School Budget Deficit Projected to Drop to $82,000

At the final budget workshop on Thursday, May 26, at the , Superintendent Madeline Meyer led off the evening with a concerned, personal statement to meeting participants explaining the distinction between the good of the district and the good of any one particular group.

“We started off with a million dollar deficit. We have worked backwards from that number,” Meyer said. “Hopefully tonight when we go through this that we will keep in mind that this is not about any individual people or group. This is about the district.”

Barbara Hamel, the department's finance administrator, estimated the school district saved approximately $320,000; $196,000 was expected to be shaved off the school district's deficit after . Hamel noted an estimated $100,000 allocated toward the current bus drivers' pension assessment, unemployment and health insurance costs will be saved due to the new contract with the transportation company.

The fiscal year 2012 school operating budget is narrowed down to $19,802,121; using a revised fiscal year 2011 budget as a marker of $20,567,515 dollars, fiscal year 2012 is short $765,394.

Using cost-saving methods, the district was able to hang onto another $460,018. This is broken down as follows: $123,858 from the contingency account; $269,160 from the education jobs program; $60,000 from use of building funds; and $7,000 from the community swim program. This brought the total deficit dealt with preliminarily at the May 26 meeting to $305,376.

After evaluating tier 1 budget reduction savings, the district was able to save $318,849. However, this came at the expense of a social studies teacher in the middle school and all of the progress made with bolstering technology accessibility within the schools.

A unanimous decision was made by the school committee, on the advisement of the Director of Curriculum Jane Daly to embargo the $60,000 expenditure for new books for now, dropping the deficit down to $245,376.

School Committee Member David Quinn proposed reallocating the $50,000 for technology that was reduced in the tier 1 proposal back into the budget, which reduced the savings to $268,849 and brought the budget deficit back up to $295,376.

Quinn also led an impassioned plea for the retention of the middle school social studies teacher, as it hit him close to home – Quinn teaches middle school history. The board passed the measure, allocating a salary of $55,589 back into the budget for the teacher, bringing the total deficit up to $350,965.

After subtracting the total tier 1 modified savings of $268,849 from the total deficit of $350,965, the school district is left $82,116 in the red.

A committee resolution was passed to request the $82,116 from the town of Seekonk, as each school committee member echoed the other in saying they have cut all they could.

The public hearing on the proposed 2012 fiscal year budget is scheduled for June 6 at 7 p.m.