Town and School Human Resources Seek to Split in New Budget Proposal

Budget season has begun in Burlington, and the Town Administration has presented the town's budget overview to the Ways & Means Committee. They also began presenting the budget piece by piece to the Select Board at the February 24 meeting for the Board's approval of each department's budget.

The net head count is decreasing by "a little bit more than half a position," says Assistant Town Administrator, John Dinizio, who presented the budget to both bodies, but within that small movement are some big changes, including adding a town-wide Communications role and splitting the Human Resources role, which has been handling both the schools and the town, into two separate positions.

The demands of this role have been increasing over the last several years, Human Resources Director, Joanne Faust, told the Select Board. For example, she has become the school district's Title IX Civil Rights Coordinator and manages the school's training schedules and the substitutes. While she said she enjoys the work, it's too much for a single role. Currently the position is split 60/40 between the town and the schools; the town will now absorb the .4 full-time equivalent paid for by the schools into their budget, while the school will take on the .6 the town pays, so each will have their own Human Resources Director.

Some departments have increases over the town's target as well, including a nearly 2x increase in the Town Meeting & Reports budget to right-size it with respect to what the town has been spending in recent years to run these thrice-annual meetings. Legal, Information Technology, and the Department of Public Works also plan to request a budget increase.

Overall, the budget is looking at an increase within the town's target range of 4.5-5.5% annually. Detailed numbers will be available soon on the town website, but for now here are some budget highlights from the departments that presented to the Select Board on February 24:

Veterans Services

The budget increased by less than 1%. Veterans Affairs director, Chris Hanafin, reported that more members are shifting from receiving state aid to receiving federal aid, meaning less money is coming from the town's budget but veterans are receiving a higher amount of aid and the reapplication requirements are less strict.

Disability Access Commission

The increase this year is 1.75% over last year; Hanafin, who also heads this Commission, explained that there has been an increase in need for this Commission and, with all the new projects being planned that have accessibility requirements, he's spending more time sitting on building committees and talking with relevant state agencies.

Youth & Family Services

The budget for this department is increasing by only 0.87% due to staffing changes, primarily the upcoming retirement of Director Christine Shruhan.

Council on Aging

Director Marge Yetman reported that the Council on Aging's Outreach Workers and Social Workers have seen a significant rise in the need for their services. The number of individuals seen doubled from 388 in 2020 to 771 in 2024, and the time per visit has also increased due to increasing complexity of cases. Estimates suggest the aging population will be growing for the next 20 years, and the state has earmarked funding for this purpose; the Council on Aging is in the process of hiring a new social worker for 19 hours per week.

Local Transportation

Town Administration is working to find the right size for this account, which funds local transportation via ride share subsidies and Council on Aging transport buses. The budget is increasing, but at about $200k, it's a very small share of the town's more than $175,000,000 budget.

IT Department

This department is hard to level fund due to technology contracts, staffing, etc. They do seek out external funding to support their operations and have received a grant for the sixth consecutive year for cybersecurity training and another one to help build the town's incident response protocol.

Conservation

The budget here is down 4% due to last year's retirement of Director, John Keeley, after the budget had been set for the year. Current Director, Eileen Coleman, said, "Ours is a pretty small and pretty simple budget" mostly made up of salaries.

Town Accounting

There were no significant changes, and this budget was approved without discussion.

More department budgets will be presented at upcoming meetings, and more detailed discussions will be undertaken during subcommittee meetings as departments and the Ways & Means Committee work to finalize their budgets.