Mount Greylock Budget Reviewed by Finance
WILLIAMSTOWN — The Finance Committee had nothing but praise for the work that went into the coming year's school budget.Members of the Mount Greylock Regional School Committee outlined a fiscal 2009 budget for the town panel on Thursday night. The budget had been approved on Wednesday after several weeks of work and public hearings.
(The PowerPoint presentation is below or click here.)
"This is terrific. I think it's looking very, very good," said Suzanne Stinson, chairman of the Finance Committee. "Thank you for a really great presentation and bringing to attention all the really good things that are going on."
The school district has struggled to contain costs over the past several years; last year, town officials refused to support an escalating budget and a task force was established to research long-term financial needs.
This year, school officials say they've produced a basic budget aided by a surplus in the Excess and Defiency Fund.
School Committee member David Archibald stressed during the presentation the conservative approach taken by his board.
"We've grown the E and D Fund by about $100,000 the past few years. We could have said, 'Let's be profligate now because we have a history of this,'" he said. "But we're being up front and telling you we have this history."
"This [budget] addresses the needs of budget realities and maintains programs — I like to say, 'award-winning programs' — and addresses the long-term needs and directions by adding some things that [Superintendent William Travis] alluded to and does it all with a budget that controls spending and asks for increases mainly to cover uncontrolled costs."
The budget is up $539,000 over this year, or about 5.73 percent. That means a projected increase in assessments of $214,000, or 5 percent,to Williamstown and $20,000, or .94 percent, to Lanesborough.
The increase is based primarily on uncontrolled employee benefits of about $183,000, fuel oil price hikes of about $100,000 and special education changes costing $167,000 for four required paraprofessionals and changes in outplacement.
In good news, the school has been able to stash $263,000 in savings in the E and D Fund, which will cover some increases and changes in staffing and curriculum for adding a fourth year of math in the high school and an instructor in the middle school, among other changes.
Officials also believe a change in health insurance carriers will result in significant savings.
However, Travis cautioned that bare budgets could not be maintained into the future because of school needs.
"I do not think that minimum solutions can be the permanent way of doing business at Mount Greylock," he said. "If someone in the private sector were to hear about our accomplishments, we would draw investment ... if this were a prep school or college we would draw alumni contributions."
(If the presentation cannot be seen, try opening the page in Explorer.)
