Politics & Government

Wrentham Elementary School Committee Discusses Ways to Bridge Budget Gap

The Wrentham School Committee looked at ways to bring budget down Tuesday night.

Wrentham Elementary Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Marsden gave a budget presentation to the School Committee Tuesday night, enumerating ways the district could bring its budget to last year's level.

Marsden said the current gap is $489,110.

Marsden briefed new committee members Edward Goddard and Lynn Desrochers on the district's budget issues, explaining the difference between a level-funded and a level-services budget.

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"A level-services budget, like the one approved by the committee in March, provides the exact same services as the year before," Marsden said. "Level funding is trying to accomplish that same goal for the same amount of money."

Marsden said many school districts have their budgets increase by about five to eight percent to maintain the same level of services.

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"We're looking at fiscal-year 2008 numbers in a lot of areas," he said, claiming the schools had not received the budget increases needed to keep services.

He enumerated three scenarios that would bring the budget to a level-funded status. One scenario, which would bring the budget down by $486,000, would have the district eliminating seven teachers and one custodian.

"Those could not be all classroom teachers, as that would bring class sizes up to 27 or 30," he said. "We'd have to look at specialists."

Marsden, though, said the district must have at least a few specialists to cover prep periods.

"We have a contractual obligation to give teachers prep time," he said. "Any time a teacher has time off, it costs us, because someone needs to be teaching the kids."

The second option, he said, would have the district losing four teachers, one custodian and 12 aides. That solution would save $483,000.

"If we look at aide reduction, the only places we could do that would be kindergarten or preschool," he said.

The third scenario, which would save $450,000, would involve restructuring the district's transportation plans. It would involve eliminating three teachers and one custodian, and reducing six bus routes.

"Wrentham has always bussed all its elementary students, even though some live within the 2-mile radius," Marsden said. "This really disrupts everything when it comes to transportation. If you've been at our morning drop-off time, think about multiplying that by 100 or 200."

He said there was really nowhere else to cut.

"We can't have everything and not want to pay for it," he said. "In my mind, the responsibility hasn't been taken to pay for education, so we just keep taxing the parents."

According to Marsden, the district cannot wait for the results of votes on debt exclusion or other options that would provide the town with additional cash, as it must provide notice to the people it lays off.


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