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School budget shortfall could
exceed $1M in 2011
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
While it is
still too early to know for sure, the Canton Public Schools
looks to be headed toward a “very, very dark period” for the
next couple of years, according to Superintendent Dr. John
D’Auria, who previewed the FY2011 operating budget at last
week’s School Committee meeting.
Although no
actual line items were discussed, D’Auria, along with School
Business Manager Ken Leon, outlined some of the factors
influencing next year’s bottom line, and they offered at least
one scenario based on early projections that showed the schools
facing a deficit of nearly $1.2 million.
Of course,
that figure could climb even higher — or shrink — depending on a
number of “moving targets,” including the state budget, which
determines local aid, and the Board of Assessors’ ten-year
revaluation of properties, which may or may not capture any
additional revenues from so-called “new growth.”
D’Auria said
Finance Director Jim Murgia based his current projections on a
10 percent reduction in local aid and a $450,000 increase in
revenues from the revaluation program, although he stressed that
both figures were “rough estimates” and largely unpredictable.
“If you
thought that the capital budget was complicated, that was like
fractions compared to calculus,” D’Auria warned committee
members.
He said it
could be months before the committee knows the full scale of the
problem, but in the meantime, he suggested they focus their
efforts on “short-term solutions,” such as creating a
stabilization fund that would help cover extraordinary costs
related to out-of-district special education services.
However, Leon
said the problem with that particular plan is that any
stabilization fund would have to be replenished after tapping
into it, which would be nearly impossible given the schools’
growing structural deficit in special education.
In fact,
Canton’s out-of-district services, which are mandated by state
law, have resulted in a net deficit of approximately $360,000
this year alone and have forced the School Committee to seek
relief from the town’s cash reserves. Meanwhile, next year’s
projected deficit is more than twice that number — $894,000,
according to Leon’s most recent projections.
But School
Committee Chairman Reuki Schutt expressed a “tremendous amount
of discomfort” at the idea of carrying any kind of deficit at
all, insisting that, as painful as it may be, it is their legal
and ethical responsibility to balance the budget each year.
In response,
committee member Robert Barker said it was also not fair to the
regular education population if they “balanced the budget on the
backs of these [special education] mandates,” and he was
prepared to echo the point in future meetings with the Finance
Committee; otherwise, he said, the schools are “going to have a
bath to take” in 2011.
Committee
member Liz Salisbury added that the growing demand for special
education services is a community issue, not just a financial
bullet for the schools to take alone.
But while
Schutt did not disagree, she said it was unrealistic to expect
too much sympathy from taxpayers: “They’re going to say, ‘We’re
giving you $30 million bucks. Educate the kids; make it work.’”
At the same
time, Schutt said it was a shame that more people from Canton
have not lobbied their lawmakers on behalf of the schools,
especially since the vast majority of their children — the
regular education students — are the ones most affected by
rising special education costs.
Earlier in the
meeting, D’Auria touched on that reality by recommending a new
budget guideline, whereby shortfalls are addressed in a way that
offers the “greatest protection for the learning of all
students.”
The School
Committee unanimously approved the recommendation, along with
another new guideline that stressed a continued focus on energy
savings “both by upgrading systems and by changing behaviors
that will lead to energy conservation.”
D’Auria said
energy is the “one place in the budget that we have a shot at
saving some money and not losing quality.”
To that end,
the School Committee also agreed to move forward with a plan to
make various heating and lighting upgrades using “performance
contracting,” a long-term arrangement that uses guaranteed
energy savings to fund the cost of the projects. Leon said the
company will first complete an investment-grade energy audit, at
a cost of $30,000, to determine whether the projects are
feasible. He said the schools would have to absorb that cost if
they chose to walk away from the contract, but he could not
envision a scenario where that would happen.
In other
School Committee news:
• The
committee unanimously voted to extend its bus contract with
Michael J. Connolly & Sons for the 2010-2011 school year. Leon
said the total cost for Canton will increase $13,000, or 1.9
percent; however, he said it is still by far the cheapest option
for now.
• Schutt
announced that committee member Cindy Thomas will chair the
superintendent search committee, which will take shape in the
coming weeks. Schutt said she and Thomas have two goals for the
search committee: ensuring a “broad scope of all interested
parties while maintaining a manageable size.”
She said the
search committee will recommend three to five finalists, but the
job of selecting the next superintendent will “fall completely
on the School Committee” and is one of their “gravest
responsibilities.”
January 14, 2010
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