Around Town

Board of Finance Chair: ‘We Will Approve 100% of the Board of Education’s Operating Spending Requests’

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What follows are comments that Board of Finance Chair Todd Lavieri made at the start of a budget hearing Tuesday night. Several residents addressed the appointed body during the meeting. They spoke mostly on the question of funding for the Board of Education as it relates to additional buses needed to introduce a new start times schedule that would take effect in the middle of the 2021-22 academic year. 

Comments from two parents, one on each side of the issue, are included below the transcription of Lavieri’s remarks. The chair did address those speakers during the hearing, saying in part, “As you know, I think, the Board of Finance already completely supports our great school system. And obviously we have for over 20 years.

Government

Popularity of Platform Tennis Soars Amid COVID-19

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Municipal officials say they’ve seen a steep increase this fall and winter in the number of people playing platform or “paddle” tennis on New Canaan’s town-owned courts at Waveny Park. Revenues generated through selling permits and guest passes for the outdoor sport already have surpassed $70,000 for the paddle tennis season that started in early-October, compared to anticipated revenues of about $46,000, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. In the past two paddle seasons, which run through mid-April, the town has taken in a total of about $56,000 (fiscal year 2020) and $46,000 (fiscal year 2019) in revenues, Benko told members of the Board of Finance Park & Recreation Budget Subcommittee during a regular meeting Monday. “Paddle is going crazy,” he said during the meeting, held via videoconference. 

“We’ve had an outstanding year so far in paddle tennis. Our revenues are way up in paddle.

Board of Finance Member: New Canaan Should Consider Charging Nonresidents Using Waveny Park

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A Board of Finance member said this week that if a substantial number of Waveny Park visitors are from out-of-town, as has been suggested, then New Canaan should consider charging them for entry. The town should consider granting each New Canaan household two or three car passes to Waveny “and then, I don’t know, maybe at some point we charge for parking or something,” Amy Murphy Carroll said during a meeting of the Board’s Parks & Recreation Budget Subcommittee, held Monday via videoconference. “Because it’s expensive to maintain and we have the Waveny Conservancy doing incredible things, we have the paths for doing all that stuff,” she said. “And I just think, you know, we do a lot of stuff in New Canaan that benefits people in a broader way and our taxpayers pay for it all. And I’m not trying to be exclusive, and to the extent that if we did something like this, I think it could go toward the Conservancy or toward [the Recreation Department] budget or something.”

The comments came while Murphy Carroll and two other finance board members, Michael Chen and Tom Schulte, reviewed Recreation Director Steve Benko’s proposed spending plan for fiscal year 2022 in advance of a full Board of Finance meeting.

Moynihan on Superintendent’s Proposed Board of Ed Budget: ‘I Wasn’t Too Happy’

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New Canaan’s highest elected official said Tuesday night that he’s unhappy with the spending plan that the superintendent of schools has proposed for next fiscal year. The Board of Education is expected to vote later this month on Superintendent of Schools Dr. Bryan Luizzi’s $95.7 million operating budget for fiscal year 2022. Driven mainly by salary and benefits, it includes about $460,000 for what Luizzi described Monday as a student health and wellness initiative in the form of new start times. 

The approved Board of Ed budget for the current fiscal year is $90.9 million, town finance documents show. The Town Council in making its final budget vote last April reduced the Board of Ed’s requested amount by about $1 million, effectively forestalling a change to school start times. Addressing the Board of Finance during its regular meeting, Moynihan said, “The budget numbers are coming together very nicely on the town side.

Board of Education

Board of Ed To Seek Up to $2 Million in Additional Funding for Upcoming Academic Year

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New Canaan Public Schools needs $1.5 million to $2 million beyond what’s budgeted for the current fiscal year to cover expenses related to COVID-19 virus, as well as funds for additional staffing needed to meet a rise in enrollment, district officials said Monday. The district already has spent about $600,000 in areas such as technology (primarily), supplies, signage, barriers and sanitation stations—half again as much as a $400,000 “non-lapsing” account built into the spending plan for fiscal year 2021, according to NCPS Director of Finance and Operations Dr. Jo-Ann Keating. “Moving forward, the big items that we have are staffing—and we can’t really nail that down right now, because it’s going to depend on a number of different things that we just experience annually, like turnover savings,” Keating told members of the Board of Education at their regular meeting, held via videoconference. “And we have added staff but we may have additional turnover savings based on the number of retirements that we have had.” 

The district will have a better handle on staffing numbers come September, when it’s more clear just how many kids are attending public schools, Keating said. Major COVID-related technology expenses include WiFi and a classroom livestream learning system with improved audio and visual elements, she said. 

“So we are thinking anywhere between $2 million [and] $1.5 million,” she said.