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Tag: Town Council

  • What is the impact of the 25/26 budget on the Rocky Hill Library?

    What is the impact of the 25/26 budget on the Rocky Hill Library?

    Rocky Hill’s new budget was passed last month. On June 9, Library director Michael Murphy shared with the Board of Trustees for the Rocky Hill Library what impacts on library personnel and service we could expect to see from the austere budget. 

    Like many of the departments that deliver town services, the library faces serious cuts from Town Council members beyond  the budget proposed by the town manager. Accounting for increased costs due the growth of salaries and inflation, the library director proposed a budget of $1,104,406. The Town Council approved a library budget of $1,033,896, a relative reduction of $70,510. 

    What changes were made to the Library budget to meet this new target?

    Staff hours reduced

    A 35-hour-per-week library technician has moved out of the district and left a position vacant. The library will not fill this position. The decision will reduce spending by $65,510.

    This change reverses a hiring decision made by the library. The library posted the job description for the replacement earlier this year, interviewed candidates, and made the decision to move a qualified part-time staff member into the full-time position, starting, at the request of the town, after the end of fiscal year 2025. Since the position has been frozen, the chosen candidate will continue as part time staff.

    Book purchasing budget reduced

    The library’s book purchasing budget was reduced from a proposed $92,000 to $87,000. The decision will reduce spending by $5,000.

    Why does this matter?

    The FY 25/26 budget continues a trend in reducing the library’s workforce. The loss of a 35-hour position follows the freezing of a 40-hour-per-week assistant director role left vacant in  2024, when the current library director was promoted.. This 40-hour-per-week position remains frozen. With these two positions, as well as several more flexible part time roles not being rehired, the library is currently operating on nearly a hundred labor hours fewer per week than it was in 2023.

    What is the impact on the community?

    Embedded within the town’s budget for the library is the expectation that in the coming fiscal year, the library will increase the number of library visits, program participants, and library card users by 2.5% each. While those are not, at face value, unreasonable goals, it is important to consider that increases in library use generally stem from outreach from librarians to members of the community (at schools, senior centers, public events, etc.) Furthermore, library programs, even those conducted by volunteers, require the support of library staff who are not being rehired. 

    It is not sustainable to expect 2.5% growth in user services if the town does not provide a proportionate investment in library staff.

    Though the library continues to provide important and robust services to citizens of the town, Murphy reported to the trustees that the library has likely hit its limit in terms of what budget cuts the staff can absorb without reducing services. Popular programs at the library are already quickly over-subscribed, and the demand for more programming cannot be met without supporting staff. For example, library workers have already had to reduce the number of technology help sessions offered to the community.

    Finally, the $5,000 cut to library books represents a 5.4% decrease from last year’s budget. While this cut may not seem out of line with cuts levied against other departments, it is worthwhile to consider the ways in which cuts across departments can compound each other. The 2025-2026 town budget, for example, also cut the summer literacy programs from the education budget. While it might be hoped that the library could help fill the important gap for Rocky Hill students who need extra literacy support, the library’s ability to offer summer support to these students decreases when the town slashes not only its staff, but also its materials budget.

    What can I do?

    Joining the Friends of the Rocky Hill Library and attending their fundraising events remains one of the best ways to support their library. The Friends of the Rocky Hill Library generate funds through regular donations, used book sales, mini-golf events, and more. They are already responsible for thousands of dollars of funding towards library programming and materials every year. Though their efforts cannot replace sustained public investment, community contributions through the Friends are invaluable, helping to keep the library active and afloat.

    Ultimately, the town government needs to hear from its community that the library is a cherished asset. Emails or direct conversation with the folks in charge of the budget, especially during budget season, can have a huge impact. Contact the town manager, the mayor, and/or your Town Council members to urge them to support the library director’s budget next year. 

    It is not a viable long-term strategy to ask departments to do more with less every year, and our library is too valuable to the community to let it wither away.

    Opinion piece: This article reflects the position of the author and not necessarily that of the Democratic Town Committee.

  • Rocky Hill Schools Need the Town to Show Up

    Rocky Hill Schools Need the Town to Show Up

    Rocky Hill has every reason to be proud of our teachers and students. Rocky Hill students have scored at the top of the District Performance Index for both Math and ELA on SBAC. We have students at the high school level who are attending Math and Science competitions. Our students are not only talented in the classroom, but out of the classroom in sports, theater and the arts. 

    These successes should make it clear what stands to be lost if we fail to support our school system as it needs to be.

    Our schools need critical investment

    Amidst our successes, our school system faces a growing challenge: the town has consistently underinvested in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP), a fund which pays for necessary maintenance and improvements to town buildings.

    For a number of years, the town government has failed to meet the Board of Education’s request to fund critical projects in the CIP, such as funding a HVAC system for Stevens school and most recently putting funds aside for a new roof for the West Hill school. This was finally brought to light when images of water issues were posted anonymously at West Hill school circulated on social media in April.  

    The town’s approach has been to pay for projects in “phases” – smaller chunks of money set aside for different parts of a big project. This lowers the yearly investment by the town, but at a cost: the projects are stretched out, and underlying problems take years to be resolved. 

    Breaking infrastructure projects into phases ultimately makes them more expensive to the taxpayers. Many important infrastructure projects can be partially covered by state and federal grants, but it is difficult to find grants that will cover phases instead of a full project. As we heard from Councilor Theroux, the town missed an opportunity to apply $1.6 million in grants to partially pay for the Stevens HVAC system. Instead, that money will likely have to be paid in full by residents of Rocky Hill.

    This year, the Board of Education gave back $1.6 million to the Town Council, money returned from an insurance plan. This money is supposed to be earmarked for the West Hill roofing project so that the BOE  can apply for grant funding from the state. However, in the most recent budget vote the Town Council again cut $150,000 from the CIP and cut $650,000 from the Education Budget as a whole for the 2025-2026 school year. How absolutely disappointing! 

    School buildings are a town asset. They are facilities that are used by the public not just for education. Oftentimes, these buildings are used for sports events, PTO events/ fundraisers, and many other town-wide events. These buildings must be maintained by the Board of Education with funding from the Town Council. When the Capital Improvement Plan is not funded fully, we fail to maintain resources that all of us depend upon, and increase their overall cost.

    We need a school liaison who shows up

    Imagine a relationship where one partner only shows up on the weekends for a photo-op or to go out for ice-cream, but when it comes time to buy school clothes or pay some bills, they are nowhere to be found. We all know of those relationships, right? 

    Most of us would call that a bad relationship and take steps to fix it. Unfortunately, this is exactly the relationship between Rocky Hill Schools and their current School Liaison. If we wouldn’t tolerate that situation in our personal lives, why would we accept it for the children in Rocky Hill schools?

    The School Liaison is a position held by a member of the Town Council. His or her job is to periodically attend Board of Education meetings and keep an open line of communication with the Board. The purpose of this is to keep the Council informed of important topics before the Board of Education, such as facility, human resource and budget challenges. As evidenced by this year’s budget, where the town has struggled to fund necessary infrastructure projects, the need for an engaged School Liaison to advocate for school needs has become all the more apparent. An effective liaison would have made the Council, and town at large, aware of the urgency of addressing these looming issues prior to them becoming a crisis. 

    Currently, that position is held by Councilor Prakash. While nobody could accuse Mr. Prakash of not showing up as a fan for our school’s sports teams, he has been absent from Board of Education conversations and activities. 

    Since he was appointed as School Liaison nearly four years ago, Mr. Prakash has not shown up to a single Board of Education meeting. His consistent refrain at Town Council meetings has been “no meeting, no report”, or the occasional mention of an award. If he had shown up for a meeting, met regularly with the Superintendent, or the Board Chair, or even watched meetings online after the fact, he would have plenty to report. 

    Rocky Hill Schools need a School Liaison who actually attends meetings and budget discussions. Our commitment is that if we are elected in the upcoming elections with a majority, we will appoint a representative who will regularly show up for Board of Education meetings to support the Board and the district as a whole! 

    Our students deserve all the support we can give them

    Did you know that West Hill School and Stevens School have recently been designated by the Connecticut State Department of Education as a “School of Distinction” based on high academic performance? Our high school’s Marching Band placed 1st in  two regional band competitions. Two students qualified for the 2025 ARML National Math Competition at Penn State. GMS is a National Banner School for Special Olympics for 2025 – only one of five schools in the state – two in Rocky Hill now including Rocky Hill High School.

    But we cannot take this success for granted. To continue to succeed at this level, the school system needs to be supported. We need to fund our Capital Improvement Projects, and be proactive in seeking out grants that will allow us to speedily address our infrastructure needs. We need to build a strong relationship between our Board of Education and our Town Council to reflect the importance of our students and these critical town buildings. It is not a coincidence that towns and cities with high-achieving schools, and excellent facilities also maintain high property values, and sustained economic growth. The two go hand-in-hand.

    Jennifer Baron-Morfea

    Thomas Cosker

    Jessica Loffredo

    Maria Mennella

    Opinion piece:This article reflects the position of the authors and not necessarily those of the Democratic Town Committee.