Lanesborough FinCom Hoping Schools Keep Budget Requests Minimal
 The Finance Committee met in the library on Thursday. |
Mount Greylock interim Superintendent Gordon Noseworthy said the school needs an 8.7 percent budget hike to maintain services.
That is caused by already negotiated teacher contracts, health insurance, utility, and a delayed bond payment — all totaling about $900,000.
Finance Committee Chairman Al Terranova, Selectman Henry "Hank" Sayers and Town Administrator Paul Sieloff met with Mount Greylock Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Greene, Business Manager Lynn Bassett, School Committee member Sheila Hebert and Noseworthy to discuss the situation.
"I thought it was a very low-key meeting. We just explained to them our situation," Terranova told the rest of the Finance Committee on Thursday. "I guess our message got through to them because they mentioned specially that Lanesborough was adamant about level funding or 1 percent [in the School Committee's last meeting]."
Sieloff said a 1 percent increase is all the town can afford and its is calling on Mount Greylock to make significant restructuring moves to reduce the cost of operations.
"The two schools are now 70-72 percent of the [town] budget and we just can't continue to go up," Sieloff said.
Sieloff suggested a reduction in staffing may be a way to cut costs. Mount Greylock is looking at a $171,0000 increase in health insurance but Sieloff says "it is not just about the cost but also the number of people on it."
Another idea is to reconsider choice and tuition for potential future savings — again relating to staff size. This idea has been kicked around by many town officials in the last year.
Tuition and school choice is opened by a vote of the School Committee every year for certain grades and number of students. The idea is to fill the undersized classes; the sending town sends a state standard dollar amount for the student's education.
However, that income may not enough to pay for the added costs of educating the child, particularly if extra staffing is needed. While school officials say they allow choice only on undersized classrooms, there is the possibility that another family could move in and send that class level over the "tipping point" to need more staffing, Sieloff said.
"The risk of having to add extra staff down the road isn't worth the little benefit you get," Sieloff said. "I just see it as very risky. The cost isn't just salary but the benefits, too."
Sieloff said school officials could also go for a Proposition 2 1/2 override but he doesn't think they'd get the town's support.
Terranova suggested going to the teachers and asking them if they have any ideas on how to streamline services.
"We just have to think of more efficient ways to do things," he said.
Elementary School officials are also hoping to craft a budget with a 1 percent increase. Both the Elementary School's budget and Mount Greylock's assessment are in the $2.5 million range, meaning each percentage point costs Lanesborough about $25,000.
Mount Greylock is expected to hold a public hearing on its budget in March at the Elementary School. School officials are currently looking at areas to trim the budget to meet Lanesborough's request.
Meanwhile, the Board of Selectmen have directed Sieloff to keep the town's budget overall at a 2 percent increase. The Selectmen wants to slow the increase in the tax rate. And it isn't far from now when voters will be asked for a debt exclusion to pay for a new high school.
Sieloff said the town's reserve accounts are still under what they should be. There is some $600,000 in stabilization, which is the account used for disasters, some $22,000 in reserves, which is funded by about $40,000 each year for the Finance Committee to use for unforeseen events, and about $315,000 in free cash, which is excess from the previous year's budget.
The free cash money is basically spent already, Sieloff said. Last year, $100,000 was placed into reserves for a fire truck and the town is planning to use another $100,000 from free cash for that purchase this year — eating up a third of the available free cash.
Between $20,000 and $25,000 is eyed for each of three other areas: fixes to Town Hall, other post-employment benefits, and stabilization. And the retiring police chief will be cashing in on unused vacation time he accrued at a price of $35,000 to $40,000.
In the end, the town will have about $50,000 in the free cash account.
Towns should keep about 10 percent of their budgets in all of the three reserve accounts, according to best accounting practices. Lanesborough has an annual budget of a little over $10 million, so the ideal is $1 million.
"We do want to get to that $10 percent," Sieloff said.
Tags: fiscal 2016, LES, MGRHS, school budget, town budget,
