Lanesborough OK's School Budget Compromise
.jpg) |
More than 100 voters packed into the muggy elementary school gym for the special town meeting and moved fairly quickly through the nine-article warrant.
Town Administrator Paul Boudreau explained how the School Committee had been willing to split the $60,000 voted out of the assessment at town meeting.
"Somewhere along the way, we are going to end up spending some money, but this is the best deal we are going to get," Selectman William Prendergast Jr. told voters. "We have to bite the bullet and accept what we've got."
.jpg)
The vote settles the fiscal 2011 budget for the regional high school and resolves some tension between the town and district. The school district recently joined a cost-sharing agreement with the Lanesborough-Williamstown school union to share administrators including Superintendent Rose Ellis. However, the partnership will not change the way the schools are funded through the two towns.Williamstown, which approved its $4.65 million in May, will get a return of $45,000 from the school district because the assessments are proportionate.
Voters also transferred $3,000 toward the assessor's salary and rejected a community outreach coordinator position. Assistant Librarian Joan Weissbluth volunteered for the position without pay, adding other library workers were willing to help, too. The position may be rolled into the Council on Aging.
— Mackenzie Haig
Original posting on July 13, 2010, at 10:32 a.m.
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The town will vote tonight, Tuesday, on a revised budget for the Mount Greylock Regional School District.
The special town meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at the Lanesborough Elementary School.
The town rejected the school district's request for $2.6 million on June 8 by slashing the figure by $60,000, in line with the Finance Committee's recommendation. Voters also rejected two debt exclusion articles that would have allowed the school to count bonding for capital projects — final payments on roof repairs and replacement of the boilers and reconstruction of the locker rooms — outside of Proposition 2 1/2 limits. Town officials had warned the School Committee in April that Lanesborough was in dire financial difficulty.
In late June, the Selectmen and School Committee came to a compromise to split the difference of the $60,000 gap. Mount Greylock will use anticipated savings from a new shared-cost agreement with the elementary schools to cover half the amount; Lanesborough will make up the balance with town budget reductions, if voters approve.
Tonight's nine-article warrant will transfer money from town accounts to come up with the $30,000. It includes reductions to elementary school, Police Department, Highway Department and library budgets, and funds from the Veterans Benefit account, or to take the entire amount from the stabilization account.
The remaining articles deal with reductions to the retirement account because of overlooked contributions from the Baker Hill Road District; $14,000 for the appointment of a chief assessor (town meeting approved this position in June) and $2,600 for a community outreach position for seniors.
Lanesborough Special Meeting 07132010
