Board of Finance: District 20 Shortfall Likely to Trigger Goshen Mill Rate Hike
01/22/25
Attendance: Chair Allan Walker (Zoom), Vice Chair Ned Bixler, members Bob Valentine, Paul Collins, Scott Tillman, Patrick Reilly. Absent were Jim Korner and Russell Murdock.
Acting Superintendent for Region 20 schools Kristen Della Volpe and the district’s financial consultant, Thomas Ariola, took questions from the board. Board Member Bob Valentine said school officials and the Region 20 School Board needed to communicate better, and was concerned the schools are spending money voters did not approve.
“One of the things that's frustrating for me as a member of the Board of Finance,” Valentine said, “is it appears that Region 6 and also Region 20 spent monies that were not appropriated at all. And that Region 20 continues to spend monies that were not appropriated. We have a budgeting process that's statutory.”
“For us,” Valentine continued, “we're having discussions at our last meeting, is the district, whether it's region 6 or region 20, going to hold a referendum to get the approval for the money that you're actually spending without approval from the townspeople in all four of our towns, in all three in Region 6. Are you going to do that? And if so, when?”
“And that's where we as a Board of Finance need to decide,” Valentine concluded. “Are we going to do a supplemental tax on our residents? We can't just pick money out of the air. And those are very serious concerns. We have a 14.2 mill rate right now. Partially because we were told that we had a $630,000 savings from going from Region 6 to Region 20. We were told that there were economies of scale, that the staffing levels need not be as large as they were for Litchfield School District and Regional School District 6… We didn't see that… Where are our cost efficiencies that were supposed to come to play?”
Ariola said that the district faces a nearly $2 million budget deficit due to unbudgeted costs and that some of the economies of scale have already been realized. He said bills from the closed Region 6 were transferred to Region 20. There was also a miscalculation of the bus contract, which was $400,000 more than budgeted.
There were also unforeseen legal expenses and Special Education costs ended up being significantly greater than budgeted. Although 6 teaching positions were eliminated, six additional educational assistants had to be hired to meet Special Education needs.
“I think that… there are so many projects happening as two school districts are closing”, Della Volpe explained. “At the same time, you're creating a new one, and it's just where we are.” Della Volpe is committed to keeping the district’s 2025/26 budget increase reasonable, though a 0% increase is an unreasonable expectation, particularly as a 4.25% increase in employee contracts takes effect on July 1st.
To help cover the shortfall, the district is asking its towns for a total of $713,000, of which Goshen would contribute about $131,000. Also, state Sen. Stephen Harding (R -Brookfield) has introduced a bill to pay for regionalization costs amounting to $1.5 million.
The board then received budget projects for several departments and capital needs, including public works, recreation, town hall and waste removal. Waste removal was the largest increase, going from a $354,300 to a proposed $473,000 budget for the coming budget year.
First Selectman Todd Carusillo gave his report, mentioning some needs for town vehicles, and some remaining expenses from Region 6. Fees to the state’s trash authority are going up, from $131 per ton to $181 per ton.
