Only a small gap remains in school budget
Published on March 31st, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - Relatively speaking, $55,000 is not a lot of money when you're talking about a $17 million fiscal year 2000 School Department budget.
At present, that $55,000 represents the whittled-down difference between the proposed budget of the School Department and the recommendation of Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting.
"We're there," said Selectmen Chairman Albert Conti at Monday night's Board of Selectmen meeting, where budget review continued.
"This number is a lot smaller than we anticipated," he added, referring to the difference between the School Department's revised budget draft five of $17,629,788 and Nutting's recommendation of $17,575,000.
School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly initially presented draft five of the budget to the board which totalled $17,669,788. From this figure, he advised that another $40,000 could be deducted for anticipated health insurance savings as stated by Nutting.
The difference represents a 4.3 per cent increase over the current year's budget, or one-tenth of one per cent of the proposed budget total.
"In this day and age, it's a very, very encouraging number," said Connelly.
On Nutting's suggestion, the board accepted the lower recommended budget figure of $17,575,000 and will await word on Stoneham's eligibility of additional state aid for the coming year to make up the difference.
"The concern at this point, is trying to balance the (overall) budget which is basically balanced now," said Nutting.
While that information may not be forthcoming for many months, for next year, Stoneham's state legislators have assured town officials that they are looking for additional aid to from various sources.
"What the town administrator is saying has a lot of merit," said Conti. What the town's resultant free cash will total in October is not known, but this source of additional funds for closing the school budget was also discussed as a possibility.
Selectman John Biggio stated that the fact that the school budget is not fully funded should be pointed out at Town Meeting.
School Committee Chairman Stephen Gucciardi agreed and voiced his continued concern with opening schools in September without a fully funded budget.
Connelly stated that the important issue of beginning the year with a $55,000 unfunded portion of the budget was that the commitment to staff remains solid.
"I think $60,000 in a $17 million budget is good," said School Committee Vice Chairman Jeanne Craigie.
She also pointed out to the selectmen that no funding of school bus service was included in the budget.
Both the School Committee and the Board of Selectmen agreed, however, that after a balanced budget was approved, partial funding of bus service would be the next priority.
Connelly explained to the board the recommendations of the busing committee that was formed last fall to come up with a solution for the difficult issue of funding school bus service in town.
According to Connelly, the committee, which was made up of parents from the various public schools in town, voted to support fully funded busing if those funds were available in the budget and not in competition with educational needs. The second recommendation, he advised, was for partial funding of the service, again as long as the funds would not jeopardize the education program.
"These parents all agreed they did not want to sacrifice the educational needs," said Connelly.
Gucciardi added, "That has been the committee's position from day one."
The Town Meeting warrant features an article calling for an appropriation of funds for the service. The article also requires the source of this money to be identified.
Connelly stated that the good news in regard to the busing issue is that in approximately four years, the town's new elementary schools will all come on line. The new schools, he said, will be closer to the neighborhood school concept than currently exists and will alleviate much of the need for busing students.
In addition, the sidewalk improvement program will be prioritizing the installation and improvement of sidewalks designated as most important by the School Department.
Connelly cautioned that many of the reductions in the FY2000 school budget are one-time savings and that the same issues will be revisited next year, when a more typical yearly increase of seven to eight per cent might be faced.
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