School Committee Adopts $35.6 million Budget

The School Committee adopted a $35.6 million budget for fiscal 2015 in a unanimous vote Tuesday night.

The final version of the budget reflects more than $275,000 in cost savings from a series of cuts and adjustments proposed by Superintendent Victor Mercurio, the bulk of which from the elimination of a reading teacher at Archie R. Cole Middle School, which would save $106,690.

Other cuts include a reduction in the expected cost of healthcare increases (from 5 to 3 percent), $42,000 in savings expected from a teacher retirement and a number of small cuts ranging from $100 to $2,000 in categories such as postage, advertising costs, library books, athletic equipment and groundskeeping.

The School Committee asked the superintendent to squeeze extra savings out of the budget prior to Tuesday night's meeting and Mercurio said the propsed $275,000 savings is the result of "thoughtful and careful" analysis of the budget.

"We're not cutting programs or initiatives," Mercurio said. "What we see here is being brought to you this evening with the confidence we're able to build upon those initiatives and programs."

All told, the budget represents a $931,283 increase, or 2.69 percent, over last year's budget.

Of that, 2.19 percent would come from additional money from the town's annual appropriation to the school district. The remainder of the increase will come through expected increases in state aid.

The biggest cut — eliminating a reading teacher at Cole Middle School — would not have a negative effect on students, said Principal Alexis Meyer. 

A total of 33 students are on literacy plans within the program and that "is not a challenging number for one teacher," Meyer said, noting that not all students are in the same class at the same time and the remaining teacher spends time doing inclusion work in the school when not having direct contact with the students as a group.

Stay tuned for more details about the budget.