School Dept. ponders cuts in budget
Published on April 15th, 1998
STONEHAM, MA - With just three weeks remaining before the Annual Town Meeting, the School Committee finds itself scrambling to come in with a figure which the town can afford, a figure approximately $200,000 less than what is currently on its books.
After two tri-sessions with the Board of Selectmen and the Finance & Advisory Board, the School Committee learned last night that its projected budget for Fiscal Year 1999 of $16,915,458 remains significantly higher than the town can afford. School Committee members and acting Superintendent Robert Barbarisi told both boards that, due to Town Administrator's Jeffrey Nutting's suggestion of $16,700,000 in school budgeting, further cuts would likely come from school staffing and could prove "devastating."
"Going below ($16.9 million) needs to be avoided if at all possible," Barbarisi said. "In my judgement, just about all of the (cuts) would have to come from personnel.
"It's going to be somewhat harmful with the cuts we made to get to $16.9 million. At ($16.7 million) I think they would be devastating."
Last week, the School Department explained to both boards about the state and contractually mandated increases in the budget this year. These include $350,000 for contract settlement with school staff, $300,000 for step and level increases, $50,000 for health insurance, $325,000 for additional special education funding, $132,616 for High School time and learning standard funding, $132,616 for Middle School time and learning funding and $22,000 for a half kindergarten teacher due to increased enrollment.
In order to somewhat offset these large increases, the committee made cuts in busing for grades 7 to 12 (no students from those grades will receive busing next year), the athletic program, electricity and fuel projections, administration (assistant director of special services) and 8.5 staff members. Most of the staff members which were projected to be cut came from custodial and maintenance areas.
If an additional $200,000-plus remains to be cut, however, instructional staff are sure to go, Committee member Jeanne Craigie said.
"What will happen if we have to cut ($215,000) is that, we as the Town of Stoneham, will probably, philosophically, have to change the way we teach our children," Craigie said. "We're in a muddle."
Craigie blamed the town's problem on the state-mandated regulations which came with the Education Reform Act and will be enforced in the 1998-99 school year. In those regulations, time and learning standards were raised for students without any funding for cities and towns to help deal with the additional staff needed to offset such requirements. Also, the state continues to set its standards high, possibly too high, on special education, mandating that towns and cities provide the "maximum feasible" education for these students.
"I think that this is a cumulative problem that we are dealing with," Craigie said. "It's a systemic problem that stems from the way the state funds education.
"What happens in our classrooms is great," she continued. "What we have to ask ourselves is 'Are we going to be minimum, are we going to be average, or are we going to work for better."
Nutting provided the School Department and the town with more bad news when he warned that $400,000, which is expected from the sale of the Boston Regional Medical Center, may never come in. $181,000 of the projected $16,700,000 which Nutting said the town could afford would come from those funds he said. In addition, $219,000 in municipal department funding has also been budgeted in hopes of receiving the BRMC money.
Last week and again on Tuesday, the School Committee had asked if the town could appropriate the necessary funds to the School Department from the Stabilization Fund. He did, however, give some hope as to the future of the budget.
"Tapping into that free cash doesn't solve our problem in my mind," Nutting said. "There's more than one way to skin this cat if everyone's committed to it."
He explained that, in the future, a savings could be realized if the School Department combines its Business Department with the town. This "shared service," he explained, could reduce the number of employees on the School Department payroll while also cutting down on equipment costs.
The School Committee will be meeting in the next two weeks to arrive at a final figure and will likely be forced to make significant cuts in staffing. The Board of Selectmen penciled the Department's budget in at $16,700,000 and expects to be updated by the Committee on April 28.
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