Educator Urges Students to Make Budget Views Known

21 thoughts on “Educator Urges Students to Make Budget Views Known”

1. Good points John, especially your last one. There are many significant “costs” to the Town of Westport associated with the [first Selectman’s] senior, workforce and other “affordable housing” initiatives that do not seem to be getting the fiscal attention they deserve, much less the approval of the electorate.

   Flame suit on . . . .

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2. Anyone else find it inappropriate for Dr L to pitch his perspective/propoganda to a somewhat captive audience?  Didn’t he ignore the Staples students who showed up in his office to protest a decision a few years ago?  Just sayin’.

   And a lot of people have had the financial relationship with their employer change this year, including those under contract (including me – I wasn’t laid off, but my salary was frozen/reduced).  If the automakers can get wage concessions from their unions, why can’t the BOE?  I’m not making the final decision, just asking why it’s not on the table. Foregoing a $1000 salary increase (2% of $50K) for 1000 employees is $1,000,000.

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3. Having received around 70 emails on this issue, all of which were in opposition to any further cuts with many protesting the $1.4 million cut proposed by the BoF, what should RTM members think? 

   1. That no one in Westport is in favor of cutting the school budget, OR
   2. That only people with kids in the school system care about this issue OR
   3. Emails are an inappropriate way of judging how an entire town feels about such an important issue

   Emails, letters and conversations with RTM members matter.  We will be voting next week on whether to do 1 of 3 things:
   A. Accept the BoF approved budget with the $1.4 million cut
   B. Restore some or all of the $1.4 million
   C. Make additional cuts

   This decision will have an impact on everyone in Westport.  What do you think?

   John McCarthy
   Staples Class of 1982
   RTM District 9
   johnrtm@optonline.net
   203-962-1863

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4. In answer to John McCarthy’s questions;
   Few people are in favor of cutting the school budget for any number of good reasons: 1) Westport students are thriving and succeeding when others in other schools are not, 2) All Westporters benefit from an adequately supported school system. Westport real estate has retained much more value than the real estate in other towns has, 3) Emails are THE way to gauge how an entire town feels about an important issue.

   And the recession has not hit Westport as hard as it has hit other areas.

   If you are serious about collecting opinions there are many online surveying tools the RTM could use to collect opinions from those it represents.

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5. I’m NOT in favor of any further school budget cuts and would like to know what will be cut considering the BOF’s $1.4 million budget cut. I’m happy to hear that Dr. Landon intends on not affecting classroom size or curriculum, however, I think it’s a bad decision to neglect building maintenance to achieve the goal. I appreciate his dedication and commitment to our children, but the town should be concerned how trying to save money in the short term will cost many times more in the long run.

   Also, I think it’s a very bad idea to try to renegotiate union contracts and suspend raises to our teachers and supporting staff after the fact. Those contracts were negotiated in good faith and the teachers, principles and all the staff come to expect what they were told by the town. Not doing so I think would only kill morale and not encourage these professionals to go beyond what is expected and give our children the best that they can. Not that any would do it consciously, but they’ll talk and there will come times when they’ll say, “why should I do that?, why should I go that extra mile, they don’t appreciate us”. And once you lose that morale it’s very hard to turn it back around.

   And lastly, while a lot of people are complaining about school taxes rising by a million or two out of a 95 million dollar budget. I’m wondering why I don’t hear a lot of grumbling about the this so-called Workforce and low income Affordable Housing that is going up. Where do you think the children of the 78 units at Hales Court will go to school? In addition to the other planned housing at Baron’s South. What will this do to your classroom size, and will we have to build another school? Or will we just do it on the cheap and get some portable trailers? I find it somewhat hypocritical to complain about $1.5 million when there’s an 800 pound gorilla that no one seems to notice or talk about. What will the true cost, financially speaking, be of these government subsidized housing projects to the taxpayer? I noticed not very many stories appear on WestportNow when the subject is “affordable housing”, but if you read the Westport News you’ll know that it’s coming to town. If you think we’re having a hard time paying for what we have now, just wait until then.

   Of course my critics will say I’m just being negative, but I don’t hear any of them telling me otherwise. So show me where I’m wrong, what say you.

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6. Dan:

   This meeting was requested by students, as well as run and organized by students.  It was held in the library in three successive 20 minute segments during lunch, so students could come and go as they please.  Suffice to say, the level of student interest in this topic is intense, as evidenced by the robust turnout to the event.  In addition, students have been attending and speaking out at Board of Ed meetings, RTM Finance Committee meetings, and will no doubt be out in force at the May 5th RTM meeting where the budget will be voted on. I think their involvement shows not only an awakened sense of civic awareness and involvement, but also puts a human face on the dilemma that those in positions of power in town must not forget.

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7. It is my understanding that students at SHS requested the lunch-time meetings to better understand the budget issues.  BRAVO to them for their interest!  They deserve some credit for that!

   Secondly, I believe that

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8. Thanks for posting, Michael. I didn’t see yours until after I’d written/posted mine.  It was not my intention to reiterate your response to Dan.

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9. Thanks for the clarification Mike and Rhonda.  The caption doesn’t say “Landon responded to student questions”, it says he “urged them to talk to their parents”.  Kudos to the students.

   It’s pretty well known that I’ve never been a fan of Dr Landon, so I tend to bias against him, even when he may be doing the right thing.  So consider that my “Devil’s Advocate” counters the end-of-the-world hyperbole.  All part of the public dialog.

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10. I am so pleased to read that at least one member of the RTM is considering if a correct decision was made to reduce the BOE budget by 1.4 million OR EVEN MORE. I’ve worked in schools for over 40 years and in five high schools. I am here because the eight schools in Westport are beyond description. Staples is one of a relative handful of exceptional high schools in America. What has been built here and that I am privileged to be a part of is beyond description to those who don’t understand public education. You send us bright highly motivated students and our exceptionally talented teachers and administrators guide them through four years of school. To a person, graduates who return to visit from college tell us that 1) they are far and away better prepared than their classmates and 2) their classmates don’t believe them when they describe the caring personal environment we maintain here. All of this comes at a price. There are few places in America where you actually get what you pay for. Spending money on education in Westport is one of them.

    I will be so bold as to say that it is our students (when they grow up) who will get us out of the mess my generation created for America and through which we are creeping out. In my opinion, we should be throwing money at the schools to be certain that these young people will have the skills they need to fix our country. What better gift to our children and your town can you give than to support schools that meet the needs of ALL children. Please do not dismantle something as precious as Staples High School. A cut of 1.4 million dollars on top of Dr. Landon’s 2% budget will be devastating. The thought of adding on top of that is something that keeps me up at night.

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11. I’m not sure if the budget should be cut or not, but I believe we need a better idea of what’s in our budget and how it compares to what is needed to furnish the good education that we promise our students.

    For the record, I now have no children in Westport schools. Our two, who were in Westport for part of their public education, are now college graduates. Still I believe that a top notch public school system is an important part of what makes Westport great. It’s the same with the golf course. I can appreciate it, even though I’m not a golfer. (I will admit to being a boater <g>.)

    The one piece of information that I haven’t seen, that I believe would be helpful to this discussion, is an item-by item-comparison by major component of our budget compared to those of comparable school system budgets. We’ve all seen tables of cost per pupil at local schools, and Westport is generally the highest. Why is that—what element(s) of our school budget costs more? We have financial management folk as part of our school administration who should be able to analyze the publicly available data and present the results of such a study to the public.

    Once we know the results, we should be in a much better position to know if we are spending more money than comparable schools in some areas. That doesn’t necessarily mean a cut is warranted, but at least we’d know. For example if more of our teachers are more senior and have more advanced degrees, our teacher salary budget would be expected to be higher—I would think we would all be pleased to know we have more highly qualified teachers than other towns—that should be a plus for the town. On the other hand if we’re replacing texts at a much higher rate than other towns that have comparable academic achievement, perhaps we should consider a policy change. My point is—how can we decide anything if we have no facts?

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12. I am looking for Elliot Landon’s resignation. 

    Let’s be clear we are arguing the amount of increase in the school budget, not actual cuts over last year’s baseline.

    Elliot’s incompetence is based on the following:

    1.  Failure to successfully negotiate with the Teacher’s Union the $3.5 MM salary increase.

    2.  Using scare tactics in connection with program cuts.

    3.  Public statements that the economy is turning around to justify his increased budget.

    4.  The past decade has seen annual increases in the school budget of 6.5-7% per year.

    5.  The cost per student of $17,000 is in line with private education.

    6.  Elliot’s $240,000 salary (before benefits) is an insult to us taxpayers that are suffering financially.

    Aaron Pisacane

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13. Our school system is strong, it will remain strong, and it does not suffer from lack of funds.  To suggest taking $1.4 million out of the “increase” in the budget will cause our schools to suffer is not being honest.

    It is also dishonest to suggest that shoveling more money into the school budget is the answer to high quality education.  With a $95 million school budget and $17,000 cost per student, I see no validity that our schools will suffer with a $1.4 million cut in the “increase” of the budget over last year’s baseline. 

    Aaron Pisacane

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14. ASSUMING, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Pisacane’s claim that Westport spends $17,000 per student is accurate, AND assuming that this is, in fact, “in line with private education” (I have my doubts there)

    – so what?

    Westport is providing its kids with one of the best (ranked very high nationwide) school programs around, public or private. You tend to get what you pay for, even with education. This town has ALWAYS taken special interest and pride in doing so, and it has shown up in our proerty values too. (I add that for Mr. Pisacane, should he be approaching this from a “no kids in the Westport school system” perspective.)

    I really do not see any evidence of lavish, unchecked or unwise overspending by the Westport school system.

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15. Dear Westporteans,

    It is reasonable to assume that Elliot can run a top school system with a price tag of $16,506 cost per pupil. 

    There is no basis that for our schools will lose their top rankings with the continued high funding rate per pupil. 

    (Source:  BOE Proposed Budget 2009-10)

    TODAY
      $95,968,657 BOE proposed budget 2009-10
      $16,506 cost per pupil

    SIX YEARS AGO
      $70,021,928 BOE budget 2003-04
      $13,332 cost per pupil 2003-04

    COST INCREASE PER PUPIL, LAST 6 YEARS
      24% increase, or 4% increase per year

    (Source: Forbes.com, 12/11/06)

      $16,970 “Top” Prep Schools Median Cost in 2006
      $14,631 Westport cost per pupil 2006-07

    Cordially,

    AARON PISACANE

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16. Dear Mr. Hallas,  I have been trying to post these official 2007 per pupil spending numbers for you since your posting.  Westport has now dropped to fourth highest in per pupil spending and we have, I believe, one of the lowest mil rates. It is extremely difficult to compare schools’ systems in areas of spending such as maintenance and utilities, as schools have different numbers and ages of buildings, and energy useage.  It is difficult to compare spending on Special Education; as different schools have different numbers of SPED students and attract different populations with different needs.  So although we have obviously improved in this ranking, these stats. are often “apples to oranges”.

    Here is the latest (Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2007) information concerning per pupil expenditures released by the Connecticut State Department of Education reveals the following, from highest to lowest expenditures, by school district:

    REGIONAL DISTRICT NO. 9       $16,012
    WESTON                             15,286
    NEW CANAAN                           14,837
    WESTPORT                             14,774
    REDDING                             14,340
    WILTON                             13,396
    DARIEN                             12,921
    EASTON                             12,731
    RIDGEFIELD                           11,996

    When Mr. Piscane pulls numbers out of context to prove his point, he can make no point without a discussion of the 400 plus student enrollment increase since 2004, contract/benefit increases and utility increases to name a few .

    I am thrilled to see what a wonderful dialog Mr. McCarthy has begun with his musings about how this topic is really worth a townwide discussion and has townwide attention.  The e-mails he has been receiving along with the recent Teach-in and Monday’s rally by the citizens most affected (students) have me wondering if the tide has turned and 70% of the RTM would understand how important these core elements of Westport schools are, and would consider restoring some of the $1.4million the BOF has cut, whose damage we have not yet seen.  If that is a pipe dream, then I do hope the RTM will make sure that before they approve any incentive for early retirement program, the present and future costs to the town are made public in plenty of time for a discussion such as the one that is being had here!

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17. New Canaan recently approved a 2009-2010 Education budget of $69.9 million, which works out to $17,400 per student versus $16,500 for Westport (before the proposed $1.4 million cut).  Unlike Westport, New Canaan’s student enrollment is projected to DECLINE in 2009-2010 by 21 students, yet they approved a 2.5% INCREASE to the overall budget.  In terms of where they spend their education dollars, salaries and benefits are 80.9% versus 80.4% for Westport – pretty much identical. They spend a little more as a percent of the total on student transportation (logical as the population is less concentrated) and a little less on facilities (5 school buildings versus our 8). The biggest difference I see is they spend about 2.5% of their budget on books, supplies and equipment and we spend about 3.8%.  This could very well be “apples and oranges” territory, as they might have some equipment in facilities, they might capitalize what we expense, who knows.

    I think New Canaan is the right comp for us to look at for a number of reasons.  Geographic proximity, demographic similarity, per capital incomes are all compelling.  MOST IMPORTANTLY, it is a high performing district, much like Westport.  It has a high concentration of residents employed in financial services, who are feeling the adverse effects of the crisis in that industry, much like Westport.  And they have chosen to invest their tax dollars in education by approving increased education spending for 2009-2010.

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18. Can someone provide “concrete” evidence that a 1.4% reduction in the budget will negatively impact test scores?  There are some really interesting discussions, but the common theme is that we can’t spend enough on education.  There is likely a middle ground to maintain high quality schools. 

    If we take two students: 
    —Student A studies 3 hours a day,
    —Student B studies less than 1 hour a day, Student A will, in most cases, have higher test scores than Student B.  Spending an extra $1 on Student B will not overcome that lack of application and may have no impact on Student B’s test scores. 

    I study pre-calculus with my 16 year old step son, Pascal, every weekend.  I read with my 13 year old autistic step son, Daniel, each night.  I value education.  My 16 year old step son’s math grades are directly correlated to the amount of study time that he puts in.

    We need to take a balanced view of what drives high quality education.  Certainly the dollars are not lacking in Westport in the current budget.

    I support our high quality schools.

    Sincerely,

    Aaron Pisacane

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19. I do hope that given the interest of the students (as it should be) they may as a committee provide some input as to where the $1.4M savings can come from. Students sometimes have wonderful insight on such matters. I think they should form a committee as an extra credit project and work with Dr. Landon, his staff and the BOE and define any areas of potential savings. I believe the students would teach everyone a lesson or two!

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20. Citizens need to understand that class offerings, programs and services are already being cut at the schools, even without the proposed $1.4 million additional cut. 

    I am also concerned that if the 09-10 enrollments are larger than forecast, particularly at Staples, then the school administrators will not have the personnel flexibility to handle the additional students.  This may occur as more parents pull their children out of private schools or move into Westport from other locations.  The town will not know the real impact until school starts in the fall.

    I believe the BOF and RTM should have a vote in support of a review of additional funding for the school system before next year’s budget (i.e. in September), if the enrollments turn out to be higher than expected, and if the BOE decides that more teachers are needed to keep class sizes at the desired levels.

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21. Mr. Pisacane,
    I am completely supportive of your individual attention to your children and the value it brings to them.

    I am also completely supportive of the individual attention teachers bring to their students.  This attention comes in the classroom through discussions, through extra help before and after class, by correcting tests and the discussions that come when improvement is needed, by reviewing written work in the form of homework, or papers that are reviewed multiple times.  I’m sure teachers do much the same things you do with your sons – but they do it with a much larger student population. 

    The budget cuts mean that classes can only get larger because the student population is growing, classes have been cancelled and no new teachers are being hired.  Larger classes mean less time is available for teachers to work closely with individual students.

    If you believe your time spent helping your sons has value perhaps you can make the connection between your effort and the value a student can get from the individual attention from a teacher.

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