Finance Committee defers budget votes, focuses on enrollment and long-term school costs

WESTON — February 1, 2018 — Weston Finance Committee zeroes in on declining school enrollment and rising per-pupil costs. The committee took no budget votes Feb. 1 but spent most of the meeting on a member-built sensitivity analysis of the schools' 10-year enrollment projection, which shows district enrollment down 21 percent and high school enrollment down 23 percent over the next decade — and potentially as much as 30 to 35 percent under more conservative birth-rate assumptions. COA Director Mignon reported taxi voucher use jumped from 1,400 in all of last fiscal year to 1,200 in the first six months of the current year, with the Friends of the Council on Aging contributing $12,000. Facilities Director Gary presented a 3.3 percent budget increase anchored by a new project-manager position he said would let the town capture Green Communities grants of "between two and three hundred thousand dollars" the department has lacked bandwidth to pursue. One veteran member, told the trend is "dangerous," replied: "I won't be alive when it happens."