The Board of Finance (BOF) has approved the town’s and school’s proposed budgets with relatively little fanfare, sending the combined $103,743,251 proposals, up $3,143,105 or 3.12 above current spending, to the town for a vote after a process that, according to BOF Chair F. Michael Ayles, ran relatively smoothly with few surprises.

The Annual Town Budget Meeting will be Tuesday, April 7, at7:30 p.m. at the Community Center. The budget referendum is set for Tuesday, April 21 from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at all five polling locations.

The BOF only made $100,000 in cuts total to budgets proposed by the Board of Education (BOE) and the town—$50,000 from each. Both the BOE and the Board of Selectmen (BOS) will decide in the coming weeks exactly where to cut those funds from.

The Courier previously reported the total proposed budget increase for the town as 5.04 percent. That number includes the debt service, or money required to be repaid on debts, which is shared between the town and the schools and includes debt service on the new high school.

After the BOF cut, the proposed town operating budget is $31,519,607, an increase of $986,636 or 3.23 percent over the approved 2019-’20 budget. Debt service is fixed at $10,495,185, an increase of $978,841 or 10.29 percent, primarily attributed to the high school.

The schools budget proposal after the BOF cut is $61,728,459, an increase of $1,177,628 or 1.94 percent over current spending.

First Selectman Matt Hoey characterized the anticipated resulting 1.47 percent rise in mill rate as modest, and better than anticipated—also helped by a $1.7 million tax appeal court case that was decided in the town’s favor just last week.

Guilford’s mill rate would increase 0.47 to 32.50 under the approved budget, according to Finance Director Maryjane Malvasi.

Ayles told the Courier that the mostly uncontroversial process was made possible by a combination of anticipating the handful of drops in funding or increased expenses, along with consistent collaboration between the boards going back to November.

The few surprises, Ayles said, were actually mostly positive. A 1.18 percent increase in the Grand List—a “much more healthy” jump than what was anticipated, according to Ayles—helped the BOF have “more room” to work.

Another positive surprise was that the state’s contribution through the Educational Cost Sharing (ECS) program was not cut as dramatically as had been anticipated, Ayles said. Apart from a handful of line items, in fact, Ayles said this year’s budget has been essentially “predictable.”

“We kind of knew what we were getting from the state, and we had prepared for a few things that we knew down the line were going to have an effect,” Ayles said. “So yes, it was a fairly straightforward year, so to speak, in these budgets.”

The Town Side

Hoey, in his presentation to the BOF, emphasized the services that the town performs with tax dollars, as well as some of the savings the BOS was able to realize in this year’s budget.

A change in how the town structures its building fees created a significant increase in revenue—about $240,000, though the budget of the Building Department also saw an increase of about $70,000, as the town brought in more personnel and resources to deal with an uptick in building activity.

The largest increases in the town’s proposed budget came from capital spending, mostly for the Police, Fire, Parks & Recreation, and Public Works departments.

“It’s not a surprise to see where most of capital goes,” Hoey said.

The four of those departments account for around $750,000 of the $1.02 million capital expenditure request, and a large portion of that is on vehicles, Hoey said, along with around $200,000 for the Parks & Rec’s “fields and playing surfaces.”

In the presentation, Hoey highlighted the work that these departments do, with police responding to more than 12,000 complaints, Public Works covering 186 miles of roads, and Parks & Rec maintaining 40 athletic fields.

He also showed data illustrating how Fire Department and EMS response times to North Guilford have decreased dramatically since 2018, after two firefighters were assigned to North Guilford. That move was enabled by a federal grant, Hoey said.

Another area Hoey mentioned the town has seen changes was “increased demand” for senior services, though the Social Services Department will see a very nominal increase in its budget—less than $500, or about 0.30 percent.

The Parks & Rec Department would also receive a relatively modest increase in its senior meal subsidy, which helps the town provide meals for discounted prices to senior citizens. That number is proposed to increase by $1,000, or 3.85 percent.

The BOE Budget

On the school’s side, Superintendent Dr. Paul Freeman and BOE Chair Dr. Kathleen Balestracci also sought to emphasize efficiencies in terms of student performance related to district spending, as well as how the district seeks to be ahead of declining enrollment and student outplacement trends.

The district spends $17,959 per pupil, according to Balestracci, which is 83rd in the state out of a total of 206 districts, though Guilford continues to rank higher in a multitude of categories than many districts that spend more.

On the state’s Accountability Index, which measures everything from standardized test scores to absenteeism, Guilford ranks 10th in the state, according to Freeman.

The district is also cutting a net of approximately six full time staff positions due to declining enrollment, which is estimated at about 70 fewer students in the district.

Ten positions will be eliminated, including five classroom teachers, while the district hopes to add a science/technology teacher at Adams Middle School, two literacy coaches, and increased two part-time positions to full-time. The district will offer early retirement packages in the hopes of avoiding layoffs, Freeman said.

The vast majority of the requested increase in the school budget comes from contractual salary raises—a little under $750,000. Other drivers include pensions, and tuition for students who are outplaced, an approximately $400,000 expense that Freeman said is always difficult to predict or anticipate.

“It is a volatile number—the most volatile number in our budget,” he said.

According to Freeman, the number of students that Guilford pays to send to other schools has dropped from somewhere in the 40 to 50 range to around 20 now. Trying to budget for the exact amount that will cost each year is incredibly difficult, Freeman said, and Ayles told the Courier he appreciated the work the district had been doing to get closer to an accurate number.

Apart from the pensions, salaries, and outplacement tuition, all other parts of the proposed operating budget combined for a net decrease of about $85,000, according to Freeman.

On the capital side, the schools are asking for approximately $2.6 million. $1.6 million of that is to replace the original heating and air conditioning system at Guilford Lakes Elementary, which “failed significantly” last year, Freeman said.

Baldwin Middle School will also receive the second part of a two-phase upgrade, costing approximately $600,000.