A Gorham School Committee member is “disgruntled” with a budget that drops three positions and a town councilor wants schools to trim this year’s budget to keep the town’s tax rate down.
The school budget would eliminate two teacher positions, most likely one each at Narragansett and Gorham Middle School, and one elementary school ed tech. “I’m not going to support a budget that doesn’t support the students,” said School Committee Member Jason Libby before the school committee voted 6-1 to adopt its budget last week. “I’m not happy.”
The School Committee is asking the town council to approve a $28 million budget, up 7.2 percent from last year’s $26.1 million.
Paul Kelly, business manager for the Gorham School Department, will deliver the school budget to Town Manager David Cole April 19. The School Committee and the Town Council will review it in a joint workshop on at 7 p.m. on April 25 in the auditorium at Gorham High School.
Town Councilor Cal Hamblen wants to amend the school’s budget request to keep the town’s tax rate below $20. “I don’t think they should go up any more than the municipal budget,” Hamblen said.
The school’s budget increase would add 36 cents to the town’s tax rate and Cole’s proposed 5.2 percent budget increase on the town’s side would add 21 cents. Combined the two would push the tax rate over $20 from the present $19.50 per thousand in valuation.
This year’s school budget would require $13.34 of the tax rate to pay for schools. The school budget increase would add about $520,000 to the local tax appropriation. For a home in Gorham valued at $150,000, the school’s budget increase would add $54 to the homeowner’s tax bill.
Norm Justice, vice chairman of the Gorham Town Council, thought all the councilors would have concerns about the 7.2 percent increase. “We’ll be looking at it hard,” Justice said.
Salaries and benefits accounted for 73 percent of the budget increase of approximately $1.9 million.
The school committee is adding $47,000 for a math specialist at the middle school. In addition, the budget adds two ed techs at the high school and two ed techs in elementary schools for the special needs program.
To initiate a mandated “gifted and talented” program, Gorham is spending $63,000 for an additional teacher. But the full time, contracted nurse position at White Rock School is being reduced to part time.
The budget includes $67,751 for an assistant principal at the high school. The position was filled last year but wasn’t budgeted.
Hoping to keep the two teacher positions and an ed tech from being eliminated, Libby favored other budget cuts, including $30,000 from the $429,020 athletic budget. Salaries for the two teacher positions being eliminated total $90,000 with another $18,000 for the ed tech being dropped.
“In order to make sure our children get the best education possible, we really need to fund services to get them to the top,” Libby said.
The school committee did not approve three additional positions this year. Libby supported administrators, who had asked for two additional ed tech positions, one for math and another for literacy, at the Village School and for a social worker at the high school. To pay a $54,000 salary for a social worker, Libby would have utilized capital improvement money tagged for the high school. Under the budget, $26,000 would be earmarked to refinish the gym floor and $33,000 to replace the stage floor in the auditorium.
The budget includes $190,000 in a contingency account, which Kelly said would be used to cover unsettled union and other contracts with administrators and central office staff. Kelly thought that “possibly” $50,000 would be left over in that account.
The state’s aid to Gorham will be $14.1 million, up $1.6 million from last year’s budget. The school’s budget is available on their Web site www.gorhamschools.org.
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