By Melanie Petrucci, Senior Community Reporter
Southborough – Southborough’s annual Town Meeting will convene April 9 at 7 p.m. at P. Brent Trottier Middle School. A significant portion of the meeting will be devoted to the school budget, seeking $20,405,986 for grades 1 through 8 and $739,474 for kindergarten. Southborough’s portion of the budget for Algonquin Regional High School (ARHS) is $8,090,654.
School Superintendent Christine Johnson gave a presentation to the Southborough School Committee Feb. 14, sharing that the requested budget is $624,728 over last year and reflects a 3.16 percent increase. A public hearing was held March 14.
This budget is level-serviced with staffing to accommodate student enrollment and to maintain programming at all levels. It enables support for district-wide professional development, technology and will also continue to utilize facilities rental income. It also provides for an essential communications system.
As is the case with the Northborough and ARHS budgets, this budget is affected by increased costs in student support services, employee shifts, limited savings, contractual obligations (2 percent cost of living allowance), and increasing pre-school enrollments. However, a circuit breaker reimbursement in the amount of $270,000 will help offset these costs.
The kindergarten program’s proposed budget, if appropriated, will support 83 percent of the total costs of the program, resulting is the reduction of tuition from $2,950 to $2,000. The reduction continues the process of transitioning to a tuition-free kindergarten.
For further information about Southborough’s annual Town Meeting, visit www.southboroughtown.com/town-meeting/pages/2018-annual-town-meeting. For Southborough Public School information, visit www.nsboro.k12.ma.us/pages/Northboro-Southboro.