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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Steering Committee - 01/21/2015STEERING COMMITTEE 21 JANUARY 2015 The South Burlington Steering Committee held a meeting on Wednesday, 21 January 2015, at 6:30 p.m, in the Conference Room, City Hall, 575 Dorset Street. Members Present: City Council: P. Nowak, Steering Committee Chair; C. Shaw, M. Emery, J. Simson; K. Dorn, City Manager; School Board: M. Lalonde, J. Beatty, D. Fleming, D. Bugbee; D. Young, Superintendent of Schools Also Present: J. Stewart, School District; T. Hubbard, Deputy City Manager; B. Nowak, T. Chittenden, P. Taylor, A Klugo, J. Wilking, other members of the Master Planning & Visioning Task Force 1. Agenda Review: No changes were made. 2. Review and Approve Minutes of 15 September 2014: Mr. Shaw moved to approve the Minutes of 15 September 2014 as written. Ms. Emery seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 3. Presentation by representatives of the Master Planning & Visioning Task Force: Supt. Young reviewed the history of the Task Force and introduced Mr. Klugo and Mr. Wilking. Mr. Klugo said one of the charges of the committee is to look at, evaluate, and make decisions regarding education and what will happen to some of the properties in the TIF District of City Center. It also looks at other elements of City Center, the Airport and city demographics. The Task Force began its work in a “gathering mode,” with consultant Frank Locker, looking at how to educate children in the 21st century and what facilities would meet those ends. They looked at the changing demographics of the city, with the reduction in the membership of households, the loss of school age residents, aging facilities, the excellent performance of the schools, the desire for a walkable, livable community, repurposing assets, potential new uses for school buildings, etc. The Task Force currently recognizes three options: A. Leave things as they are B. A new or consolidated elementary school C. A new High School Mr. Wilking added there is a possibility of a K-2 or K-3 school and a 4-5 or 4-6 school, or some other configuration. STEERING COMMITTEE 21 JANUARY 2015 PAGE 2 Mr. Klugo then reviewed some of the considerations the Task Force has enumerated: Schools: 21st Century learning How to organize schools Division of student population between/among schools Class sizes A single new elementary school: who goes there? What inequities would that create? etc. Facility adaptability Costs City: Vision TIF funding requirements (the earlier the development, the higher the revenue) Other opportunities for the Central School property Mr. Klugo noted that the decision to sell or not to sell Central School will stabilize the revenue projections for the TIF. Mr. Wilking noted that Saxon Partners has options on certain properties that may make it hard for anyone else to be a bidder. Mr. Klugo added that $7,000,000 will not fund a new school, but it would be a “down payment.” Mr. Klugo then outlined the Task Force’s next steps: 1. Identify criteria to filter the options 2. Go to the community with 4 options 3. See what the community says and evaluate/tweak option 4. Go back to the community one more time 5. Make a preliminary recommendation 6. Make a final recommendation. The hope is to accomplish this by 19 March 2015. Mr. Wilking added that the meeting tonight will start to limit options. Mr. Klugo noted the Task Force is working with COPE to find a way to bring this to the community in a format that is easy to understand. Mr. Wilking cited the need to realize that the community may have its own idea of an option. Supt. Young reminded people that the Task Force meetings are open to the public. STEERING COMMITTEE 21 JANUARY 2015 PAGE 3 4. Review of Proposed FY16 City Budget: Mr. Hubbard noted that the Grand List has been conservatively estimated at $28,855,896. The total of all funds for FY16 is $35,651,415. The proposed General Fund budget expenditures are $21,153,145 (a decrease of $93,196 over the current fiscal year)). The property tax rate needed for the budget is .46, up from .4285 which represents an overall increase of 7.35%. In past years, the City Council has utilized contingency funds to keep the budget down; that source of funding is way down and will now be utilized in FY16. The city will try to build up that reserve. Mr. Hubbard said the current budget will enable departments to continue to provide their current levels of service and will restore some of the things that were cut from the 2013 levels. The budget supports the creation of a housing trust fund start-up at $50,000. It addresses increased insurance costs and replaces some contingency and sick-bank funding. It fully funds other entities (e.g., CCTA) and provides maintenance contracts for all city facilities. The Police Department will get one additional officer and funding for phase one of a computer upgrade. The budget also funds some requested social services funding. There is money for the new public safety tower (the cost for this being split with CWD). There is also a designated reserve in conjunction with the Burlington International Airport tax appeal which will be going to court probably in late spring. Mr. Hubbard said the budget doesn’t provide funds for all capital requests and doesn’t fund Phase 2 of the facilities analysis. It doesn’t provide additional requested staff positions and doesn’t fund renovations of Fire Station #2. Mr. Hubbard then reviewed Enterprise Funds and noted that water rates will increase by 4.93%, sewer rates by 2% and stormwater rates by 2.4%. The total increase for an average condominium would be $77.06 for the year (6.42 a month) and for the average single family home $125.39 for the year (10.45 a month). Mr. Lalonde asked whether the Police additional officer is the result of opiate problems. Mr. Shaw and Ms. Nowak explained police issues and the necessity to have 2 full shifts They noted this still doesn’t bring them all the way back to 2012 levels. Supt. Young praised the work of the police officers assigned to the schools and said how grateful they are to have them there. Mr. Simson briefly explained the origin of the Affordable Housing Trust and the work of the Affordable Housing Committees. STEERING COMMITTEE 21 JANUARY 2015 PAGE 4 5. Review of Proposed FY16 School Budget: Mr. Stewart presented the proposed budget. The total FY16 budget is $45,747,228 which represents a 3.27% increase. The amount to be raised from property taxes is $35,226,845 with the balance coming from tuitions, federal and state funding for special ed, etc. All of the labor contracts are settled with salaries going up 2.71% and benefits going up 2.53%. Operating costs are up 6.8%, but debt service is down 4.75%. The tax on a $300,000 home would increase by $86 a year (7.19 a month) and on a $226,000 condo $59.00 (4.90 a month). The non-resident tax rate is up 2.59%. The biggest challenge this year is a drainage issue at Orchard School. The work is now 80% completed, and the rest is expected to be done in early spring. Money was “moved around” to pay for this. The projection is that FY15 will end with expenditures $290,000 below the budget. This is due in part to revenues being projected at $250,000 above what was anticipated. The left over funds will go into the FY17 budget. Mr. Stewart briefly updated FY15 activities including the settlement of all contracts with bargaining units, a new roof at Chamberlin School and the High School, a new elevator at Tuttle Middle School. The High School window project has been redefined due to the presence of PCBs in the caulking. There will be new RFPs. The High School elevator project has been separated into two phases over 2 summers. The High School rest room upgrade for ADA compliance is in the planning stage. A new curriculum for Middle School Math was purchased for grades 6-8, and planning for new science standards has begun. The one-to-one laptop computer initiative was extended to the planned level of grades 7-12. Supt. Young said the budget represents the needed staffing levels and resources for students to achieve goals. The budget represents increases in student/teacher ratio in some core classrooms. This will allow for resources to be redeployed to help meet federal and state requirements. There is increased support for ELL and speech/language pathology services. There will be Math coaching for elementary teachers to improve instruction to meet new standards. There will also be increased support to continue to integrate technology education into the classroom. STEERING COMMITTEE 21 JANUARY 2015 PAGE 5 Facilities projects in the budget include: summer painting, High School ADA access (ramp, etc.), Roof restoration at Orchard School, fire alarm upgrade and gym locker replacement at Tuttle, and fire panel replacement at Chamberlin. Supt. Young said there is much more diligence being paid to facilities than in the past. Mr. Stewart said they are working to get the income sensitivity piece into the budget book. Ms. Nowak noted that 80% of people qualified for some reimbursement. Ms. Emery asked about curriculum changes to the high school from common core. Supt. Young said they have been diligent about professional development regarding common core. They are looking at growth plans in the school to be ready for this. The Superintendent stressed there will be no reduction in programs. He did cite the need for schools to be more collaborative in the future. Mr. LaLonde was concerned that this may be a tough budget to pass for the “wrong reasons.” He felt there might be backlash because of the strike although it had a good result in the end. There are also issues at the state level which the public attributes to local control. Mr. Simson said he thought people expected a big hike in salaries and benefits because of the strike, and the school district needs to stress that didn’t happen. 5. Legislative Update: Mr. LaLonde said the Education Committee meetings have a high level of interest and are packed with people. He didn’t know if there will be a solution this session because of the number of suggestions coming in. There are many problems to solve because schools are run so differently across the state. He noted specifically the number of small schools which raise property taxes for others. Mr. LaLonde noted there is also work being done at the Legislature regarding the water quality of Lake Champlain. Mr. Shaw said he felt South Burlington should get credit for it Stormwater Utility. Ms. Nowak noted how many local officials and administrators came together to talk about education funding, and the resolution that resulted has been signed by more than 40 communities. 6. Other Items to Come Before the Committee: Supt. Young noted this is School Board member Diane Bugbee’s last Steering Committee meeting. He said she has been a strong advocate for the community and schools and thanked her for her service. STEERING COMMITTEE 21 JANUARY 2015 PAGE 6 Mr. Simson noted this is also his last meeting as an interim City Councilor and said he has enjoyed the experience. As there was no further business to come before the Committee, Ms. Emery moved to adjourn. Mr. Shaw seconded. Motion passed unanimously, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:40 p.m. ___________________________________ Clerk