Claremont
The budget and rest of the warrant, approved by the School Board on Tuesday night, will first be presented to voters at the deliberative session on Feb. 8 beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Sugar River Technical Center.
The $31.2 million operating budget, which excludes the revenue neutral expenditures of $3.4 million for food service and grants, is $152,000, or half of 1 percent, less than budget for the current fiscal year ending June 30.
SAU 6 Business Manager Mike O’Neill said overall proposed spending, including separate articles for contracts with paraprofessionals, secretaries and maintenance and custodial employees, is down $38,000 from this year’s and represents a 5-cent decrease in the school tax rate.
But O’Neill said an 18-cent increase in the school tax rate is needed to offset a decrease in state aid of $128,000.
The estimated school tax rate increase of 13 cents would add $20 in annual taxes on a property assessed at $150,000.
The operating budget includes about $268,000 for a one-year teachers’ contract with the Sugar River Education Association and $29,000 for an agreement with administrators.
Superintendent Middleton McGoodwin said the budget does not eliminate any teaching positions, which was a requirement from the School Board when it asked the superintendent earlier this month to further reduce the budget so it did not increase the tax rate.
“It was a challenge because 80 percent of the budget is personnel,” McGoodwin said.
McGoodwin said the administration and board worked to minimize the tax rate impact while faced with declining state aid and a need to raise teachers’ salaries so they are more in line with those of surrounding communities. Additionally, fixed costs and health insurance keep increasing, he added.
“There were a lot of issues to be dealt with,” McGoodwin said. “We deferred maintenance. We deferred some technology. We didn’t decimate any one line item, but had to keep chipping away in areas we would have preferred not to.”
McGoodwin and School Board Chairman Brian Rapp warned that if state aid continues to decline, it will affect personnel next year.
“We cannot repeat this again,” McGoodwin said. “You can’t continue this way.”
Rapp said there was some discussion by the board to make further reductions to offset the loss of state aid, but it was decided that would cut too much.
“We can’t do this again (next year) without touching staff,” Rapp said.
In addition to the warrant articles for contracts, there are two others articles for security upgrades and roofing repairs.
Patrick O’Grady can be reached at pogclmt@gmail.com.
