Closing the Gap: First Round of Budget Talks Halve $650,000 Schools Deficit

The School Committee Thursday night faced the $651,083 deficit for the coming 2010-2011 school year by narrowing the gap by $327,000 for the first round budget pass.

By the next School Committee meeting Sept. 16, Superintendent Rosemarie K. Kraeger hopes to have the remaining shortfall worked out to balance the $34.6 million annual school budget for a final vote.

So far, no sports programs or extracurricular activities have been cut, said Kraeger.

"The challenge is where can we adjust the budget without affecting student learning," Kraeger said during her budget presentation to the school board. "We're about half-way there, so within the next couple of weeks we hope to vote on a final budget that meets the bottom line."

Going into the summer budget process, School Department administrators were faced with the shortfall after the Town Council voted to not add an extra $156,000 that school officials requested to make ends meet for the annual budget.

Kraeger and other schools administrators have spent recent months weighing other options, eyeing after-school programs and sports for possible cuts, and looking for new ways to save money. They were joined in recent weeks by a coalition of coaches and educators who offered to take a 10% concession on stipends for athletic and after-school activities if it meant sparing any programs from cuts.

"Saving these programs is crucial," said Committee member Theresa M. Silveira Spengler. "These are the programs that make it possible for kids to have positive outlets and not get involved in harmful things like drugs. Thank you to the coaches for stepping up and helping the kids out."

"We really appreciate the union's help on this," echoed Chairman Michael F. Crowley, Jr. "It's really in the best interest of students and that's what this is all about."

"I certainly appreciate their help, as does the administration," added Kraeger.

Thursday night, the School Committee voted unanimously to accept coaches' and educators' offer. That effort will make up for about $25,000 of the shortfall. On the higher end, a high school football coach who once received an annual stipend of $4,459 will now receive $4,013, while a Middle School Cross Country coach who once received $1,719 will now get $1,547. The overall concession will reduce all athletic stipends from $157,346 to $141,611.

"There's always a silver lining when you're faced with these sorts of challenges and this has been one of those opportunities," said Kraeger, describing the new measures and approaches that administrators have taken to find additional savings. "We started with the supply closet and then we had to look at everything differently."

Hoping to spare any cuts to education programs whatsoever, school administrators started with a top-to-bottom audit of all school supplies, in every supply closet of every department, in every school, to avoid the purchase of extraneous resources this year.

The next step was identifying positions that were recently vacated that could remain unfilled. One $75,000 district technology position vacated by a voluntary departure and a mid-$50,000 range business office position that was vacated by retirement will remain empty, said Kraeger. Additionally, some paraprofessionals throughout the school district that had been full-time positions will be reduced to part-time.

As far as future staffing cuts go, another social studies position that hasn't been filled yet will be looked at closely within the next few weeks, Kraeger said.

And, effective upon the unanimous vote of the School Committee Thursday night, the school district is now accepting early retirement offers from educators and other staff.

Additionally, a series of school supplies drives, typically the norm this time of year, kicked into high gear recently with more town residents stepping forward to help than usual. Town Council Vice-Chair Richard Cambra launched one school supplies drive, with the drop-off at Middletown Town Hall, while the Middletown Police Department Community Policing division has also offered to help.

Other grass-roots fundraising efforts have included a booster club 24-hour soccer match to be held in October, with players taking hour shifts.

School officials noted that the recent "Race to the Top" federal education grant monies that will provide the district with an additional $46,000 per year for the next four years will not affect this year's budget shortfall, because those funds were awarded for certain restricted uses, such as professional development.