Old Rochester Regional Superintendent of Schools Mike Nelson told the March 15 joint meeting of the Marion Finance Committee and Board of Selectmen that the Fiscal Year 2022 budget for Sippican School will see a 2.43-percent increase, and the FY22 budget for the ORR School District will see a 2.47-percent increase.
These percentages do not count the assessment made by Bristol County Agricultural High School, one that Town Administrator Jay McGrail has repeatedly told elected officials he has no intention of paying. Marion is among several towns disputing the assessment based on debt, of which non-member towns have no control.
McGrail commended Nelson, ORR Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Howie Barber, and the Marion School Committee for achieving “a level-services budget, or as close as we could (get).”
The first draft left Marion with a $170,000 shortfall, but after huddling with Marion Finance Director Judy Mooney, McGrail said a subsequent meeting with ORR administration resulted in a workable solution for both sides.
The general operating funds for FY22 are $6,456,815 for Sippican School and $19,895,966 for ORR, factoring in the Bristol Aggie assessment of $126,744.
“We really appreciate the work that they did,” McGrail told Marion’s elected officials. “The budget they are presenting has Judy’s and my support.”
“I don’t want to be looking at a fix…. I want to be looking at a two, a three, a five-year plan,” said Barber, alluding to his recent illness that postponed the joint meeting originally scheduled for March 2.
Barber told the meeting that he started from scratch building the FY22 budget on department-based goals and establishing what he called an “all-funds budget,” factoring in grants and other funding sources that allowed him to operate on that approach.
Finance Committee member Karen Kevelson questioned a $56,000 line item for substitute teachers at Sippican, a number that projects to 2.78 substitutes per day at the elementary school.
Barber explained that the year-to-year item covers maternity leave and other long-term absences. Without such coverage, Barber said the school would have to invest in a long-term substitute at a greater expense. He said, based on the current union contract, the minimum is $254 per day. The Masters 1 category, he said, costs $280 per day and, at 45 days or more (long-term), is a minimal expense of $13,000.
In discussing the ORR budget for FY22, Barber said the district has been approved to add a Chapter 74 vocational program and therefore added a paraprofessional in that area. To compensate, he said, the position of director of guidance was reduced and eliminated from the budget, and in its place, a $7,000 consultant was added.
Technological upgrades via grant and other funding sources led to the need to install a computer science laboratory in the Junior High School. To compensate, ORR is not filling a position being vacated by a retirement.
According to Barber, ORR’s $21,175,000 total operating budget for FY22 constitutes a $500,000 increase over $20,673,628 for FY21. With offsets, the FY22 number is still at $21,174, 638.
FinCom member Shay Assad suggested a deeper dive into the long-term impact of ORR’s school-choice policy.
While members of the Finance Committee shared growing concern over a lack of control in spending and implied the need to establish subcommittees in order to better evaluate enrollment trends and the necessity of services, Marion School Committee member Heather Burke argued that a decrease in services could results in greater expense for the town paying out assessments to out-of-district schools educating Marion’s children.
Assad, FinCom Chairman Peter Winters, and other members thanked Barber and Nelson for the significant improvement in transparency through the budget process.
Like his message to the town a year ago, Winters reiterated his interest in more information, saying he would like to also see hard figures in line item costs that he said become obscured by the budgeting process and presentation.
The public hearing for the school budget will be held on March 24. FinCom will also entertain a vote that night on McGrail’s presentation of the draft warrant for the Annual Town Meeting. McGrail said, if there are problems, they can meet again on March 31.
The budget schedule will culminate with the April 6 closing of the warrant of articles for the May 10 Town Meeting and its April 13 submission to the printer.
The next meeting of the Marion Finance Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, March 24, at 7:00 pm.
Marion Finance Committee
By Mick Colageo