School budget $36.3 million, an increase of 3 percent
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough - It was an arduous process, but the Westborough School Committee approved a fiscal year (FY) 2009 budget of $36.34 million at its April 9 meeting.

The figure represents an increase of 3 percent over the school district's FY 2008 budget, as requested by Westborough Town Coordinator Henry Danis in February. Danis requested the 3 percent increase cap so the town could avoid having to request a Proposition 2-1/2 override.

"It's certainly not what we consider the ideal budget," Westborough Superintendent of Schools Anne Towle said, "but we feel we can live with it."

Towle and the School Department originally proposed a budget of more than $37 million, which was an increase of more than 6 percent from the FY 2008 budget, which was $35.25 million.

More than $29 million of the FY 2009 budget will go for salaries, while $7 million is earmarked for services.

The net reduction of personnel in the FY 2009 budget compared to the FY 2008 budget is seven positions totaling about $715,000, according to the School Department's Dan Hendricks, the director of administration and business. In all, 14 positions were removed, but seven were put back in various forms.

Included in the seven eliminated positions are two teachers, two paraprofessionals and a school administrator position - director of student services - which has a salary of $100,000.

The seven positions added into the FY 2009 budget totals about $262,000, Hendricks said.

Not included in the budget are amounts that will be needed for the resolution of the school district's ongoing contract dispute with the Westborough Teachers Association (WTA), which includes teachers and paraprofessionals.

"That's something that will have to be reviewed if and when it happens," School Committee Chair Rod Jané said. "Right now we're going forward with a budget based on what we know. Because that issue is in such a state of flux, the School Department felt, and the School Committee agreed, that we would reassess the issue and review our options if or when it becomes necessary."

The WTA is working under a one-year extension of a contract that expired last summer. The contract dispute, which went to mediation and is now in a factfinding phase, will not be settled before the budget is reviewed and voted on by residents at Town Meeting Saturday May 17.

Jané said if a contract settlement is reached with the WTA, one option for funding the salary increases - current, and retroactive if necessary - would be requesting a Proposition 2-1/2 override proposal brought to a Special Town Meeting in October.

In the final review of the proposed FY 2009 budget at the April 9 School Committee meeting, the administration and the committee recommended cuts of $20,000 to both the athletic and fine arts budgets, but that was actually a reduction from the $40,000 in cuts proposed to both budgets at the April 2 meeting.

In addition, Jobs for Bay State Graduates, a $35,000 budget item, recommended to be eliminated in March, was reinstated in two phases. First, Towle announced that a grant the district has received will fund $20,000 of the program and the other $15,000 will be absorbed into the budget, although Towle said she is hopeful a company or companies will step forward and donate to help fund the program.