School Committee pares budget, to 8 percent increase
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Northborough - School Superintendent Charles Gobron and the Northborough School Committee continue to shape its fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget.

Gobron presented to the committee at its most recent meeting a preliminary budget of $17.9 million for the operation of K-8 schools in the district. That amount is an increase of about 8 percent (roughly $1.3 million) over the FY 2008 budget the district is operating under currently.

Town Administrator Barry Brenner has gone on record saying that the town can only aff ord the schools budget to increase by a maximum of 2.5 percent to stay within Proposition 2-1/2 guidelines. That translates in to a dollar amount increase of about $413,000.

"We did not come to this easily," Gobron said of the proposed budget. "There's no fluff in there."

The budget Gobron presented, however, is $160,000 less than the one Gobron and the committee discussed at its December 2007 meeting.

The FY 2009 preliminary budget includes a position in the district's main office that will oversee the K-8 operation in Northborough. Also in the budget is the Northborough portion, $48,000, of a central office position that will, among other things, oversee the operation of Algonquin Regional High School, as well as the town's share, $18,000, of a data compliance specialist for the district.

In addition, the proposed budget includes a team leader at Melican Middle School, an increase of work hours for clerical aides, salary increases for principal secretaries and technology specialists, three new Special Education aides, and a part-time Special Education teacher at Peaslee School.

In total, the staffing requests are about $240,000 of the increase.

Gobron said the elimination of $160,000 from the budget figure discussed in December was a result of cuts in several areas, and included a savings of $60,000 for leasing rather than purchasing computer equipment.

In addition, Gobron said the textbook line item was cut by $24,000, heating costs were reduced by $13,000 because of repairs completed at Zeh School, and $11,900 was eliminated from the instructional materials line item.

"This budget eliminates no teaching positions," Gobron said. "We have done our best to maintain class sizes."

Gobron was sympathetic to the anticipated financial strain the town expects to be under, but he was unapologetic for his budget request.

"We have a vision for where we're going and we want to let people see what it is," Gobron said. "It's understandable that some of the requests may not be met, but at least we can show the town and the administration, the faculty and the staff in our schools what our plan is, where we feel we're headed, as we move forward."

The superintendent indicated that the picture may get bleaker before it gets better. The district is negotiating teachers' salaries and have no idea what those figures will come in at, and the district is also going out to bid for a new transportation contract, the first in several years, so he expects an increase in that area as well.

Gobron said he will continue to work with the school principals in the district to see if there are further reductions that can be made before the final budget and recommendations are presented to the School Committee next month.

"We're looking at everything," Gobron said, "every line item, every department, every everything."