Not much snow in the air this morning, but this storm can't seem to let go. From Friday on I've measured about 9 in. of new snow - but that's mostly guesswork since the wind has been blowing it off my snow board faster than I could measure it. I'm going by what's at my stake in the back yard and what's piled up on Fred's wood piles out back. We certainly didn't get clobbered like the Burlington area, though. It's warmer today, too - about 15 degrees when I took the snow measurements a few minutes ago.

I thought some of you would like to know that Ned Moran, who used to own our Joe's Pond Country Store, is now administrative assistant at Fred's Plumbing & Heating, Inc. on Memorial Drive in Lyndonville. He had been at Riverside Tractor and Equipment on Rt. 2 in Berlin. We wish Ned well. If you need heating oil or propane, give them a call (802-626-4588 or 1-888-499-9992), or even if you don't, call anyway and say hello to Ned. I'm sure he'd like to hear from friends here at the pond. We see Marsha now and then at Hastings Store, and I think they are both enjoying their new careers after the many years operating the JP Country Store.

I remind you once more that the meeting on the Cabot School budget is tomorrow night, and if you haven't weighed in on the planned strategy to cut expenses in the coming year, you still have time. If you can go to the meeting, all the better, but if not, here's the plan and the people to call: (The names and numbers are in red.)

December 20, 2009

Dear Cabot Residents,

This letter outlines changes under consideration by our School Board for the 2010-2011 budget year at Cabot School. We will hold an informational meeting on Monday, January 4^th at 6:00 PM in the Cabot School Library to hear from interested community members. We appreciate the many concerns and suggestions expressed to us over the past several weeks and welcome your continued participation in our budgeting process.

As discussed at our well-attended November 30^th meeting, we face tough choices in crafting next year’s school budget. Given changes in the state school tax formula as well as a substantial drop in revenue, just level-funding next year’s school budget would result in a local property tax increase of well over 15%. As school directors, we are aware of the impact a tax hike of that size would have on our neighbors. Many of our families are suffering in this ravaged economy. We also realize that sizable budget reductions made to lessen school cost and taxes could severely weaken the quality and effectiveness of our school.

Our budget development efforts have focused on a balanced long-term approach – we are considering comprehensive changes aimed at sustaining as much as possible our school’s programs and that sustain quality of learning, and programs while substantially limiting the size of tax increases. This is a tough challenge for our school and our community.

The enclosed proposed budget changes information, if adopted entirely, would:

• decrease the size of our school staff by over five positions throughout elementary, middle and secondary program levels;
• restructure our curricular programs with greater emphasis on approaches such as integrated team-taught courses, greater use of self-directed and collaborative community-based learning, enhanced technology resources, and some multi-grade integration;
• increase next year’s homestead property tax rate by approximately 2.0%, resulting in an increase of $2840 for every $100,000 of homestead value; and
• decrease taxes for property owners who pay their homestead tax based on their income (based on state income sensitivity guidelines).

We want to hear from you. We’ve outlined here the specific program changes under consideration as well as the reductions in staff that would result from those changes. In addition to this information, there is a more complete page showing the impact of these changes on the tax rate on both the Cabot School website (www.cabotschool.org) and on the Town of Cabot website (www.cabotvt.us/tax).

We will not make final decisions on the budget until January 11^th. There are a number of ways for you to get us your input on the budget over the next three weeks. Besides attending the meeting January 4^th, you can call us by telephone us (please see below). You may also use the tear-off portion of this mailing to jot down comments and/or additional suggestions. You can mail them to us ( P.O. Box 98, Cabot, VT), or you can drop them in the comment boxes placed at the school office, the Cabot Village Store, Harry’s Hardware, the Cabot Post Office, the Town Clerk’s Office and the Cabot Library.

Please let us know what you think!

Sincerely,

Cabot School Board of Directors: Ann Cookson (563-2406), Linda Gabrielson (563-2510),

Roman Kokodyniak (563-2999), Niall McCallum (563-3114), Chris Tormey (563-2842)

Strategies Under Consideration for Reducing the Cabot School FY ’11 Budget by approximately $ 300,000 As of December 19, 2009

Secondary Level (grades 7 – 12)

Reduce faculty by 1.60 FTE*s

• Increase team-taught, integrated courses.
• Reduce and modify IOTA Program
• Content areas affected:
• Language Arts (-.50), Social Studies (-.40), French (-.20), Math (-.25), Science (-.25)

Elementary Level:

Reduce faculty by 1.20 FTEs

• Increase multiage configurations, eliminate one K - 6 classroom position
• Reduce Kindergarten to 80%

preK-12 Faculty:

Reduce faculty by 1.40 FTEs

• Special Education (-.40), Industrial Arts (-.60), Computer Ed. (-.20), PE (-.20)

Guidance:

Maintain 1.00 FTE but reconfigure assignment:

• Reduce Secondary Guidance from 1.00 FTE to .70; Increase Elementary Guidance from 0.00 FTE to .30

Support staff:

Reduce staff by 1.40 FTEs

• Non-special education paraeducator (-.50)
• Maintenance and transportation (-.90)

Teacher Leaders/Steering Committee

Reduce by .25 FTEs (.45 FTEs to .20 FTEs)

• Cut five out of the nine stipend positions and reconfigure responsibilities

Other areas of reduction include:

• Eliminate elementary sports
• Reduce department budgets by $43,000
• Seek greater efficiencies in all areas, including increased electronic dissemination of materials/reduced photocopying and postage

* Please Note: One “FTE” is one “full- time equivalent” position; “(-.50)” represents a reduction of one-half of a full-time position.