School budget request up 6.74 percent
By Kate Daly Contributing Writer

Marlborough - Mayor Nancy Stevens is worried about the proposed $49 million school budget that was presented to the School Committee March 11. While she praised district officials for trying to keep funding level, the increase is steeper than projected revenues can cover.

"I don't know whether the city as a whole can sustain that percentage of an increase," Stevens said. "I am going to tell [the Finance Subcommittee members] they need to take a hard look at this budget."

The School Committee presentation was followed by a day of hearings March 12. On March 19, the School Committee's Finance Subcommittee was scheduled to review the budget again.

"The majority of the budget increase is in salary increases," said Assistant Superintendent James Jolicoeur, who made the presentation to the School Committee.

The district is in the third year of contracts with its employees. The contractual obligation is up 79 percent, or nearly $2.5 million.

The entire proposed budget increase is $3.1 million.

"I voted against the contracts last year because I said it was going to cause a huge financial hardship this year and that's what's happening," Stevens said. "I knew we would have a problem sustaining this kind of increase."

In crafting the budget, Jolicoeur said, the district focused on meeting contractual obligations and sustaining existing operations. The budget contains no new positions, he said.

"Our major priority is to continue to support teaching, learning and student achievement," he said.

Stevens also said that she didn't recommend cutting the budget in ways that would directly aff ect students.

"Sometimes you just have to look at how you do things," she said.

Jolicoeur noted in the budget presentation that district officials are looking at ways to manage placement of students out of the district to save money. The budget also shows a decrease of $46,000 in supplies and materials.

"One of our biggest challenges right now … is control of student transportation costs in very difficult times," he said, noting increased costs for gas, labor and vehicles. "That … has hit us as a pretty significant piece."

Meanwhile, Jolicoeur said, the budget has level revenues planned from 2008 to 2009. State and federal grants may come in higher, but the district often doesn't have firm figures until after the school year starts, he said.

Stevens also predicted revenue would not increase.

"The market is not great; we have some new projects coming on line," she said. "We're not going to continue to see the new growth."

As the officials head into serious budgeting for the whole city, Stevens said preliminary numbers show an increase in chapter 70 money, but not enough.

"It's not going to meet the increase that we need," she said. "The budget never goes down. It only goes up. I'm looking at some significant savings in other areas."

The Finance Subcommittee is expected to make its budget recommendation to the full School Committee Tuesday March 25. The public will have a chance to be heard at a public hearing Tuesday April 8 before the committee votes Tuesday April 22.