School Committee Members Attempt to Trim the Budget

Seekonk school committee members and school administrators attempted to rectify the budget crisis during Tuesday's night's workshop - approximately $810,000 needs to be trimmed from the projected fiscal 2012 budget. During the planning session, members examined the budget line by line and addressed several options regarding where cuts could be made. According to school administrators, the financial reduction will be painful.

“What we thought was best was a level service budget. What this does, doesn’t allow us to grow as a district,” said Superintendent Madeline Meyer.

A level service budget means budgeting the dollars necessary to keep the same level of service and programs from the previous year, taking into account inflation, contractual obligations and enrollment.

“I think a level service budget is absolutely fair. I think a 3.2 percent increase is reasonable,” said Meyer.

That being said, in an effort to come closer to the $810,000 that the town is asking the schools to cut from their current proposed fiscal year 2012 budget, several options were presented to the committee.

Two massive proposed savings would come from eliminating one full-time technology teaching position and one full-time differentiated instructor. These two cuts would save the district $102,166. While these savings are quite substantial, the committee members are resolutely opposed to eliminating teaching positions.

“I have big concerns about when I was a kid, once we cut a teacher or a program it doesn’t come back. As soon as we start cutting positions and programs you can kiss them goodbye,” said Committee Secretary David Quinn.

Another large potential savings area came from the withdrawal of a request for $75,000 for textbooks. That number has been reduced to $15,000 since the rest of the money would be spent on books that would not be ready for purchase at the start of the school year. It was noted that the money would be requested in the following year’s budget.

“If we are measuring a person versus a text, it’s hard to select the text,” said Meyer.

Instructional and technology hardware requests were also reduced by $69,500 in the newly proposed budget cuts. While the schools still need a significant amount of money to replace outdated laptops and purchase new iPad Carts, they were willing to cut their request significantly.

Committee member John Bilodeau was visibly unsupportive of granting funds for teachers to get new laptops, even after it was explained that they need working computers to stream videos and run programs.   

“If we need to, I’m coming back to those laptops. You should see the computer I make my wife use,” said Bilodeau.

Another major cost-saving potential would be in the elimination of transportation services for the high school.  Doing so would save the district around $70,000 by eliminating bus driver salaries, medical expenses, transportation parts, equipment and fuel. The district has also decided not to purchase three new regular day buses, saving $107,833.

The transportation request for proposals (RFPs) are due to the committee by April 25 and they will then decide what to do about transportation services. Total elimination is only one option; there is also the potential to charge fees for transportation services.

There was talk about the possibility of eliminating librarian positions, but High School Principal Marcia McGovern warned the committee that doing so would but the school in a difficult situation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and their accreditation.

“If we cut we are definitely on warning with NEASC. You don’t want to be on warning, it’s not a distinction you want to have,” said McGovern.

The state requires that one licensed librarian and one library support member must be on staff for every 500 students in a school, if there is not, the school would be put on warning and have to reconcile the situation with six months.

The cuts that were discussed at the meeting were not set in stone; they were simply suggestions to areas that could allow for cost savings if the town cannot lower the amount of money that schools need to come up with.

“What they presented were options. Now we decide what chunks to take, now we know what we have,” said Committee Chairman Mitchell Vieira.