Board of Ed Obliges Request for More Cuts

The Board of Education had pitched a historically low year-on-year increase of less than 2 percent (while still paying out a 2 percent raise to faculty and staff) to the Board of Finance Feb. 4 and it seemed the proposal would pass with flying colors. 

But then Thursday, the Board of Finance asked the Board of Education for the $400,000 in additional cuts as part of an effort to excise $1 million from the full town budget, just days before a summary would be released to the community for review ahead of a March 16 public hearing.

"While we were disappointed with the town's request, particularly given the historically low increase, we were not devastated, nor were we surprised." Chairman Nick Williams said at the Board of Education meeting Monday night. 

"We're ready to do our part to make responsible budget decisions." Williams continued, noting the good news that though the school district accounts for two thirds of the total town budget, the Board of Finance only asked the Board of Education to contribute 40 percent of the desired cuts. 

The vast majority of the new proposed reductions come from the bottom half of the board's capital priorities list. None strike personnel. 

If all the cuts are accepted, the replacement of door keypads at the middle school and the elementary schools ($126,000), upgrades to the HVAC system at Saxe ($75,000), the replacement of a maintenance van ($45,000), and the conversion of the compressed air system in the high school science labs to a vacuum system ($18,500) would be pushed off. 

Half of the planned $150,000 worth of painting projects at the elementary schools would also be postponed, although Superintendent David Abbey was hopeful that funding could be found elsewhere to do all the painting this year. 

"There might be a possibility that $75,000 might be present at some point... in the... contingency fund," Abbey said. "We're not sure how the other capital projects will come in—if they come in low, we could go back to the town and ask to use those funds [for painting]."

The board came up with the last $60,500 by making an aggressive reduction of approximately 23,500 gallons of fuel oil from the operating budget. 

In allaying concerns that deteriorating keypads would pose safety issues or putting off the HVAC fixes would make them more costly down the road, Abbey and Williams reiterated that the chopped capital projects were at the bottom of the priority list for good reasons. The board then approved a revised budget, precisely $400,000 lighter, with Jim Kucharczyk casting the sole dissenting vote as he had when the board first passed a budget in January.  

First Selectmen Jeb Walker, who witnessed the vote, thanked the board for their expeditious cooperation.

"This is very helpful," he said. "This enabled us to get our budget done on time."