When Finance Committee Chairwoman Debbie Ricci asked her board Tuesday night how many members were comfortable with the school budget, not a single hand was raised. Clearly frustrated with the lack of detail in the School Committee’s prioritized list of possible reductions to its fiscal year 2008 budget request, and up against a tight deadline, the finance board members struggled with how to move forward. Member Steve Colwell suggested simply crafting a new omnibus budget with no override, by splitting the 2008 anticipated revenues 70 percent for the schools, 30 percent for the town, and then presenting multiple or tiered overrides from there. “They’re stuck at that high number,” he said, referring to the School Committee’s budget proposal.
Ricci and member Cindy Russo distributed a list of questions for the School Committee relating to more than $500,000 of FY08 budget increases and asked Finance Director Lorraine Leonard to work with the school board to explain why each of these is essential to the school budget. “We have to come to a comfort level with the budget of the schools,” said Ricci.
At a joint meeting last Saturday, members of the Finance Committee, the selectmen, and the school board were about evenly split on the subject of how an override question should be structured. Most of the school board favored a single override—now projected at roughly $1,000,000—while the majority of selectmen and finance board members leaned toward a tiered override.
Selectman Bill Marinelli cautioned that by trying to reach a single number all can agree on, the joint committees tend to support a lower number, which might put the schools at great risk. “The tiered approach allows us to go beyond the lowest common denominator,” he said.
“At the end of the day,” Selectmen Chairman Randy Dean reminded the board, “although we will attempt to do this together, the decision lies with the Board of Selectmen.”
