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According to Hurley, the override budget puts back money for things the committee deemed “essential to town services” but would not include set-asides for future contractual raises.
“We don’t feel there’s a sentiment out there to use an override to fund pay increases,” he said. “That’s the approach we’ve taken. We’ve added back specific things – like $150,000 for vehicle maintenance – things all departments need.”
But on March 18, members of the School Committee said they were surprised the committee’s override scenario doesn’t include the entire $1.3 million they say they need to avoid closing a school and honor teacher raises.
“I’m dumbfounded by this,” School Committee Member Chris Huban said. “I thought we were crystal clear of why we needed that $1.3 [million]. If it’s not $1.3 [million], it might as well be zero.”
Committee Member Glenn Pavlicek called the Warrant Committee’s proposal “an override that’s not guaranteed to keep a school open.”
In addition, he said any override must include $1 million just to have the same town budget due to anticipated drops in revenue. He said he has talked to State House officials about the town acquiring stimulus money for schools but they don’t know what’s available.
“It’s a fairly scary budget we’re looking at,” he said. “Everything is very much up in the air right now. No one has any clue as to what kind of stimulus money is going to be passed down.”
School officials are waiting to hear from the Massachusetts School Building Authority if closing a school would affect state reimbursement for school construction done over the past few years, School Committee member Lynda-Lee Sheridan said.
“We’re really breaking ground here. Other communities, if they have to close a school, they close the oldest one,” she said. “We have all new or newly renovated buildings.”
School Committee member Mary Kelly said the town should also be looking to expend some of its stabilization fund – the so-called “rainy day” account – to ease a portion of the budgets’ impact on taxpayers. There’s currently around $1 million in the fund.
“I’ve been saying all along: This is a rainy day fund and it’s pouring out here,” Kelly said.
Other town officials, including Hurley and Selectman John Shields, have expressed opposition to using stabilization money because they say it could negatively affect the town if bond agencies think the town can’t save for the future.
Pavlicek, at an earlier meeting, said stabilization money could be “a huge deal. Six-hundred-thousand dollars out of the stabilization fund is the difference between a $3.1 [million] and a $2.5 million override.”
Without any additional funding, school officials have said 42 personnel – 18 of them teachers – would be laid off and either the Tucker or Cunningham elementary school would have to be closed.
The Warrant Committee’s override budget will be published by the Times as soon as the numbers are finalized.