KP Officials Present Budget Options to Citizens

King Philip School District officials presented budget options for the upcoming fiscal year to local citizens on Saturday, including a $28.3 million proposal.

District Superintendent Elizabeth Zielinski spoke about numerous options for the budget, mentioning an initial request of $28.3 million; a level services budget of $27.4 million; and three tiers of cuts (of $801,301, $688,412 and $755,218, respectively, with each step building on the last). Last year's budget was $24.7 million.

Zielinski said the $28 million figure was driven by numerous things, including the expiration of the federal education jobs grant that had enabled the district to retain 10 teachers.

"We wanted to include an eighth-grade arts program — that's one of the things that came up in the parent survey," she said. "This also adds biology and chemistry teachers — we would like to be able to offer more labs, and make sure we have the right number of students in a lab. [The Occupational Safety and Health Administration] only allows a certain number of students in a lab."

According to Zielinski, the three tiers of cuts presented could "decimate" entire programs.

"Tier three [with the deepest cuts] would mean more study halls, even in the middle school, there'd be two a day," she said. "We would not meet our time-on instructional requirements."

Zielinski said the school committee would be choosing the budget option that will go to town meeting.

"On February 6, I will be presenting to the school committee my recommended budget," she said. "The school committee will then make a decision which budget the townspeople will be voting up or down."

She said there is still a degree of flexibility with the numbers, as the state budget isn't finalized.

"We're required by our charter to submit a budget by February 14," she said. "That doesn't mean the numbers won't change — we just got the governor's numbers."

Wrentham resident Ralph Poirier asked what the per pupil spending for the new budget would be.

"One of the things that drives me crazy is how much we spend per student," he said. "It's significantly lower than other districts... People need to understand that, sure, our taxes are X, but our students are being cheated."

District officials did not have a specific per-pupil figure on hand.

Zielinski praised the community for its support of the schools.

"It's a mark of a good community that students go through the schools, go off to college and work and come back to the community to become the generation that votes and is involved," she said. "There's a lot of KP pride in the community."