Council, School Board Keep Budget Talk Positive

The town council and school board kept Tuesday night's budget discussion short and sweet, with many expressions of gratitude for the hard work that elected officials and staff members have put in this budget season.

A portion of the meeting was dedicated to the discussion of an integrated town/school technology system that could address the needs of both entities while moving Tolland's technology system into the future.

Board of Education Chairperson Andy Powell described the possibility of creating a school network accessible from multiple locations with tiered security levels. For example, he said the system could be designed to not only control users' access to certain information, but could also identify a user's location. Such a security device would only allow teachers or staff members to view sensitive information while in a secure location, such as a classroom or office, as opposed to an unrecognized location outside of the building or even the town.

"We're now looking at some pretty substantial movement for technology media," Powell said, explaining that technology utilization is moving away from individual PC users to networks where students, teachers and more could access a system from any location on a multitude of devices.

Powell also encouraged collaboration between the school and town, explaining that with such a system, town staff could easily have access to the municipal portion of the network.

However, Powell cautioned that all of the technology discussion was hypothetical; the school district is currently developing a new five-year technology plan, which will have to accommodate the technology testing needs of the .

But collaboration remained a common topic for the assembled groups. Town Manager Steven Werbner confirmed that the council will discuss the possible formation of a technology task force at the next council meeting. The task force could consist of members of the school board, council and public, he said.

Council members also heard a budget presentation from Superintendent William Guzman, who summarized the . Guzman also noted the exceptional dedication and enthusiasm this budget season.

"I want to express my appreciation for the hard work and the very many meetings that the members of the board of education and the town council have participated in the last several months," Guzman said. "This is really uncharted territory."

Town council Vice-Chairperson Rick Field, a former council and school board chairperson, also acknowledged that the bipartisan approach to the budget is unprecedented in his experience.

Powell responded that all of the hard work is for the good of Tolland.

"We have more in common with ourselves than we do with people in Willington, Willimantic, or Hartford or Washington," he said. "We're in this together."

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