 Good evening. I am your moderator tonight and my name is Kerobo Webster and I'm welcoming you to the ongoing town meeting day election coverage by town meeting television and This is one of a series forums. We are bringing to you in advance of town meeting day on Tuesday, March 7th, 2023 Town meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and covers all ballot items that you will see on your ballot Town meeting TV forums introduce you to the community The community decision makers and connect you with issues that shape your local community If you're tuning in live, we welcome your questions at 802-862-3966 That's 802-862-3966 Watch town meeting TV on Comcast channel one zero eight seven Barrington telecom channel seventeen and two one seven as well as online YouTube comm slash town meeting TV without further ado. I'm going to welcome our candidate for tonight Tom Flanagan who is the Barrington superintendent and welcome. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me It's great to be here with you this evening We always appreciate the opportunity to talk to the people of Barrington and the surrounding area about our schools and about Currently the the budget we're headed into the budget season and the voters in Barrington We'll see a question about question about the fiscal year 24 budget and it's really important to us that are our The people who support us and who we serve Understand and have all the information they need to know how to vote on that day and to really understand our budget and on our process And so I'll talk through a little bit of that today. Yes. We're excited to hear your proposal. Okay sounds good Alright, so we are Start there are a number of assumptions that go into our budget and the way that we Design the budget and this year. We're really being mindful overall of spending. We know that We have to always be mindful of spending and we also need particularly now over the past couple years It it's been challenging for many people in our community And so we and we just passed a school the voters of Barrington citizens of Barrington voted 76% in favor of a school Bond questions so that we can build a new high school We're incredibly grateful for the great and overwhelming support there And we know we need to be mindful of our spending and our annual budgets moving forward So we're really being mindful of spending but also wanting to keep the programming robust Our schools are really important for for our community and for our children And we need to keep robust and great programs for them I have three kids in our schools right now. We do great work in our schools And you know, we need to keep that that going while while balancing being mindful of our spending And so you'll see that happening throughout here The other big theme in our budgeting is that we are working to drive more decision making to schools and to school communities While also creating consistency and transparency in budgets to to each at each school So we're working to strike that balance And so some of the budgetary assumptions this year are that wages are going to increase We settled a number of contracts this year with our union partners where we had good great working relationships there And and we've settled in a range that's comparable across districts in our region At around 6% increases in wages Benefits also increase Benefits are statewide Bargain statewide and so we will be We will see an increase in benefits So those are just annual costs that go into running a school district every year That increase every year and so we have to budget for that In addition to that we have American Rescue Plan funds which we've been calling ESSER funds And those American Rescue Plan funds are Are have been supporting many of our new initiatives But they phase out after next fiscal year So we have to be mindful and think long term about the impact of The some of the activities that we've been able to do with those funds And think about how we build those in annually So just take a little bit more about those activities that Sure we this year put a one point five million dollars over the past two years Into a literacy curriculum for our students grades kindergarten through five So across all six of our elementary schools We are utilizing new curricular materials That have both scope and sequence for students That includes thematic units and new texts and books that students are engaging With across their class and also systematic phonics instruction That really teaches students how to read We know from lots of research about reading That we have to use systematic phonics instruction We have to really teach students how to blend letters How to blend sounds how to really how to read If they're if they're going to be able to read Read really well and reading is so critical and so important And so foundational to all the other work It is really an equity imperative for us We are committed to anti-racist teaching practices And the equity work that we are that our community Wants us to do in this district in this city And reading and high quality literacy instruction is a core of that work And so especially for non-English speakers Exactly, yes, and so we've got to be very intentional about how we do that So that's one of the things I'm most excited about that we have in the plan We also were able to set aside 10 million dollars Of the American Rescue Plan funds to go toward the building of the new high school So that really helps there They also helped us get meals to families in the beginning to get technology So our students could access remote learning in the very beginning So that the American Rescue Plan funds have really helped us over the past three years Do a whole lot of programming that we wouldn't have otherwise been able to do Exactly Yeah Okay, thank you So those are the big assumptions And then the thing that we need to be mindful of and we're leading with this Because we have a new budgeting model An equitable budgeting model And the core of that model is based on enrollment We have to make sure our staffing and our budgets at schools are aligned to our overall enrollment And our enrollment trends have been declining over the past 10 years Why is that? Well, I think there are a number of things that lead to declining enrollment I know that our schools are great schools that families in Burlington want to send their students to I know that's true for me and for many, many people I know and hear from in our community And I think overall we have an aging population in Burlington And we're working as a city I know the mayor and the city is doing a lot of work to build housing infrastructure I think we need more housing We need our city to be affordable for families to be able to move here with school-aged children And so I think those are two of the big things Those disparities always play out on how other things affect the enrollment history Absolutely Right, and the trends And the one thing that you're not seeing on this slide here is our pre-K enrollment So we're very proud now that we have pre-K programs, pre-K classrooms for students who are four years old Some three-year-olds and many of them are full-day programs We have those in all of our schools now We used to have them in a couple of schools and now we have them in all six of our elementary schools And multiple programs in many of our schools So we're very excited about the pre-K because if we believe too that that will help enrollment If we bring students in at pre-K And we have really great pre-K programming in our school district That that will bring families in and will keep families here because they'll see how great our schools are Exactly But currently we're seeing sort of The elementary enrollment is the enrollment that's that has been declining Our secondary enrollment is is is staying relatively stable But has gone down a bit over since 2015 as you can see And so we just have to make sure that we've aligned our staffing to our enrollment While we also work to build enrollment That's a that's a big and important part of our work is to make sure our schools have a robust enrollment And so I just mentioned a little bit ago This is the second year of an equitable budgeting model that we developed that Created it's based on research And input from the community. So we've researched what good budgeting models look like in schools And we also surveyed our community and we heard from 400 over 400 respondents across all of our Demographics all of our people in burlington were well represented And what they told us Overwhelmingly was that they want to see resources go toward Go toward the schools towards what's happening in the schools And they want the resources to go towards the students who need them the most Even if that means that That a school may may not get as many resources if they don't have as high a level of need Well, who are those vulnerable groups that need them the most? Well, we use there's a weighted pupil weighted student funding Study that was done recently and those provided and they what they told the state That weighted the state commissioned a weighted study to see how they how the state was funding And if funding was equitable across the state and they found that it was not equitable across the state they found that districts with with higher levels of Higher poverty levels higher levels of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch Who receives special education services and who receive english? multilingual learner services have Have Don't benefit from the funding model as much as wealthier districts do And so our school board Advocated so hard in montpelier last year to get to fix that And they Accepted the change in the funding formula. And so that's gonna that's gonna help us in the future. Yeah, that's good news Yeah, and we're using that funding The per pupil study that was done the weighted pupil study that was done is what they call it We're using that model to determine where the where Student need is and where the the resources and funding should go So we're both advocating and have received The the guarantee that we're gonna get that funding support in next fiscal year not that not the one that i'm talking about now But the next year That will start to we'll start to see that in fiscal year 25 But we're also using it now in our internal budgeting. Yeah, it will be interesting to see how it plays out And what you'll be talking about next year. Yes, it will be it will be and there are a lot I'll say it a little later in the presentation But there are a lot of different pressures coming in all different from all different angles, right? But it was really great to see our community Our community's feedback was clear that their value Are putting our resources toward our students who need it the most and that's something that I had heard And was excited about in coming to brillington two and a half years ago And then they showed that and and kind of the feedback we received Um and so this equitable budgeting model also provides a foundational level Uh provides a foundational level of support for um for schools, which is a staffing and and and monetary allocation based on enrollment for every for every school and then a rise allocation Which gives funds to schools based on their weighted pupil Based on their level of need and allows schools give schools the opportunity to make those decisions on school advisory groups And so that that's A brief history of the equitable budgeting model and this slide just shows you how that's broken up So the baseline staffing model is based on ratios. How many students to teachers and we have a good Student to teacher ratio. It's about 17 or 18 to 1 Managed to sorry to interrupt you to retain your teachers We are doing everything we can to retain our teachers. Uh, we did have it's been a it's been a disruptive time In the teaching um profession over the pandemic And after so we have had a number of retirements over the past couple of years But we do have a stable and strong excellent teaching uh group of educators Um, I'm I'm really impressed with our teachers and our educators Every time I'm in classrooms. We we all Myself definitely included we all have work to do to get better Um, but I've found our our teachers are very skilled and that's compared to a couple of other Cities that I've been in and many other schools. I've seen so I'm really I feel good about our teacher core Um, and so we we have that staffing model That's based on sort of ratios and numbers of students and numbers of educators Then we also have the non personnel funds and those are just funds that help schools purchase The the stuff that they need to operate on a daily basis like paper and ink and those types of things. Yes um And then we have an equity allocation, which is called, uh, it's it's we call it the rise allocation Stands for recognizing injustice and seeking equity And that uses that weighted student formula and school advisory groups come together to and this is the We're only in the second year of doing that. So we're getting better at this To make decisions about how best to utilize those those funds So really driving decision making to to the schools For this rise allocation as much as possible Our school board gave us guidance on what they would like to see We our school board has to approve the budget that we propose and they Participate in that process with us. They helped us develop the equitable budgeting model. They have a wonderful school board Um, and and they gave us clear guidance and that was really five things to recognize That our staffing levels need to be responsive to enrollment Our staffing has to has to go up or down with our with our enrollment that we need to limit budget growth Because we've got a big building On a bond that that's that's headed our way And actually shows up in this budget. You'll see a little later They wanted us to ensure funding meets our strategic plan objectives. We have a new strategic plan We're in the first year of a of a co-created strategic plan that we developed with with Many people from our community And and what they want to make sure that we we put put fund put resources aside to Achieve that that strategic plan and those objectives They want us to make sure we continue to offer robust programming World languages arts and music those are things that are critical to a well-rounded education And they want to make sure that we speak a little about about that. Yeah Yeah, the the arts um and our our extra curricular activities all the things that we do in our schools That really wrap around that core literacy work or the core math work or the core Learning that students are are doing really helps Engage students and bring students into into our schools and so we have world languages. We have a couple We have two magnet schools sustainability academy and integrated arts academy that have specific focuses in foci in those areas And um, yeah, we're committed to making sure that students have have regular access to the arts to music To world languages and and that's a critical part of what makes our schools what they are. Yeah, I was um What sparked my curiosity is when you say world languages, of course I have my bias because I'm from Kenya and we you know, we have a bunch of languages that we speak there And we have a lot of refugee families that Now live here who come in to the country That and they're not and english is not their first language. So I'm just wondering if you have any teachers that Speak their language to help enhance Uh, their ability to speak english at a faster rate or yes, it would be Wonderful if the teachers also learned how to speak languages of the communities that come here So that they are best able to service That need so is it something that you're considering when you speak world languages? And we're doing some of it now. Um, we have we have some some, uh We have we offer spanish and and french um and and mandarin at the high school But we all and we also have um multilingual Uh teachers and multilingual liaisons who's multilingual liaisons mostly help Students and families the multilingual or ell is traditionally what it has been called We've changed the name to multilingual teachers and multilingual learners Because many of our community They're they may be learning english, but many of them know A bunch of different languages, right? I had a meeting with our multilingual liaisons last two weeks ago And they were talking about their languages and who they supported And I said I only I unfortunately I only speak english and one of them said I know you're you know, we'll we'll teach you So but we also have heritage language that we offer heritage language courses That we're offering and supports that we're offering offering in the middle schools and then after school And so we do have we do have a group of students and adults learning swahili And a bunch of other languages after after school. So it's something that You know, we're really committed to and want to want to continue to build and grow That's wonderful because you know the loss of language is something that we And not just language, but also heritage and culture. It's very important to Preserve that yes and While they're integrating into a new community that they should also be able to fail Connected to The other part the other side of the coin. So I'm so I'm so happy to hear that you are supporting that Yeah, I think yeah, we have to be really intentional too about the programs But just the way that we affirm the the cultural heritage of our of our families And there are so many different ways that we can do that do that, right? And I think that's A lot of what we're learning as as educators and as adults on how to create a community that that Does that So those are the big that's the guidance From from our school board and we appreciate their their guidance there So I talked a bit about the staffing allocations The big picture is that we we are working to get our baseline our our kind of core staffing In a place that's consistent and predictable right and is aligned to enrollment And so that is not exactly where we have been And so we're working and being very disciplined to to get there because that's also equity Equal is not equitable But if if certain communities are getting certain things based on advocacy alone You end up with inequities. So part of the model is to have clear transparent Um a clear and transparent staffing model And that's that's part that's that's what we've done With our with our budgeting model But then we in addition to that have added those rise that rise allocation That allows school communities to make decisions about what they need best And so I'll go through what some of those are but many of those are driving directly toward Educators and and direct supports to students and in schools. Absolutely So overall Because enrollment is declining. We did have to make some reductions to us to some positions We're working to do this over time so that it is not a big disruption to our system Or to any individual people in our system any of our educators And so overall the net reductions Are about seven full-time educators Um in the base allocation But some of those positions that have been picked up by the school communities in their rise allocation And and also we are really working with natural attrition with people retiring and moving on We work hard and we did this the last two years to make sure that our educators Stay with us in burlington. We've done a lot of professional learning. We're a community And we want to keep our our people and so and treat them well and so That's that's one of the things that we're really working hard to do even though we have to make some reductions Which is always hard We're working with our individual educators who in schools who may be impacted to to look out for each individual person So I talked a bit about the rise allocation, but it's almost a million Five almost 1.5 million of the overall budget Is is going directly to schools and school advisory groups to make decisions about what They need the most And principles are in the process of finalizing those and some of the things that are happening in those rise allocations Are you see interventionists sort of across the board k through eight special educators professional learning services a lot of mental health services and And and many many other things unified arts coaching So you see different school communities making making different decisions about what they feel like they need The most but you also see some overlap in in in the rise allocations And and so kind of moving on to to where we are we do have a fund balance So every year in a 100 million dollar budget or so A certain small percentage of that Is is carries over and and and is a surplus and so we've been able to use that surplus Which is one time money to put that back into into Reducing taxes and improving services and that's that continues to to be our plan We've done that over the past couple of years And here's where you get to sort of the numbers you can see the tax estimates The what leads to the to the to the tax impact And so these are it's education spending and equalized pupil count the homestead dollar yield And the common level appraisal these these four kind of combined together To create the tax impact and so the overall tax impact In the budget that we're asking voters to consider On town meeting day is a includes a 4.03 percent property tax increase On people whose homes are valued at three hundred and seventy thousand dollars That's a typical number we use to do the tax To to calculate the tax impact This is a modest tax impact Given that we had the the six percent The the the six percent increase generally in wages And the and and the other Increase costs of just doing business year over year So we've worked to reduce that as much as possible and kind of get below the overall Increases in our tax increase And so you can see here I talked through the first two of these what leads to the budget increase The third are wages and benefits the third thing which I didn't mention Is that about 68 percent of this 4.03 percent? Is that we are starting the the borrowing On bhs and btc on the school building that we're Preparing to build For the new high school and technical center. So that's over well over half of the of the increase that we're proposing And so the ballot language that that voters will see is is here And it's there's a lot of language on the ballot And so voters will see but essentially the the last sentence is that spending at this level could produce a tax A property tax rate increase of 4.03 percent Looking ahead There's a lot In terms of the budget there's a lot in the future that we have to consider and think about We're not just budgeting for year over year. We're budgeting Knowing and thinking and planning for those things that will impact our budget in the long in the long haul And so those are that the american rescue plan funds They will go away So we have to think about how we continue to support or what we do with the activities around some of those things that we were doing Like our restorative justice specialists are Our support for school principals our expanded summer programming And some of our multilingual support positions We're hopeful that we'll be able to pick some of these up Through the change in the weighted pupil That will bring more more funding to the to the district And um And then the the other thing is that title one every year we receive funds Um title one funds those tend to stay flat our costs go up So we have to be careful about that So we have these two things that we're worried about moving forward But then on the flip side this new weighted pupil the legislator In Montpelier the new legislation Directs the state to develop an Or to implement a new funding and more equitable funding model That shows that burlington and other districts like wanouski and some rural districts that have been historically underfunded Are are are funded appropriately and so we know that that will provide Some balance. We don't know exactly how that will impact us down the line And so with that That's our budget Thank you so much for giving us a summary of a very detailed Summary, um, just wondering if there are any callers for tonight. Again, the number to call is 802 862 3966 It's 802 862 3966 This year our town meeting tv will be added Question is it's going to add a question text on the screen graphics and it's going to provide Viewers to be able to choose what they want to ask their Their candidates and so please feel free to call us. We are Standing by for your call. It's 802 862 3966 Thank you so much for tuning in to town meeting tv And it's the ongoing coverage of local candidates and local budget and ballot items and you can find this and more forums on www.ch17.tv And please don't forget to vote It's on or before march 7th. The ballots are not mailed automatically So please check with your local clerk to request a ballot to make sure to get to the polls on march 7th Thank you so much for watching and sharing town meeting tv If you're able or not Already, please Subscribe to tv meeting tv youtube channel And without further ado, we want to say thank you so much for joining us tonight. I am your moderator kirubo webster Thank you