By Brian Zanzonico
The Citizens Budget Committee, Superintendent Dr. Tim Lafferty and Patrick Manley, assistant superintendent for finance management, will continue whittling down the bottom line through the spring, but the preliminary spending plan totals $29,637,439, up from $27,292,195. Because Lafferty is stepping down at the end of the school year, this is the last budget he will have a hand in.
"Tonight's numbers probably shocked you," Manley told a small crowd at John Street School. "We've got three and a half months to refine it."
Compensation for personnel accounts for the bulk of the money, with almost 75 percent of the budget earmarked for salaries and benefits.
The school board is hoping to avoid a repeat of last year, when its budget was one of 18 across the county rejected by voters, forcing it to make cuts. That was one of three options the board considered. The others were to either resubmit the budget without changes, or adopt a contingency budget. With the cuts made by the board, the average home tax increase was $104. If the board had sent the budget back to voters untouched and it passed, the average increase would have been $135; a contingency budget would have included a tax increase of about $49.
The board reluctantly eliminated three teacher positions, a teacher assistant, a teacher aide and textbooks for grades one and two. That trimmed some $300,000 from the budget, and it passed the second time around.
Prior to last May's initial rejection of the budget, the school district had seen a sharp decline in the number of votes by which it had passed in recent years. The 2002-03 budget was approved by 393 votes. The following year the margin was 112, and in 2004-05 it was approved by just seven votes.
Budget vote day is Tuesday, May 16.
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