Lanesborough Wants More Maintenance In Mt. Greylock Budget
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The Mount Greylock Regional proposed spending plan found a warmer welcome in Lanesborough than in past years. |
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — After initially shorting the Mount Greylock Regional High School budget in two of the last three years, Lanesborough Selectmen feel this year's budget is too small.
Plus school officials aren't hiding that they may be coming back midyear to ask for more.
School Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene said the school district would ask the town for another $60,000 for a feasibility study should it be accepted into the Massachusetts School Building Authority program, and hopes the Selectmen will set aside enough funds in their budget.
The $10 million school budget is increasing by $219,710, all of which will be absorbed by reserve accounts. With enrollment showing a slightly higher number of Lanesborough students, the town will see an increase of 1.3 percent in assessment while Williamstown will see a decrease of 1 percent.
Overall, Lanesborough is being asked to pay $2,551,864 while Williamstown is being asked to pay $4,559,872, or about $50,000 less than this year. A proposal to have Williamstown pay more than its share has so far been rebuffed.
"This budget reflects what I call guarded stability," Superintendent Rose Ellis told the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee on Monday night. "It also represents a commitment to be fiscally prudent."
While budgeting was helped by slight increases in Chapter 70 state aid, level federal and state grants, no increases in health insurance and a decrease in charter school tuition, the Selectmen were concerned that the school had not put enough toward building maintenance.
"We're happy with the size of your request but on the other hand, given the concern with maintenance, I would like to hear you say you want a little more and do more preventive maintenance," Selectman Robert Barton said. "I don't think you've asked for enough. I would prefer to see an increase in the maintenance fund even if it went into some kind of sinking fund."
Barton asked if the school had considered putting aside money each year in an account for ongoing maintenance. Twice Lanesborough voters had shot down an effort to create a stabilization account, which School Committee David Langston said would be used for maintenance as well as give the school better bond ratings.
If Lanesborough was now willing to support that, Langston said, "the School Committee will be very grateful."
Selectman William Prendergast said selectmen weren't ready to support that type of account because the feeling is they would have no control over it. But he liked the idea of creating some type of ongoing maintenance plan.
"I think the stabilization fund has pitfalls we are not ready for so maybe there is another way to fund it," he said.
The Selectmen have repeatedly expressed frustration that the school had deferred maintenance on the building over the years and now it has fallen into disrepair. Ellis said the school is "playing catch up now."
While the budget is palatable this year, Greene wanted to forewarn the Selectmen that they may be asked for more money for a feasibility study.
"If, by chance, the Mount Greylock School District is accepted into the program with the MSBA for building and we do move forward with the eligibility phase, which would result in a feasibility study, it is possible we would be looking for funds in FY14," Greene said.
The study would cost an estimated $600,000 with the state paying about half, the school district paying $125,000 and the towns splitting the remaining $175,000.
"These are ballpark figures but I don't want anybody to be caught off guard," she said.
Tags: fiscal 2014, MGRHS, school budget,
