. I’ve heard the current BOF leadership, many times, say that if a budget is defeated, further cuts will be enacted. This threat is contrary to democratic principles. Rather, if a budget is defeated, the question which needs to be asked is why? Was it because the budget was too high, or too low, or was there some aspect of either the Selectmen’s budget or the BOE’s budget that was problematic or voters. Advisory questions will only help to provide the answer to this question, which in turn should drive the BOF’s response to a defeated budget.
The simple fact is that the BOF does not present proposed school budgets to referendum, even though they will surely be passed, because they do not want them to pass, in that it interferes with their single-minded goal of maintaining no tax increases.
Is there any question that the approximate 1/2 % cut to the budget proposed by the Board of Ed would have passed and referendum? Of course not. It certainly would have passed. Then why wasn’t it presented to the voters? Because the BOF did not want it to pass in that it was not in line with their personal political philosophy. This is outrageous, and is nothing less than the disenfranchisement of the voters.
If a budget is little more than an expression of our values, shouldn’t it be a fundamental right to the voters to be able to have a meaningful opportunity to vote for those values? The ability to make a meaningful choice regarding the school budget has been eliminated undercurrent BOF leadership.
Question 11: Do you believe the BOF has adequately planned for Redding’s future, and what would you do differently in terms of long-term planning?
Answer: I believe the Board of Finance has done a good job of maintaining Redding’s credit rating and fiscal stability. At the same time, however, housing prices are stagnant, and the BOF has done nothing to support property values. In my opinion, moderate tax increases to support open land purchases and excellence in our schools, is the most fiscally prudent step we can take. This is because, without the excellent schools, people will not move to Redding, depressing property values.
Question 12: Following the upcoming election, the Board of Finance will be selecting a new Board Chair. What factors would you use to decide how you will cast your vote for the BOF Chair?
Question 1: Do you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If so, do you believe that per-pupil education costs should be raised or reduced, and by what amount? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: I do not view it as my role (as a BOE member) to decide if cost per pupil spending is a good idea or not. The State uses it and I don’t think it’s an effective use of my time to over-analyze it. That said MY PERSONAL OPINION is that it may serve as ONE spoke on a large wheel of analytic metrics as we compare our year-to-year budget and compare ourselves to other municipalities both within and outside of our District Reference Group (DRG). The fact is, it is currently one metric used by municipalities across the State for comparison and other purposes, and is reported on a regular basis. Let’s have it in the tool box and at the same time take it with several grains of salt.
Question 2: Do you believe the Redding school budget adequately funds professional development? Why or why not?
Answer: I do not think there are enough working days in the contract to add additional Professional Development days. Could we be more creative with the content of the PD days themselves? Of course, there is always room for improvement. At present, 95% of our existing teachers hold a master’s degree, and 60% of our teachers have earned 30 or more hours toward a PhD. In my opinion it’s more a question of how we deploy the highly educated teachers we already have. At budget time, if it comes down to a choice between PD and educational programs, there is no question that the students and the programs come first.
I recently spoke with a teacher at JRMS who shared with me that there was inadequate training and preparation for the math faculty at the school as the curriculum changed to Singapore Math. It struck me that this could be one of the factors contributing to the recent lagging math test scores at the middle school. This is a specific area I would like to investigate further as an “area of improvement” for PD content over the next six months. I do think our investment in the Science Technology Instructional Coach (STIC) position was a good one.
Question 3: Do you believe current class sizes are appropriate? Why or why not?
Answer: Our class sizes fluctuate from year to year because of enrollment numbers. Our school administrators are fastidious in their monitoring of class size even through the summer months as last minute families come and go. They know how important it is for BOTH the students AND the teachers to find a balanced size and composition of classes and they start the communication process with families in the spring to ensure the best possible outcomes. At this moment, the average class sizes at RES are appropriate and in fact excellent with a few exceptions. At JRMS these numbers are harder to calculate, obviously. This is a priority for all of our Administrators, Faculty and parents and will always be closely monitored. I think it’s safe to assume that every BOE candidate prioritizes reasonable class size for our schools.
Question 4: Do you support changing school start times to enable high school students to start school at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: There is much research showing that later school start times benefit the teenage brain and body. Philosophically I would say I support changing school start times to give our teens those advantages. I have a junior and a freshman this year and I hear lots of complaining about the early morning commencement of school, however, there are STILL late nights after sport practices and games with EARLY start times which will only become LATER with later start times.
One big challenge for Redding is that we share our buses for three separate schools’ start times, and logistically and financially it is a very complicated matter to address. I believe we will be addressing this issue imminently.
Question 5: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: Please refer to my answers to this question at the Town Hall Brown Bag Debate on 9/6/17 as well as the League of Women Voters’ Debate on 10/17/17, which are both available online.
Additionally, it makes no sense to advocate for a particular classification, be it DRG A or DRG B. We don’t CHOOSE the DRG, or CHOOSE to stay or leave. It’s chosen FOR US based on our demographics. So, if you wanted to advocate for Redding to stay in DRG A, for example, you would need to advocate for the behavior that would lead to a demographic score that would keep us in DRG A. For instance, you would advocate for full employment, because unemployment will drag us into a lower DRG, etc.
Question 6: What are three things you want to change as a member of the Redding Board of Education?
Answer: For me, it is premature to name things I want to change as a member of a board on which I do not currently serve. With four and possibly five new members joining this year, I think there will be changes that happen organically because of the shift in the board’s composition. There are areas for improvement at both RES and JRMS. I’m identifying those that I believe are the most significant as I go through this process as a BOE candidate and I have a list of things I’m concerned about in both schools. I am not prepared to list those at this time. To be continued…
Question 7: Why do you think the relationship between The Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: Although I do not claim to have a comprehensive explanation for why the relationship between the Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained, one observation I have made over the past four years is that there is a need for stronger, more effective communication between the two entities. Each budget cycle over the past four years has brought with it an adversarial tone between the two boards and between the residents who favor or don’t favor the decisions being made by one or the other board. Last year, when it became clear that there had been a breach in trust as an employee at our Central Office had not followed our stated financial policy and procedure, it struck me that it was absolutely necessary for a review of Central Office controls and procedures to be conducted. Many residents were deeply concerned and rightly wanted answers to why procedures were not followed.
To fix poor communication I would first target topics that seem the most problematic and ask as many questions of my Board of Finance colleagues as necessary to understand their individual and collective points of view. Attending Board of Finance meetings to stay up to speed on the issues the members of that board are tackling aside from the BOE budget is another way to improve communication, as it deepens the understanding of that board’s role. I have begun putting into practice those two concrete steps over the past several months.
Question 8: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and our school budget?
Answer: The values that will guide me as I balance taxes and our school budget are the same values that guide me as I balance my own personal checkbook and household/family budget: Hard Work, Fiscal Discipline, Teamwork, Truthfulness and Balance.
Question 9: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our schools, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: The quality of our schools overall is EXCELLENT. Our education system in Redding is the top reason why people move here. In a state that is in financial crisis, however, individuals, local governments AND educational institutions are vulnerable, not just because of the reduction of moneys we usually see returned from the state to our local municipalities, but also because the wellbeing of our economy state-wide will affect that of our individual towns. Job numbers are down. School enrollment state-wide in the suburbs is in decline (in the cities enrollment is up). CT is in the top 5 of “Exodus States”, meaning people are fleeing to other states with more business-friendly tax policies and a more reasonable cost of property taxes and living in general.
Home values in Redding are down by approximately 30% since 2007. CT never fully recovered from The Great Recession and Redding did worse than her neighbors in that recovery. My husband and I sold our home this past February for 30% less than we paid for it in 2005. That 30% loss does not include the large expenditures for home improvement we invested over twelve years.
The economic health of our town is strong and at the same time vulnerable for these and other reasons.
Question 10: What is your perspective on the use of standardized testing in grades K through 8?
Answer: In order to measure progress and quality of performance in general, some sort of standardized testing is sometimes considered a “necessary evil”. I dislike the idea of my second grader sitting for a standardized test in lieu of engaging in the more meaningful lesson plans his teacher has fastidiously prepared for his class. I also, however, understand the need for measurements along the way, and testing is ONE tool we have as an option.
As a College Admission Counselor, I read applications from students which included the SAT or ACT score as ONE METRIC, (similar to my answer to the previous question regarding per pupil cost), in addition to classroom performance, extra-curricular performance, writing skill level through the college essay, and teacher recommendations. Interestingly, in recent years MANY colleges and universities are becoming “Test Optional” as research is starting to demonstrate that there is NOT a strong link between success in college performance and standardized test scores. The President of Bard wrote a strong article about this topic. Incidentally, my alma mater and the school for which I worked as an Admission Counselor, Providence College, is now “Test Optional”. Go figure.
Teachers, colleges, employers etc., will always need tools to measure and compare performance in order to recognize in their students and employees areas of strength and areas that require attention for further growth. As onerous as standardized tests can be, for now they are part of a “tool box” used in a limited way to assist us.
Question 11: Each year as the budget is considered, favored programs such as Project Adventure, the music program, and enrichment are often considered for cuts. What is your perspective on these programs? And would you consider cutting them, and why or why not?
Answer: My children have LOVED Project Adventure. So far two of them have participated in the program and two are on the way up. (My eldest son did not attend middle school in Redding). Music programs and enrichment are an integral part of ANY high performing school district and MUST be maintained here in Redding.
Program cuts (like those mentioned) are last on everyone’s list… or at least they should be. 80% of the Redding BOE budget is human resources-related, so if savings are needed, that’s where I would go for meaningful change. Unfortunately, the teachers’ contract is only opened every three years, so the BOE needs to make the most of the opportunity to find a win-win for both our valuable teachers and for our town at those junctures.Question 1: Do you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If so, do you believe that per-pupil education costs should be raised or reduced, and by what amount? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: The cost-per-pupil measure, as I understand it to be, is a ratio the state compiles to determine how much federal or state grant money for which a school is eligible. Basically, it divides the amount a school spent in a year by the number of students. At face-value, it looks like a nice, neat number, so I understand the temptation to want to use it to compare Redding to other districts. However, upon further review, it is anything but neat because each district is using its own equation to calculate that number. Therefore, using this ratio to compare districts is not a meaningful exercise. If we really wanted to compare to another district, we’d have to compile another district’s data, enter that into Redding’s equation, and then compare.
The methodology that would guide how I would determine a budget is appropriate is by using data to compare trends from recent past years and extending those trends to the future with projections that are aligned with the mission, vision and purpose of the schools based on the long-term strategic plan, mandates, community member input, local board input, audit results, performance results, and the advice of the education experts we employ.
Question 2: Do you believe the Redding school budget adequately funds professional development? Why or why not?
Answer: Professional development (PD) is an extremely important aspect of an excellent school-system. We need to invest in the professional development of our staff for several reasons, but for the sake of time, I’ll highlight just one here. Education is the business of progress, and therefore, educators must progress. We can’t teach our children with 1985 methods in 2017. I have not been privy to an analysis of PD in Redding, but I do see evidence in RES of professional development that is yielding results. The teaching methods such as the Writers- and Readers-Workshop model and Singapore Math are boosting test scores and producing a high quality of work. RES has the TIP program and is also piloting the “One-to-One Platform” where there’s a Chromebook for every child allowing for a more engaged and individualized learning experience. They are implementing Second Step curriculum to educate and support the whole-child. These are all wonderful PD-based programs that I support.
I do think there may be an opportunity to improve how we pay for professional development, however. I would be very interested in partnering with other schools to optimize PD costs, and/or applying for PD grants as a way to fund PD for our schools.
Question 3: Do you believe current class sizes are appropriate? Why or why not?
Answer: My own experience as a class parent has sensitized me to this issue. As a district, I believe we need to follow the research on class-size. The research presented at BOE meetings is not unreasonable, nor out of reach, so we need to follow it as much as we possibly can, and when we cannot, we need to make some other support available to that class.
Question 4: Do you support changing school start times to enable high school students to start school at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: If changing school start times means that elementary school students will need to wait in the dark for the bus, I do not support this. That would be unsafe and unacceptable. As a concerned community member and parent, I happen to think asking high school students to wait in the dark for the bus is also unsafe and unacceptable, but I realize that goes against the norm our community has accepted. To change start times, we’d need a comprehensive plan that supports the safety and well-being of ALL the Redding students.
Question 5: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: I understand the DRG A designation to be most important to boosting our real estate values, so I think staying in DRG A is beneficial in that way.
Question 6: What are three things you want to change as a member of the Redding Board of Education?
Answer: In no specific order:
(1) We need a long-term strategic plan (as in: the future of education in Redding and how we plan to get there) that is aligned with the schools newly revised and aligned mission, vision and purpose. Some element of this plan needs to be on every BOE agenda and discussed in some form at every meeting.
(2) We need to improve effective communication from the BOE to all community members.
(3) We need to embrace a spirit of continuous improvement by engaging in scenario building when faced with tough decisions; by looking for savings, not cuts; and by looking for opportunities instead of focusing on problems.
Question 7: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: I believe one of the biggest overarching issues facing Redding as a whole, is a lack of effective communication, and I suspect this is probably at the root of the strain. From my observation, I don’t see that either group is fully forthcoming with information. For example, if the BOF knows how much the town can afford, they should say that at the start of the budget building process. Likewise, if the BOE knows of cost-cutting scenarios other than cutting Project Adventure, for example, they should offer those as viable options.
I would do my part to minimize future strain by effectively communicating. I would start by listening. I would ask if my suspicions are true, or if something else might be causing the strain. I would do my homework and work with my colleagues to build a business case that is aligned with our long-term strategic plan that explains why we need the money for which we are asking.
Question 8: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and our school budget?
Answer: I believe:
Question 9: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our schools, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: The quality of our schools, the value of our homes and the economic health of our town go hand-in-hand. I have lived in towns with open space, and homes there cost less than the limit on my credit card. I have lived in historic towns with vacant and dilapidated properties without owners. Having open space and being historic doesn’t mean a thing, if you don’t have a superior school. That is what attracts new families, that is what boosts real estate prices, and that is what contributes to a town’s economy.
Question 10: What is your perspective on the use of standardized testing in grades K through 8?
Answer: I think it is a balance. Well designed standardized test data can be useful, but the tests should not be over-used, and we must be careful to keep things in perspective. It is just one set of data.
Question 11: Each year as the budget is considered, favored programs such as Project Adventure, the music program, and enrichment are often considered for cuts. What is your perspective on these programs? And would you consider cutting them, and why or why not?
Answer: I think these programs are just as vital as the traditional academic courses. They are aligned with the vision and mission of the school and they educate the whole-child. I would not consider cutting them until all other chances to improve and save elsewhere were exhausted.
Question 1: Do you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If so, do you believe that per-pupil education costs should be raised or reduced, and by what amount? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: No, for myriad reasons, the cost-per-pupil statistic is not an appropriate metric for determining how much we should or shouldn’t budget for our schools. Even (and specifically) when comparing Redding to Easton, there are too many variables that differ from town to town. For example: building upkeep, maintenance, and policing can be viewed as municipal expenditures in one town and school budget line items in another. Whether we have 700 or 70 students per school, there are still fixed costs such as keeping the lights on, paying administrators and cleaning the cafeteria each day.
It’s a daunting task, but I’m ready to completely re-evaluate our school budget, but before we can do that we need a clear and clearly communicated Long Range Plan. This plan will be shaped by our entire community. We need to determine what our schools will look like 5 and 20 years from now – and we should start taking the steps to get them there today. Do we want to enhance curriculum with offerings that are not available in other communities (Mandarin, coding, robotics)? Do we want to take the lead on STEAM (https://educationcloset.com/steam/what-is-steam/ )? What are appropriate class sizes? Can we do a better job collaborating with neighboring communities on vendor contracts and purchasing decisions? Do our students need more access to mobile devices (or less)? Do we need to realign start times? What else can we do to attract buyers to Redding and keep taxes reasonable for folks who’ve been in town for decades?
By gaining answers to these and MANY other questions our Redding Board of Education (RBOE) can plan its current and future budgets based on the Long Range Plan. Once we understand what our community values, we can make reasoned budgeting decisions that we all agree upon in advance.
Question 2: Do you believe the Redding school budget adequately funds professional development? Why or why not?
Answer: I believe in providing the very best for our students and that is greatly assisted by educators who are educated on the very latest instructional methods. I want us to continue to improve the education that we provide for our teachers, and I want us to do so on a budget similar (or ideally, lower) to what we have set over the last several years. That’s not impossible, it just needs to be done differently, and it begins with Long Range Planning.
Can we perhaps better align our professional development (PD) calendar so that our teachers can benefit from Jennifer Serravallo’s reading and writing strategies and Yeap Ban Harr’s Singapore Math guidance together with educators from Wilton and Weston? Top-tier educational consultants command top dollars because they help us enrich the education we offer to our students, but they too will feel the economic crunch facing most communities. So why not collaborate with surrounding towns to develop our professionals? We can provide the best PD and we can work side by side with other BOEs that are trying to do more with less.
Question 3: Do you believe current class sizes are appropriate? Why or why not?
Answer: Sometimes our class sizes are appropriate and sometimes they are inappropriate, but unfortunately that’s merely my opinion based on what I read.
Our board hasn’t clearly defined “appropriate class sizes” so neither I, nor anyone else in town, can really answer this question — today.
But that can, and that must change, because our Board of Education will make determining appropriate class sizes one of the primary missives of its Long Range Plan. Particularly at Redding Elementary (RES), administrators are tasked with shifting teachers from grade to grade each year and wondering how many kindergarteners might move to town in a given summer. We need a clear guideline for when it’s appropriate to add or subtract a classroom for each grade. With these guidelines in place we can avoid having way too many kindergarteners in a class or far too few third graders in a section.
Question 4: Do you support changing school start times to enable high school students to start school at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: I am familiar with many studies that support a later start time for high school aged students and I support that as a long term goal. Making the change is very involved as we’d of course need to ensure such a change is a long term goal of the Easton and the Region 9 Boards.
Question 5: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: I’m not sure why anyone, would advocate for moving to a lesser tier. I don’t see any benefit in doing so.
Question 6: What are three things you want to change as a member of the Redding Board of Education?
Answer: I would push to have the Board immediately formulate and implement a long term plan for our schools, one that would guide virtually every action the Board takes in coming years.
I think Redding can and should be a leader in advanced curriculum development and extra-curricular offerings. I’d advocate for more science, technology, music and theatre.
I’d like to see improved communication so that both our local community is involved in shaping our long term plan and that those considering a move continue to chose Redding because of its outstanding schools.
Question 7: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: The current discord is predicated on the fact that we have been budgeting and planning year-to-year and not setting long term plans that are formulated and supported by the entire town. Until we make this change, budget season will continue to be several painful months for all involved in the process. If a budget is built upon clear and agreed upon goals, there shouldn’t be much of any questioning of the budget when it’s presented. I believe all of our town volunteers want what’s best for our community, and we need to put our ideas into a plan and work together.
Question 8: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and our school budget?
Answer: I believe that every dollar must be spent efficiently. I support working with surrounding communities to share costs. I believe all Board members have a duty to ensure the best education for each student and have a duty to be thoughtful stewards of each tax dollar. I recognize that there are more households that don’t have students enrolled in public education, and I encourage participation from all members of the community as we shape the school’s long term plan.
Question 9: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our schools, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: While there is much to be said of the beauty of our town and this part of Connecticut, what truly drove my family to buy a home in Redding several years ago was its excellent schools. I think a thoughtful evaluation of the school systems is a process that most buyers take before investing in a home. I hope that Realtors will also be involved in provide feedback as we formulate our school’s long term plan. I believe Redding’s home values are very closely tied to the strength of our schools and that all homeowners have a vested interest in keeping the schools strong.
Question 10: What is your perspective on the use of standardized testing in grades K through 8?
Answer: I dislike any exercise that takes away from the whole growth of our students. I don’t support having a seven year old spending multiple school hours in front of a testing screen three times a year. I believe too often the data collected from these tests is used to evaluate teachers more so than to provide enrichment for students.
Question 11: Each year as the budget is considered, favored programs such as Project Adventure, the music program, and enrichment are often considered for cuts. What is your perspective on these programs? And would you consider cutting them, and why or why not?
Answer: I don’t support cutting any program that enriches our student’s education, and I think we should consider more opportunities like these. I support smart and and highly evaluated spending that will enable us to continue and grow the curriculum and the educational opportunities that we provide.Some text can go below the heading, if you'd likeQuestion 1: Do you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If so, do you believe that per-pupil education costs should be raised or reduced, and by what amount? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: Per-pupil expenditure seems an obvious way to determine school budgets on the surface, but it does not take into consideration fixed costs that don’t change regardless of how many students are in the building. You have to turn the lights on, heat the building, and plow the parking lot if there are 300 students or 200 students. Cost-per-pupil spending can be useful if, as is done in Easton and at Barlow, the school is open to students from neighboring districts who pay to attend, which would be prudent for Redding to discuss as we face these next few years of declining enrollment.
Question 2: Do you believe the Redding school budget adequately funds professional development? Why or why not?
Answer: Professional development is woefully underfunded in our schools. In order for the students to receive the absolute best instruction, we must be educating our teachers as well. New advances in techniques and technology can help reach every student. If you want to see how teaching methods vary, go to YouTube and search “Chinese multiplication”.
Question 3: Do you believe current class sizes are appropriate? Why or why not?
Answer: According to School Finance: A Policy Perspective by Allen Odden and Lawrence Picus, research has shown that the optimal class size for K-3 is 15 students, though we know that our classes function very well in the range of 15-18 students. At RES the kindergarten classes have an average of 20 students, so according to the model it is a bit high. For middle school grades, the model shows that class sizes ideally will be in the range of 14-24 students per class. John Read has appropriate-sized classes with an average of 18 students per class in the fifth grade, 21 in the sixth grade, 18 in the seventh grade, and 20 in eighth grade.
Question 4: Do you support changing school start times to enable high school students to start school at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: The evidence is clear. According to the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, students who don’t get enough sleep have an increased risk of depression, obesity, and a higher risk of being in a car accident, as well as decreased test scores. Their recommendation is start times for high school no earlier than 8:30. Moreover, a study from the Rand Corporation revealed that later start times for high schools could increase the US economy by 83 billion dollars over the next ten years, as graduation rates increase. I enthusiastically support this change in Redding.
Question 5: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: As a homeowner, I believe it is vital that Redding remain in DRG A. The DRG is determined by the socioeconomic status of students in the town. One need only look at the current real estate listings in Redding to see that homes at the higher end of the market simply aren’t selling as quickly as those at the lower end. If we want to remain DRG A, the real issue facing us is the development of Georgetown, which in its current form is a gaping hole in our tax base and in our community. A unique and vibrant development on that site will not only increase the funding to the town, it will make Redding a more desirable place to live, increasing property values and bringing new high-income families to Redding, which will in turn benefit our schools.
Question 6: What are three things you want to change as a member of the Redding Board of Education?
Answer: When I joined the Board of Education in February, I had two goals in mind. The first was to protect the quality of arts and music education in our schools. About four years ago the Board voted not to replace the retiring band teacher at John Read, and the students have suffered for that decision. We need to maintain the robust music program at the elementary school, and ensure the same quality of education continues at the middle school. Many parents have expressed concern in this area to me, and even people who advocate for reduced budgets have said they don’t wish to do so at the expense of our music program.
The second thing I wanted to address was the importance of how policies at the schools have a direct day-to-day effect on our students’ lives. One example of this was the dress code at JRMS. As worded, the dress code unfairly targeted female students. At the September meeting of the Board of Education I presented this issue, explaining how the policy was detrimental, citing evidence from a University of Richmond School of Law paper entitled Sexualization, Sex Discrimination, and Public School Dress Codes. I solicited the Board to join me in asking the administration to draft a gender-neutral dress code, which they did. This new policy was then presented at the October meeting for a first reading. These are the kind of changes that can be made which improve the quality of life for students, and have no reliance on budgets.
Thirdly I would like to focus more of the attention of the Board onto what will actually benefit the students. Far too much of our time and conversation is budget-oriented. We are preparing students for jobs that do not yet exist. We need to think creatively about how to organize our schools to prepare students for this uncertain future.
Question 7: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: The relationship between the Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained for several reasons. Certainly the lack of spending oversight we saw a few years ago is a major contributor. This error has been investigated, and the failure in procedure that allowed it to happen has been corrected. A second factor is trust. If the Board of Education continues to insist that if we cut any money from the budget, we will lose much loved programming like Project Adventure, meanwhile ending the year with over $800,000 in unspent funds, the Board of Education will lose credibility. There is no reason to have unfilled staff positions, such as custodial staff at the elementary school, or middle school library positions, when we have the money to hire those people. Many savings are unpredictable, just as are many costs, and savings are good! But the Board of Education needs to do a better job of responsibly spending the money allocated to us by the Board of Finance and the taxpayers, and re-establish trust between the two boards.
Question 8: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and our school budget?
Answer: It is the obligation of the town to provide high-quality education and valuable enrichment programming to our young people. This obligation is naturally not without limits. At the presentation of the budgets to the town, many people offered that they would not mind an increase in taxes if it meant more funding to the schools- and not just parents! What Redding really needs is an active booster club, like we used to have with the Redding Education Fund, where people who can and want to better support the schools, have an opportunity to do so, without placing added burden onto taxpayers who are unable to manage a tax increase. I myself have raised funds to support the theater program at John Read Middle School with the help of our generous community, and I’m sure many people would welcome the opportunity to support valuable programs and activities as well.
Question 9: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our schools, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: The economic health of our town is precarious. The most important issue facing Redding today is the development of Georgetown. We need to increase our tax base so that it’s not entirely dependent on single families. If Georgetown were developed into something exciting and unique, it would attract new families and businesses to Redding, thereby increasing property values, raising the finances of the town, and increasing enrollment in our schools.
Question 10: What is your perspective on the use of standardized testing in grades K through 8?
Answer: Standardized testing is useful only to the state in determining school ranking, and as that metric influences the perception of a school’s value, and the value of the town in general, we can’t ignore them. However, standardized tests discriminate against non-English speaking students, and students with special needs, and are completely without value in determining a student’s ability to think creatively, to make interdisciplinary connections, and to view their ideas in regard to how they relate to the global community.
Question 11: Each year as the budget is considered, favored programs such as Project Adventure, the music program, and enrichment are often considered for cuts. What is your perspective on these programs? And would you consider cutting them, and why or why not?
Answer: The threat to music education, to arts programming, to Project Adventure is exactly why I accepted the nomination to fill a vacancy on the Redding Board. As someone who has made a career in the arts, I know firsthand that this programming is not only vital to overall student enrichment, as well as important in increasing fluency in math and language, but it can also be the pathway to a career. Put simply, if we are not including the arts in educating our kids, we are not educating our kids. I like to think that we may have the next Elon Musk among the students at RES, but we likewise might have the next Lin-Manuel Miranda, and we have to provide for both.
Question 1: Do you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If so, do you believe that per-pupil education costs should be raised or reduced, and by what amount? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: Cost-per-pupil is a red herring. As I discuss at length in blog posts at parkin2017.com/blog (part 1, part 2), cost-per-pupil serves a valuable function when it comes to calculating reimbursements rates under a variety of state statutes but is a terrible proxy for actual cost of education. Among other shortcomings, cost-per-pupil fails to control for fixed costs such as building maintenance and heating costs, which will exist whether there are 1,000 students in our buildings or 600. Because the simple cost-per-pupil ratio doesn’t control for these costs, the share of fixed cost “per pupil” increases as enrollment declines. This in no way proves we are spending more on the actual education of these students. It simply shows that there are fewer kids amongst whom to distribute the cost of keeping the lights on.
Cost-per-pupil is often bandied about to compare districts and suggest that we’re doing something wrong in Redding because education costs more per pupil here than in other towns. This conclusion is unsupported when the cost-per-pupil metric is scrutinized. For one, there is no uniformity in how towns allocate expenses between school and municipal budgets. For example, towns vary in whether they budget for things like schools security in school or municipal budgets. I encourage everyone to think about what cost-per-pupil means, and more importantly, what it doesn’t mean before using it as a crutch for assessing budgets. For much more, read my blog entries on the topic.
I would prefer to use a goal-oriented approach to test budget requests as outlined below and on my platform at Parkin2017.com/platform.
Question 2: Do you believe the Redding school budget adequately funds professional development? Why or why not?
Answer: I believe we should do everything we can to best support our teachers and provide the level of professional development they need to adapt to changing pedagogical methods and norm. However, I’ve been frustrated by the lack of transparency in the professional development context. When approving PD expenses, the board should know the purpose of proposed PD opportunities, who will attend, what the expectations will be for the attendee(s) when they return, and how will the impact be measured.
I would like to see a three-year PD plan for the district outlining where the focus will be over time and how we will measure results to ensure our investment is reaping rewards within the classroom. Without such a plan, I can’t say whether we adequately fund PD or not. A recent presentation by Dr. McMorran suggested we spend considerably less on PD than our peer schools. Perhaps that’s a missed opportunity or perhaps it’s an appropriate level due to the experience of our staff. Without ever measuring the effectiveness of these opportunities though, how can we really say whether or not it’s appropriate?
New RES Principal, Natalie Hammond, made an astute observation at the October BOE meeting: the single best source of PD is within our building right now. We should be doing more to lean on our faculty and learn from their successes in the context of PD. We’re often reminded that our faculty cost is among the highest in the state due to its exceptional longevity. Let’s leverage that experience by building an in-house PD program that allows our faculty to learn from each other in a thoughtful way that will have measurable returns in the classroom.
Question 3: Do you believe current class sizes are appropriate? Why or why not?
Answer: This is a question that requires a grade-by-grade opinion. In recent years, Kindergarten classes have averaged between 20 and 22 students. Keeping in mind that our kindergarten classes have only three (non-permanent) walls, making noise containment exceedingly difficult, and the body of research that suggests that low class sizes in the early years of education lead to better long term results overall, as well as diminished need for intervention and special education in later years, I’ve advocated lowering the average into the teens. I’m happy to say that current class sizes at RES range from 16.3 in first grade up to 21 in third grade, with kindergarten at 17.8. This is not unreasonable. However, I’m concerned that there are no policies in place to maintain reasonable class sizes in the future. I’ve long pushed for predictable standards for class size that would be based on the recommendation of educational professionals and subject to exception only for good cause in unusual circumstances.
We should be providing clear expectations for class size that not only guide the budget process but also send appropriate and fair signals to potential homebuyers. I’ve heard many stories of new families who moved to town on the promise of low class sizes only to feel blindsided when their children enter kindergarten classes of 22. That’s not acceptable to me.
Question 4: Do you support changing school start times to enable high school students to start school at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: The growing body of evidence is clear that adolescent sleep needs are negatively impacted by early morning school start time, including Barlow’s. With Ridgefield adjusting schools times starting in Fall 2019 and the ER9 bus contract going out to bid this winter, it is an opportune time to have a thorough discussion of this topic in our town. Change is difficult but we would be negligent to not consider the costs and benefits associated with changing start times in a thoughtful way. My inclination is to support a change to bring our schools more in line with the science that suggests better educational outcomes following changes in start times. But I would want to understand the full implications of such a decision, and have a clear proposal for executing such a change, before taking a firm position.
Question 5: Would you advocate that Redding stay in DRG A or would you advocate leaving and why?
Answer: As I said in the debate, Redding’s position in DRG A is, in my view, nearly nonnegotiable. While the DRG is, in part, a reflection of wealth, it is also a reflection of the value we place on education as a community. For nearly all of us, our homes are our number one financial asset. Remaining in the DRG A conversation is critical to maintaining home values. And it’s pretty easy to see why. Redding is on the outer limits of what many consider reasonable commuting distance to Manhattan, or even Stamford. Our schools are our number one asset. If the DRG line is drawn just to our south, Redding will stop being perceived as the northern end of exceptional schools and start being perceived as the southern end of good schools. And perception is often reality when it comes to the housing market.
Question 6: What are three things you want to change as a member of the Redding Board of Education?
Answer: There are three core pillars of my campaign that would be central to my efforts on the Board: long-range planning, goal-oriented budgeting, and improved communication and transparency.
A key component to successful stewardship of a school district is forward-looking thinking and developing a long-range plan. This is true regardless of enrollment forecasts. We must educate our students to navigate the world of the future, not the past. For too long,the district has operated without a cohesive vision. The result has been missed opportunities, lack of accountability, confusion, and financial waste.
A benefit of long-range policy planning is greater cost certainty. By setting measurable goals, and holding administrators accountable to track results, the district can both evolve and contain costs. Specifically, the costs of consultants, redundant technology, and underutilized subscriptions and equipment can be reduced or eliminated wherever they do not directly tie to a long-term goal.
Finally, Trust in government is born through transparency of government. Trust between our Boards of Education and Finance is at a low point. I would fight tirelessly to ensure that Board business is carried out in public view and that the Boards of Finance and Education maintained civil and transparent discussion at all times. We should also broaden the means by which the schools communicate with the community at large, so all of Redding can share in the pride of our schools and better enjoy the outcomes of their investment. This includes facilitating engagement between students and seniors, a process that can be enriching to all. Redding taxpayers deserve nothing less.
Question 7: Why do you think the relationship between Board of Education and the Board of Finance has become strained, and how would you go about fixing it?
Answer: The BOF and BOE are divided by a communication gap and a credibility gap. Too often, the two boards talk past each other rather than communicate with each other. They meet jointly no more than once or twice a year and their members rarely attend meetings of the other board, instead frequently relying on hearsay and spin to double down on preconceived animosity. This isn’t healthy. Trust must be built through honest communication. No more backroom deals. No more politics above policy. Actual discussion and respect for the different jobs the two bodies have is required. There is the potential for as many as four brand new BOE members and three brand new BOF members come December. There’s no better time to hit the reset button than now to restore communication and mutual respect.
But communication alone doesn’t fix the credibility gap. Too often the BOF has requested relatively basic information from the BOE to assess the budget and, remarkably, it’s been exceedingly difficult to get quickly, or at all. Last year, for example, the question of the actual health insurance reserve balance took weeks to resolve. That’s unacceptable and does nothing to improve the BOE’s credibility with the BOF, nor should it. Our BOE must be better informed and prepared to discuss the intracacies of its budget request and the BOF must be more respectful and collaborative rather than condescending and dictatorial, lest the downward spiral of relations will continue with new faces playing the same tired roles. The BOE is, and must act as, the subject matter expert on education policy. The BOF is not, and should not act as, a “super BOE”. That’s not its role.
Question 8: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and our school budget?
Answer: I believe in true fiscal responsibility. By that I mean actually ensuring every dollar is spent towards a particular end. I don’t subscribe to the notion that fiscal responsibility is a synonym for austerity. I would endeavor to adopt a long-range plan that can guide the budget process in a way that could provide spending and tax certainty for the near and intermediate term. Budgets should be goal-oriented and evidence tested to ensure that the investments we make are yielding returns we can be proud of. I do not favor change for the sake of change or education fads. I favor thoughtful discussion, pressure-tested proposals, and budgets that can be assessed against measurable goals. I strongly believe that this approach leads to greater efficiencies and more “bang for the buck” than current practice.
I would also be guided by a duty to integrity and transparency for two reasons: 1. It is absolutely the duty of a public official to act ethically at all times and diligently perform the tasks required of the job and 2. I believe that by being open and honest with the public we can not only limit whispers and suspicions about untoward dealings, but we can also engender shared pride in our schools and leverage that energy for optimal results. We have a great many very talented people in our community. The more they are engaged in the quality of our schools, the more we all benefit.
Question 9: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our schools, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: The quality of our schools is inextricably linked to the value of our homes. At the end of the day, Redding offers natural beauty, a first-class library, and schools. No one is moving here because of the library and there is beauty in many corners of neighboring towns. The value of our homes is limited to what someone else will pay for them. It doesn’t matter what an assessor thinks or what we once paid for them. It only matters what a buyer is willing to pay. Right now, they can buy the same 2,000 square foot colonial in Bethel for a substantial discount over what it costs in Redding. The primary reason for the difference is perceived quality of education and a reputation of excellence.
As a Board of Education, we can do little to influence to overall economic climate facing our town, state, or nation. Large swings in prosperity come and go and have sweeping ramifications that roll down to us much more so than anything we do here has the capacity to roll up. What we can control is the value we place on our schools and the investment we’re willing to make in them. We can choose to continue to treat education as a near-sacred mission of our town and continue to enjoy property value advantages over neighboring towns or we can concede ground in the never ending race to improve education, continue to cut spending, and winnow away our home value advantage along with it. The choices we make about our schools are choices we make about our homes too. We rise and fall together.
Question 10: What is your perspective on the use of standardized testing in grades K through 8?
Answer: Standardized tests, along with assessments such as the NWEA, are among the many tools to assess the educational achievement of one or a cohort of students and assess the merits of a particular curriculum or methodology. I do not support creating, or permitting to exist, a high stress test-focused environment. Our students should perform well on tests and show growth on assessments because they attain a mastery of fundamental material through effective teaching methods not because we “teach to the test” and spend hours preparing our students for every conceivable test taking advantage. Positive test scores should be the result of excellent education, not its purpose.
As a district that values the individual learner, the depth of data provided by assessments and testing can help identify deficits that may not otherwise be apparent and allow faculty to tailor lessons and interventions to individual or groups of students for whom a particular skill is challenging. The excellent SBA scores at RES are a testament to the dedication of faculty teams that work to identify these deficits at an early age and provide push in and pull out support to ensure students gain mastery of math and English literacy at a very high rate.
I value standardized testing as a tool that can improve teaching and identify strengths and weaknesses. I reject molding curriculum to focus on test taking skills or inducing unnecessary stress. Life has plenty of stress after 8th grade.
Question 11: Each year as the budget is considered, favored programs such as Project Adventure, the music program, and enrichment are often considered for cuts. What is your perspective on these programs? And would you consider cutting them, and why or why not?
Answer: It is a time-honored tradition in school budget season here and elsewhere for administrators to suggest that prized programs such as Project Adventure will be the first to go if their budgets are not approved in full. The effect is an appeal to the emotions of parents who will then fight for the budget to protect the prized program. This is an ugly, if universal, practice that I reject. Every year, the administration presents its budget for our schools and follows it quickly with a list of “what could be cut”. This does not, to me, seem productive. I’d rather look at the administration’s spending plan line by line, justifying expenses and explaining how the expense ties into student outcomes and overall goals of our district. To only consider that which the superintendent serves up for discussion is to fail to give appropriate scrutiny to the budget request. I would advocate for a more deliberate approach to budget review and not let waste time playing to emotion by threatening programs such as music and project adventure, which we all know aren’t going anywhere.
Question 1: Would you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: Cost per pupil can be a misleading metric because different districts include different items in their budgets. It is however, a measure that is often used in coverage of the budgets so it cannot be totally ignored and it’s important that board members be well informed. I would prefer to take a more holistic view of the budget, especially given that there are many factors (i.e. special education costs) that can vary widely from year to year and impact the total budget number greatly.
Question 2: Cutting teachers has affected the offering of electives. In the 2011-2012 school year, enrollment was at 1008, and 9% of students were put on the waitlist for electives. In the 2016-2017 school year, enrollment was at 952 and 39% of students were placed on the waitlist for electives. What is the importance of having a variety of accessible electives at Barlow? And as enrollment is projected to continue to decline, how will you address staffing levels and the offering of those electives?
Answer: As enrollment declines, we will need to be more creative in how we offer electives in order to ensure access to a broad range of courses to our future students. Dr. McMorran spoke eloquently on this subject at a recent meeting, and I feel confident that our administrators will make this a priority going forward and I will support them in this.
Question 3: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our high school, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: Good schools are why most of us purchased homes in Redding and we must continue to have schools that will attract new families. Barlow is an excellent high school and I am committed to keeping it that way. I’ve been proud of the work I’ve done over the past decade to support the addition of many new programs as well as capital projects at our lower schools and I hope to continue this as a member of the Region 9 Board.
Question 4: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and the school budget?
Answer: Both of our Boards of Education must provide the oversight needed to ensure that we are using every penny of our school funding responsibly and correctly. Recent mismanagement at central office has eroded trust from our community and we must rebuild that trust with careful management in order to ensure that we are able to fund our schools appropriately. New administrative leadership has us on the right path for this to happen.
Question 5: Should freshman sports be a permanent fixture at JBHS regardless of enrollment, and why or why not?
Answer: This will need to be decided on a team-by-team basis, depending on the number of athletes participating in a sport and the regional structure of that sport. Two years ago the football program discontinued its JV team because there were simply not enough players to roster three strong teams. Other sports may need to consolidate in similar ways, but how each sport does this will depend on regional competitors and other factors. Fortunately we have an excellent Athletic Director at Barlow and I am sure that any future consolidation will also be done in a thoughtful, student-centered way.
Question 6: The Region 9 Board has instituted a “pay to play” requirement at JBHS, where parents must pay the school certain sums if they wish for their child to play certain sports. In other sports, JBHS has eliminated transportation, leaving parents to arrange for transportation to competitions and/or practices. Do you support these arrangements? Why or why not?
Answer: In an ideal world we would not need participation fees for any clubs or athletics. However, given that we have participation fees for clubs and the school plays, I don’t think that the current fee for sports is unreasonable provided that there is always an exemption available in the case of financial hardship.
Question 7: Do you support changing the start time of JBHS to allow high school students to start at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: Of course! Everybody hates getting up in the dark every day and we all know that teenagers don’t get enough sleep. That said, there are a few barriers to changing the start time. The three schools in our town are geographically distant from each other which makes combining bus runs impractical. In order to give everyone an “ideal” start time we would have to greatly increase (in fact triple) our transportation spending which I don’t see as a realistic option. My other concern about a later start time is that it conflicts with after school athletics which has lead some districts to give scholar athletes early release so they can get to practices or games. I would need to be sure none of our students were losing academic time, as well as address the budget issues, before I could fully support implementing a change.
Please note the addendum at the bottom of this post, where Mr. Taylor addresses a series of questions later withdrawn from the questionnaire. Despite their withdrawal, we feel that his response deserves to be recorded.)
Question 1: Would you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: Cost per pupil is only one measure of the school budget and is only a guide as to the cost of providing educational services at the school. The cost of providing school services (instructional, materials, technology, staff, etc.) per pupil could be a better measure of effectiveness of the budget. That would remove the fixed operating costs that are student population independent.
Question 2: Cutting teachers has affected the offering of electives. In the 2011-2012 school year, enrollment was at 1008, and 9% of students were put on the waitlist for electives. In the 2016-2017 school year, enrollment was at 952 and 39% of students were placed on the waitlist for electives. What is the importance of having a variety of accessible electives at Barlow? And as enrollment is projected to continue to decline, how will you address staffing levels and the offering of those electives?
Answer: As population declines, there would be fewer students to opt for specific electives. Unfortunately, that would ultimately mean that some electives would have to be dropped if there were insufficient demand for them. A decision on the electives to keep or cut is never easy, but it needs to be prioritized by demand and scope of the programs.
Question 3: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our high school, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: Barlow provides excellent academic and other services to its student population and is a significant draw to the community that helps maintain home values. Same with the other Redding schools. The attractiveness of a rural community has significantly changed over the past years with more people choosing to live in more urbanized environments. Redding has always had the “problem” of being a dominantly residential community putting the burden of town services dominantly on the residential tax base. I was on Zoning for 30 years and Chair for 20. Several efforts during those years to expand the potential commercial areas in town were met with significant negative response from people attending public hearings. The draw to our town, other than its bucolic rural nature, has to be excellent schools at an affordable price and numerous opportunities for the town’s youth for extra curricular activities. The oft-floated ideas that Redding could ever have a significant commercial tax base are at best naïve. There is certainly some room for economic development and growth in Georgetown and along Route 7.
Question 4: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and the school budget?
Answer: Quality educational programs, diversity of offerings including sports, arts, etc. and quality teaching staff. A focus on maintaining Barlow as an excellent school while minimizing incremental tax burden growth on residents.
Question 5: Should freshman sports be a permanent fixture at JBHS regardless of enrollment, and why or why not?
Answer: The challenge with Freshman sports is knowing how many by which sport will enter in the Fall to plan for hiring coaches and finding coaches who may be interested in a position that only lasts as long as the particular season or coaches who can manage multiple sports. Focusing on giving freshmen an opportunity to compete on JV teams and ensuring they get the opportunity to play could be a vehicle for supporting lower demand sports. Treating JV teams as skills building and learning teams vs. purely competitive and ensuring all participants have an equal opportunity to can help to address the problem. As a parent and grandparent of individuals who were/are active in sports, I value the benefits of participation. When I was a softball coach at the Boys & Girls club – I made sure that every member of the team played in every game and during practice sessions, the more skilled players worked with the less skilled one on one. The end of game score was secondary to ensuring they all played and developed their skills.
Question 6: The Region 9 Board has instituted a “pay to play” requirement at JBHS, where parents must pay the school certain sums if they wish for their child to play certain sports. In other sports, JBHS has eliminated transportation, leaving parents to arrange for transportation to competitions and/or practices. Do you support these arrangements? Why or why not?
Answer: I view that it is reasonable for parents to bear some portion of the direct costs for participation in sports. I was on high school swim and ski teams – parents provided transportation to/from swim meets and practice/races for skiing. On occasions when meets required overnight stay – parents paid for motel/hotel rooms. One of the ski team parents who owned several sporting goods stores ensured every participant had equipment at his cost even after his son went on to college. One of the swim team parents who was a regional vice president of a major insurance company arranged for supplemental insurance to cover parents while providing transportation. It was a time when fewer families had both parents working, but team parents worked together to provide the necessary support.
Question 7: Do you support changing the start time of JBHS to allow high school students to start at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: Not yet. There have been numerous studies and research indicating that high school students need more sleep. Wilton has changed its schedule and Ridgefield plans to do so for the 2019-20 school year. Given the Barlow combines students from Redding and Easton – all three boards have to be in synch and address issues such as bus schedules/cost for both towns, after school programs and athletics at Barlow and the town schools, etc. It is taking Ridgefield two years to finalize their plans after several years of discussion and evaluating three optional plans and all of the issues are contained within one town. And, they took the decision over the lack of wide-ranging support from parents and students. This is not a simple decision to undertake or implement requiring three BoE’s to reach the same plan.
Addendum: The original questionnaire included a description of four votes that took place to determine the 2017-2018 budget for JBHS, with majority consensus achieved on the fourth and final vote. For each of these votes, the candidate was asked whether he or she would have voted ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and why. As noted above, these questions were later withdrawn, but Mr. Taylor submitted a general response to that series of questions, which we give here.
Thanks for the opportunity to respond.
Question 1: Would you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: The cost-per-pupil metric gives the impression that it can be used to measure comparability across towns. However, the reality is that this metric doesn’t distinguish between fixed and variable costs, which actually vary across towns. Instead of focusing on this metric, as a Region 9 board member, I propose that Barlow, as well as RES and JRMS, develop a 5-year education plan. For Barlow, that plan would be measured by relevant metrics (e.g. SAT/ACT scores, % of college attendance, academic course offerings, expected enrollment, GPA, participation in arts, music, athletic programs). The education plan would be open to public comment, and perhaps voter balloting, before finalization. The education plan would be the basis for a multi-year budget, for which certain costs (e.g. staff contracts, busing, facilities) are known. Estimates would have to be made for other cost items (e.g. snow removal). At the start of an annual budget cycle, year 1 of the multi-year budget would be compared to the proposed budget for the current year. Differences must be explained and open to public comment. The resulting review and discussion would form the basis for the final budget for ballot in year 2. Any changes to the education plan that result from the annual budget would be open again for public comment. Year 2 of the revised education plan would then be used for the year 2 budget and so forth.
Question 2: Cutting teachers has affected the offering of electives. In the 2011-2012 school year, enrollment was at 1008, and 9% of students were put on the waitlist for electives. In the 2016-2017 school year, enrollment was at 952 and 39% of students were placed on the waitlist for electives. What is the importance of having a variety of accessible electives at Barlow? And as enrollment is projected to continue to decline, how will you address staffing levels and the offering of those electives?
Answer: Education places all people on an equal footing. Education gives each person the opportunity to achieve their goals and meet their aspirations. There are all types of education. Science, math and trade teaches us how and why things work in a certain way. Social sciences teach us what happened in the past, why people act they way they do so that we can better understand the present and apply learnings to the future. Language arts teaches us how to communicate. Literature, music and arts provide insight toward how we feel and express ourselves. Athletics and clubs teach us how to effectively work with others to achieve a common goal. Together, all of these components form a holistic education that teach us how to be better people, make the right choices/respond bravely in the face of adversity, contribute to society, and perhaps even be leaders in society. I believe Barlow’s program supports a comprehensive education and want to continue this by offering electives. The types of electives to be offered would be addressed in the 5-year education plan referenced previously. For example, the 5-year plan would evaluate the enrollment and academic results and interests of current JRMS students entering Barlow in future years. The plan would contemplate expected changes in educational standards, expertise of the staff, future course curriculum and materials and ensure electives offerings match the future needs. Conversely, if there is no interest or need for a particular elective due to lower enrollment, refreshing the 5-year plan annually would permit Barlow to be flexible without sacrificing either the quality or diversity of electives.
Question 3: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our high school, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: I have had the pleasure to meet and speak with many Redding residents over the last couple of months. I’ve spoken with newcomers and long-time residents, women and men, people of different ages, some with kids or grandkids and some without kids. I’ve also spoken with Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters. The one common belief is that all with whom I spoke support a good education. Many who live here came here for the schools. My husband and I were among those who wanted the best public education available for our children and the outstanding reputation of Barlow is one of the main reasons we live in Redding. The high quality is reflected in our property values. In order to maintain the high quality and property values, Redding and its government must be able to ensure our resources are invested appropriately in education and focus on initiatives that lead to growth in the tax base. As a Region 9 board member, I propose to address this for Barlow with the 5-year education plan addressed earlier.
Question 4: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and the school budget?
Answer: As mentioned, many who live here came here for the schools. The high quality is reflected in our property values. As a Region 9 member, I would have the responsibility to maintain the high quality of Barlow while acting as a steward to ensure resources as approved by taxpayers are invested appropriately. I plan to work more closely with the Redding Board of Education to ensure our students have an excellent education from K-12 and want to focus on ensuring a seamless transition from the middle school to the high school. I would like to work as a team all town leaders (Redding and Easton leaders on Region 9, Redding Board of Ed, BoF, Selectman, etc., as applicable) to develop reasonable and effective education budgets, while maintaining transparency, inclusiveness, and constructive debate. Finally, I will support a community that, as I do, welcomes all points of view, with collaboration and dialogue from all Redding residents.
Question 5: Should freshman sports be a permanent fixture at JBHS regardless of enrollment, and why or why not?
Answer: As mentioned earlier, athletics and clubs teach us how to effectively work with others to achieve a common goal. Freshman sports specifically provides an opportunity for athletes to further enhance their skills, transition to a more competitive environment, and could lead to scholarships for higher education. As it relates to enrollment, Freshman sports offerings would be addressed in the 5-year educational plan referenced earlier.
Question 6: The Region 9 Board has instituted a “pay to play” requirement at JBHS, where parents must pay the school certain sums if they wish for their child to play certain sports. In other sports, JBHS has eliminated transportation, leaving parents to arrange for transportation to competitions and/or practices. Do you support these arrangements? Why or why not?
Answer: I propose a comprehensive education as mentioned previously. Ideally, I would prefer athletics (as well as arts, music, extracurricular activities) be funded by the budget. The reality, however, is that the athletic and extracurricular fees, as well as the voluntary booster fees collected by each sport, are are already subsidizing the cost of such programs. So, if faced with cutting programs, I would support solutions that will allow Barlow to continue delivering broad programming. If pay-to-play continues to be the preferred funding option, there are some improvements that could be made to ensure any pay-to-play requirements are applied fairly across all sports for all genders. For example, I believe any pay-to-play fees collected should be applied to the activity for which it collected rather than being applied to the general budget.
Question 7. Do you support changing the start time of JBHS to allow high school students to start at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: Start times of JBHS are contingent on the busing schedules, which in turns affect the start times of all Redding and Easton schools. The ER9 schools evaluated changing the school start times a few years back but for a host of various reasons decided to keep the start times as is. That said, if the school communities of both Redding and Easton would like ER9 to currently revaluate the start times for JBHS, I am open to it. The effort to reevaluate should be a collaborative one among the ER9 administration, Region 9 Board of Education, and the Redding and Easton Boards of Education to ensure a positive outcome for the most number of studentsQuestion 1: Would you support the use of a cost-per-pupil methodology to determine the school budget and why? If not, what other methodology would guide how you determine an appropriate annual budget?
Answer: Cost per pupil is just one metric, and there are many other factors that go into this as it is merely a guide as to the cost of delivering services at Barlow.
Question 2: Cutting teachers has affected the offering of electives. In the 2011-2012 school year, enrollment was at 1008, and 9% of students were put on the waitlist for electives. In the 2016-2017 school year, enrollment was at 952 and 39% of students were placed on the waitlist for electives. What is the importance of having a variety of accessible electives at Barlow? And as enrollment is projected to continue to decline, how will you address staffing levels and the offering of those electives?
Answer: Tough choices will have to made in this regard as declining enrollment will simply reduce certain class sizes and specific elective enrollments per semester. Triaging each elective as to level of importance or demand could be a necessary evil until enrollments inch back upward. We all recognize these electives assist our students in personal growth, but there will always be some give and take in this regard. One other note on this, with the massive skills gap this country currently faces, perhaps with more classroom space available, a dual certified teacher could return a bit of old school shop class from back in the day. Teach the basics of how an engine works, the essentials of good carpentry, or basic plumbing. Yes Abbott tech is in the area, but introducing these skills to Barlow Students couldn’t hurt.
Question 3: What is your perspective regarding the quality of our high school, the value of our homes, and the economic health of our town?
Answer: This really comes down to no commercial tax base in Redding. My wife and I moved here primarily for the schools and to get closer to my parents who live in Wilton. Both of my children have and continue to receive an excellent education at Barlow, albeit with two very different experiences. While the lush greens and trees are attractive to out of towners, we do need to attempt to find commercial tax base opportunities in town.
Question 4: What are the values that will guide you as you balance taxes and the school budget?
Answer: I would support continually being able to offer quality educational programs, and attempt as best as possible to retain the music and arts as both of those subjects have helped shape who I am, as well as my son.
Question 5: Should freshman sports be a permanent fixture at JBHS regardless of enrollment, and why or why not?
Answer: Well in a perfect world sure...,but if the declining enrollment is such that these teams or lack of talent pools are spread so thin that they both suffer, than there may be a time in which certain teams are combined. I would like to think this would be a last resort as my son certainly benefited greatly from his Freshman swim team, and he still swims today at Susquehanna.
Question 6: The Region 9 Board has instituted a “pay to play” requirement at JBHS, where parents must pay the school certain sums if they wish for their child to play certain sports. In other sports, JBHS has eliminated transportation, leaving parents to arrange for transportation to competitions and/or practices. Do you support these arrangements? Why or why not?
Answer: This question was asked in the debate and is a tough one for me as my son did benefit from the transport from Barlow to West Conn for the use of the pool. However, my daughter cheers for a travel cheer team in Norwalk, and we (or she) has to provide her own transportation at her own cost. I suppose that parents will realize what sports their children are good at, and if that choice is to participate in an activity that requires some extra cost or transportation, then just as we did, they will find a way to do it.
Question 7: Do you support changing the start time of JBHS to allow high school students to start at a later time? Why or why not?
Answer: While the research shows that young brains and body development would benefit from an extra hour of sleep, pragmatically this is difficult as sports, employment, busses, etc. extend the already long day. I think also parents would have a tough time supporting this as these kids get home so late as it is that the homework load at the end of the evening is daunting enough.