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“Stimulus is not the panacea for the Milton school budget this year, unfortunately,” School Committee Member Glenn Pavlicek said at the committee’s meeting last week. “At best, you’re only talking about $800,000 or so. It’s not going to solve all our problems.”
Without $1.3 million more than the current budget – which could come with the passage of a Proposition 2 1/2 override – officials have said they would have to close an elementary school and cut 40 school positions, including over a dozen teachers.
An override including the entire $1.3 million for schools would keep the school open but would still involve some degree of personnel cuts.
Pavlicek, who is part of the financial subcommittee, said there are two scenarios floating around about stimulus packages. However, both would involve starting new programs that would have to be discontinued after two years.
One scenario would bring around $750,000 worth of special education grants into the school’s budget over that two-year span. At least half of that money would have to be used for programs “that are of short duration,” Pavlicek said.
“The trick is, how do you determine what kinds of programs can be effective? That money will go away after two years,” he said.
Another scenario, that he said is “far less secure,” would bring around $1.1 million in a similar two-year package, with half of the money being spent on new programs. It is unclear how that money could be used.
Pavlicek said the “first clue” will come when the House budget is released, which was expected this week.
Regardless, he said school officials will still likely “be shooting at a moving target” with their budgeting until Annual Town Meeting, which begins May 4.
“It’s not going to be sufficient, whatever we get,” he said of federal stimulus funding.
The Warrant Committee is recommending two budgets to Town Meeting: one contingent on the passage of a $3.3 million override would be enough to keep all schools open; one that tries to balance the town’s finances without an override would not.
The School Committee will hold an open budget hearing Thursday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Milton High School, 25 Gile Road.