WESTBROOK – By using an estimated carry-over from this year and cutting spending on technology and staff, Westbrook’s school Finance Committee has shaped a proposed new budget that will have a zero percent tax increase.
During an April 3 meeting, the committee voted to send the proposed $32.3 million budget to the full School Committee, after more than $1 million was cut from the budget.
“The forecast makes us believe we will finish with $850,000 in carry-forward funds. That’s carry forward in the existing budget, and we were able to do that with controlled spending,” said school Superintendent Marc Gousse.
The last round of adjustments likely will make the potential price tag easier to swallow for taxpayers, who were first looking at a proposed $33.3 million spending plan, a $2.4 million increase on this year’s $30.9 million budget.
The $32.3 million, while representing no tax increase to residents, is still $1.4 million higher than this year’s budget. The district will receive more revenue from the state than anticipated this year, offsetting the higher bottom line.
Gousse unveiled his recommendations to remove more than $600,000 from the proposed budget, which included reducing line items, including the unemployment budget, text books – a redundancy since technology will cover many lessons – and eliminating the proposed K-4 math coach.
Without use of the carry-forward, the tax rate would be $17.46 for $1,000 of assessed valuation, 6 cents higher than the current rate of $17.40.
The projected carry-forward amount won’t be confirmed until the audit for this fiscal year is complete, sometime in September. Residents will vote on the proposed budget on June 11.
Some expenditures slated for the new budget will be purchased this year using the excess funds. Those items include $16,000 for time-tracking software to help with a new school department payroll position. Pay for a staff member who now works full time on the job was split between the school and city. But the school and city have ceased sharing finance departments, and the new school position is budgeted for 80 percent time.
Mounts for projectors, a $25,000 proposal brought forth by Finance Committee Chairman Alex Stone to better utilize the technology at the high school and middle school, will also come from the carry-forward fund.
Other items covered under the carry-over will come out of this year’s budget, except for $54,000 for the summer literacy program because the program will not start until after the new fiscal year begins. Instead, the committee has earmarked money in the contingency fund for that program.
Approximately $114,000 from the projected carry-over is slated to pay down the proposed budget in order to bring the tax increase to zero, depending on final approval from the School Committee.
The remaining $230,000 of the potential leftover funds from this year’s budget will be added to a new contingency account, which already includes $50,000 that Gousse had budgeted. There is no contingency account in this year’s budget.
The plan to buy back approximately 1,500 laptops from the Maine Learning Technology Initiative used by the middle school and high school students and staff, would have cost $74,000 in the proposed budget. Instead of adding that item to the budget next year, the Finance Committee agreed to remove that item from the budget and instead use E-rate funds – money from a federal program that supports technology in schools – to purchase the computers.
Other line items, like supplies and bus maintenance cost, were reduced, but not cut out.
“In my eyes, we need to get tighter on the budget or we need to cut the contingency account,” said committee member Jim Violette.
Because the Finance Committee has been cutting each department’s budget close to what that department spent this year compared to what they asked for, Gousse warned that carry-forwards in the future will be reduced “because there would not be as much room for excess.”
Some of the most noteworthy items cut from the budget were the proposed math coach and a maintenance position. The salary from the maintenance position will be used to cover a new maintenance coordinator.
Three new elementary school teachers, one at each school, were added, keeping class sizes around 19 students per teacher.
A new technology coordinator, whose pay is offset by not filling the technology integration leader job, and a new transportation manager, whose pay is offset by eliminating a support staff position in the transportation department, will also be added next year. Those bring the total new positions to seven, including a new gifted and talented teacher for both elementary and middle schools.
“In the current system, we made a lot of cuts in years’ past to get here. We’re identifying now some of the cuts didn’t work and now we’re trying to right the ship,” Stone said about some of the new additions.
Concerns over adding a grant writer for $64,000 were also discussed during the meeting. Stone said the grant writer had until December to show if he or she were able to provide enough funds to cover salary and benefits and earn money for the school.
A proposed middle school resource officer, a policeman who patrols the school, was not funded. The high school resource officer will continue his duties at the school next year.
“We brought forward significant additional cuts, and I did not agree with all of them,” Gousse said at the end of the meeting. “We’re getting very close to the line that I’m not comfortable with.”
The School Committee was scheduled to hold a public hearing Wednesday night, after the American Journal deadline, on the budget proposal.
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