It was the Marion Finance Committee versus the Marion School District in round one of budget negotiations, which got off to a tough start on February 24 when the Finance Committee expressed impatience just after 6:30 pm at the tardiness of the school representatives.
In the large recreation room at 13 Atlantic Drive, two long tables – one reserved for FinCom and the other for the school budget subcommittee and administration – were placed on opposite sides, arranged in a classic “face-off” position. At precisely 6:30 pm, one table was full of players and the other was completely empty.
Marion Finance Committee Chairman Alan Minard expressed his disappointment that no one representing the school arrived on time for the 6:30 pm meeting. Minard thought school budget discussions would begin at that time; however, as school administrators and School Committee members filed in one by one, they told Minard their meeting was posted for 7:00 pm.
Once the majority had arrived, School Business Administrator Patrick Spencer passed out a draft budget totaling almost $6,079,000 to each FinCom member and acting Town Administrator Judy Mooney.
Minard flipped though the pages and shook his head.
“We’re being handed this document now with no other chance to review it,” said Minard. “It’s not acceptable, folks. It’s impossible for us to do our job with us looking at it five [minutes before].”
Minard addressed Spencer and again commented on the meeting starting 20 minutes late, according to Minard’s schedule.
“You’re looking at me like I have six heads,” Minard said to Spencer.
The room was silent.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get it to you in advance, that’s all,” Spencer replied.
The tension between the two sides was palpable, and the discussion appeared to take a nosedive before it even got off the ground.
“How can we dig through all this … there’s no time,” said Finance Committee member Hamish Gravem.
Superintendent Doug White said the School Department had always responded promptly to any request for information and said he appreciates the cooperation of the town.
“This is a collaboration not only on how to service the needs of the students in this town but also the needs of the town,” said White. “I’m not looking to start and be in a place that is causing issues. We will work with the town if there are any questions….”
“And we would’ve had much better questions if we had looked at this yesterday,” Minard said.
Mooney pointed out a few changes to the Finance Committee to facilitate the committee’s understanding of where amounts went down since the last draft, which Mooney said was not as much as one would think them to go down.
“But every little bit helps,” said Mooney. “It’s good. We’re getting there.”
Minard pointed out the $486,564 maximum new tax revenue the town will collect and compared it to the collective budget increase requests from Sippican, ORR, and Upper Cape totaling $875,431, plus “all other expense and income net” totaling $167,510, showing a $556,377 shortfall.
“There’s almost a million dollar’s worth of stuff competing for $486,000,” said Minard. In a household, he said, if you don’t have the money “you don’t go on vacation or you don’t buy the car or you don’t get the new dryer….”
Minard continued, “We (FinCom) are required to get that [$556,000] down to zero.”
Finance Committee member Jeffrey Dickerson intervened in the conversation and addressed the discomfort between both sides of the room and the way the tables were arranged with one side facing the other side.
“Just this set-up is adversarial,” said Dickerson. “Why don’t we take this down a notch or so, introduce ourselves … and our roles to each other.”
Everyone gets emotional when it comes to the schools, Dickerson stated. He suggested the group “simmer down a bit” and try to work though it.
Both sides introduced themselves and the mood in the room appeared to lighten a bit.
“I’m the CEO of a hundred-million dollar software company,” said Dickerson, “and if I held a meeting like this, I’d get fired.”
Dickerson asked for clarity and more specific details on the numbers, but he added, “This isn’t meant to be an inquisition.”
Minard suggested they start with special education and go on from there.
The main topic was use of “circuit breaker” money, which is money reimbursed from the state to cover the cost of unexpected substantial increases in special education services during the year that weren’t budgeted. Spencer explained that it was best practice to cease relying on circuit breaker money as a way to offset the budget because that is not the intent of the funding to begin with.
Last year, the School Department used circuit breaker money to offset the budget, but Spencer said it was not a viable solution.
Also discussed was the request to fund a new special education teacher to form an age 18 to 22 program at ORR, which would save potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars by keeping the students in the school district instead of sending them outside the district.
Other special educations costs, as White described them, “are out of your control. Those are things that are in our budget that we have very little leeway.”
FinCom members acknowledged this fact and also voiced support for the request to fund a new SpEd teacher for the new program.
The group discussed retirement, a new part-time health teacher, and the cost to hire teachers before wrapping things up.
Minard said the district should look at using circuit breaker funds one more time, despite Spender’s recommendation.
“We’re going to turn over cushions on all the other sides (town department budgets),” said Dickerson. “I just ask you to do the same.”
The next meeting of the Marion Finance Committee is scheduled for March 3 at 6:30 pm at the Recreation Center at 13 Atlantis Drive.
By Jean Perry