Volume 21, Number 3
www.berlincitizen.com
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Local maple BOE is asked to reduce budget syrup a sign of spring By Ashley Kus Citizen staff
The Board of Education is facing the possibility of reductions to its $43.9 million proposed budget, a 4.7 percent increase.
By Ashley Kus Citizen staff
“A lot is uncertain,” said Superintendent David Erwin Friday. “It’s tough.”
As the weather gets warmer, the Hungerford Park Nature Center on Farmington Avenue is preparing local maple syrup straight from its trees.
The board met with the Town Council Budget Committee Thursday night, March 2, as part of ongoing budget meetings throughout all town departments.
“We’ve been tapping our trees for a decade,” said Donna Veach, the marketing & special events planner for the park and museum. Sap is being collected from five trees this year at the New Britain Youth Museum’s park location in Kensington. Visitors this weekend will not only get to taste fresh maple syrup from the site at an annual pancake breakfast, they also will have a chance to see how it is made. “A lot of people don’t realize how much labor goes into making maple syrup,” said Holly Gagnon, an environmental educator for the center. Gagnon typically gives 20-minute tours of the trails every 30 minutes throughout the breakfast event. During the walk, Gagnon shows people the sap spilling out of the trees and how it is collected. Visitors will then get to see where it is made. Veach pointed out that it takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup. “I call it ‘liquid gold,’” she said. The syrup season usually ends toward the end of March, once the nights start getting warmer. Gagnon said people on the tour are often surprised that syrup could be made at home with trees in their backyard. An introduction book to sap collecting and syrup production is sold in the park’s gift shop. In the past, the breakfast event has attracted several hundred people from See Maple, A12
The Berlin BOE has proposed a $43.9 million budget. | Ashley Kus, The Berlin Citizen
Berlin to offer more Open Choice seats to Hartford students By Ashley Kus Citizen staff
More than 20 additional Hartford students could be attending Berlin schools next school year after the Board of Education decided to increase participation in the regional Open Choice program. Berlin will offer another 23 Open Choice seats, a jump from the six the town offered for the 2016-2017 school year. “We want to get them at an earlier age,” School Superintendent David Erwin said after the Monday, Feb. 27 school board meeting. School officials project the total number of Hartford students attending Berlin schools could in-
crease to 104, though some seats offered may go unfilled. The Open Choice Program, formerly Project Concern, began in 1966 as a way to integrate schools. The Capitol Region Education Council program now has 27 participating suburban districts, including Berlin, Southington and Plainville. As of last month, Berlin had 94 Open Choice students enrolled in the district. Eighty-nine Open Choice students returned for the 2016-2017 school year. Berlin has received multiple Open Choice requests for next year with six students wanting to attend kindergarten, five asking to attend McGee Middle School, and a See Choice, A13
The town is currently looking at a loss of nearly $5 million in state aid under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s proposed two-year budget. Malloy’s proposal would reduce state aid to Berlin from $8.5 million to $5.7 million in the first year. The town budget committee, consisting of all seven councilors, recommended that the BOE look at reductions from 2.5 percent to 3 percent of its proposed increase. “We told them to go back and prioritize,” Mayor Mark Kaczynski said Friday. “That’s not final, it’s just to give them some sort of figure.” Erwin said a 3 percent reduction would be a “very substantial cut.” The percentage would be a more than $1 million reduction in the board’s proposed budget. An information session was held by the BOE last month to inform the public of the contents of the budget. Later, at a regular meeting, the board added more than $200,000 in new items, including technology and security. Kaczynski said the council was asking all departments to consider 1 to 3 percent reductions in proposed operating budgets. Some departments were asked to come up with a “worst case scenario.” See Budget, A12