$36.3-Million School Budget Plan Adopted; District Weighs Levies

By Meaghan Wims

MIDDLETOWN — The School Committee last night adopted a $36.3- million budget proposal for the next fiscal year, a spending plan that includes a 3.4-percent increase in expenditures and calls for the potential elimination of 16 positions.

There’s also talk of levying student fees to offset next year’s budget crunch. The school district is coping with declining education aid and the state’s 5-percent cap next year on tax levy increases.

The School Committee asked Schools Supt. Rosemarie K. Kraeger to inquire with the committee’s lawyer and the state Department of Education about which fees — if any — the school system could mandate for student participation in activities or for transportation to sporting events. State law prohibits school districts from charging sports fees, but school officials said the state may allow some fees, or perhaps donations from nonprofit organizations directed toward athletic costs.

“At the state level, what we’re faced with is going to be a Basic Education Plan in all the districts,” said committee member Edward K. Draper, referring to a stripped-down educational model devoid of all “extras.”

“We could come up with a fair activities fee that could accommodate those that can’t pay” and offset costs, Draper said.

Should the state give the OK, the school board would have to decide whether to levy across-the-board fees to all students or “pay- to-play” fees for just those students who sign up for a particular sport or activity.

Next year’s potential staff reductions, which would save about $500,000 in salaries, include five teachers at Gaudet Middle School, the school district’s only remaining English-as-a-second-language instructor, three elementary teachers, three reading teachers, 3.7 positions at Middletown High School and one teaching assistant.

Kraeger said she recommended those layoffs begrudgingly.

“There’s been significant cuts in personnel,” she said. “We felt it last year and we’re feeling it this year [fiscal year 2009].”

The school spending proposal assumes level funding in state aid and leaves little wriggle room if the state’s allocation dips or if enrollment grows.

The school district has lost 491 students from its roster since 2000, mostly because of departing military families as the Navy’s presence on Aquidneck Island has diminished. The school district is projecting enrollment to drop by another 72 students next school year, to 2,343.

Kraeger said she could think of only three ways the district could account for any shortfalls: removing a bus from the fleet, eliminating the high school dean position or reducing sports programs.

The overall budget, include restricted dollars, is about $490,000 less than this year’s total budget, but the operating budget represents about a $1-million increase over the current year.

School administrators were able to reduce the budget proposal by reducing life insurance costs, vocational education tuitions and mentoring stipends for teachers, among other things. The budget also calls for reduction in the hours worked by library assistants, potentially eliminating afterschool library hours at the high school.

On the other hand, the budget calls for spending $70,000 on new textbooks district-wide — this year the district budgeted for no new books — and $10,000 for a new student testing system to help assess math achievement in grades 7 to 9.

The largest budget increase — 15 percent — is in the area of special education. But school officials have noted that the increase is due in large part because of a reduction in federal Medicaid reimbursement.

Kraeger is also proposing an additional $78,000 for legal services related to arbitration and grievances, a doubling of the current-year budget for that line item, which is expected to run over budget.

The budget also includes transferring the accounting of the School Department’s bond indebtedness to the municipal side of the budget, a bookkeeping move suggested by town officials.

The schools’ budget proposal now goes to the Town Council for its review. Interim Town Administrator Shawn J. Brown must present his municipal spending plan to the Town Council by April 1.

Middletown mwims@projo.com / (401) 277-7582

Originally published by Meaghan Wims, Journal Staff Writer.

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