Schools

Wrentham Elementary Schools Forge Ahead with Budget

Headway being made in budget process.

One year after a tough budget process, the Wrentham Elementary Schools are looking to compose a new budget for the coming year.

The school budget ran into problems last year, as the district was looking at a $489,000 deficit. A debt exclusion failed at the polls, but citizens decided to allocate $120,000 to the schools from the stabilization account at town meeting.

District Superintendent Jeff Marsden said the school committee would be meeting to decide whether to put forward the superintendent's recommended budget or a level-services budget.

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"A level-services budget would represent an increase of about 5.98 percent, and provides us with exactly what we have right now," he said. "In years past, we've actually had below level-services budgets."

Marsden said the superintendent's recommendations would represent a 7.65 percent incresase.

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The superintendent said the town has had to deal with the loss of the federal government's jobs bill.

"We lost $225,000, which we had for the last three years, and we need to make that up," he said. "Every district in the state is dealing with the same type of issue."

Marsden said the district would be negotiating with the teachers' union regarding salary increases for fiscal year 2013, in an effort to keep costs down.

According to Marsden, the school committee will likely make its determination on March 16.


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