05/15/2018 - updated 05/16/2018

Town Council vote reduces fiscal 2019 school budget by $249,000

The Town Council on May 14, 2018 adopted a $25.4 million school budget for fiscal 2019, a budget that is $249,000 less than the School Board recommended.

The $249,000 reduction is also the amount budgeted by the School Board for an engineering and architectural feasibility study of future safety and other improvements to school facilities. The council's action, however, only sets the dollar amount for school services that will go to voters in a June 12 validation referendum. The council does not have line-item control of the school budget.

The $25,392,276 adopted school budget was part of the $39.5 million combined town, school and county budget approved by the council May 14. The combined budget poses a 6.6-percent increase in taxes, up $1.19 over this year's rate of $18 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

The decrease in school spending reduces the proposed tax-rate increase for school services to 9.6 percent, down from the 10.2 percent originally proposed.

The four councilors who voted against the initial $25.6 million school budget proposal indicated they disapproved of the feasibility-study expenditure for different reasons. Councilors Penny Jordan, Jessica Sullivan and Valerie Randall likened the appropriation to a 'train that has left the station,' embarking on a potential building project that has been estimated to cost $27 million to $28 million. Councilor Jamie Garvin also voted against the school budget, saying he believed cost of school-facility improvement should instead come from the town. Nearly all councilors called for more collaboration in planning for the school's building needs, similar to the citizen-committee approach taken for recent renovations to the Thomas Memorial Library.

The motion to approve a school budget $249,000 less than proposed by the School Board passed 6-1, with Councilor Caitlin Jordan opposed. Jordan, during the 80-minute council deliberation on the school budget, said she believed the feasibility study itself would determine the needs, scope and cost of the project.

Polls open 7 am-8 pm June 12 for school budget validation

Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday, June 12 for the school budget validation referendum, to be held along with the state primaries and referendum. Absentee voting is underway and will continue at Town Hall during office hours until 4 p.m. Thursday, June 7.

Town budget approved 5-2

By a 5-2 vote, councilors on May 14 also approved a $12.4 million budget for town services.

Voting against the budget were councilors Sullivan and Randall, both opposed to a $90,000 appropriation for a school resource officer. Sullivan said she supported the schools having a police officer present for safety, but that officer should be funded by the School Department. Randall said she was philosophically opposed, and that there was not enough large-scale data to support the concept. "I also think that some of the benefits that have been identified, such as having students have someone in a mentor position or someone that they can connect with, those are roles that should not be served by law enforcement," Randall said.

Here is a summary of the adopted budget for fiscal 2019:

	FY 2018	FY 2019	$ Change	% Change
	BUDGET	BUDGET	FY 18  to FY 19	FY 18  to FY 19
EXPENDITURES
TOTAL MUNICIPAL	$    12,137,599	$      12,368,374	$           230,775	1.9%
COUNTY ASSESSMENT	$      1,331,050	$        1,392,240	$             61,190	4.6%
Local Homestead Exemption	$         375,630	$           300,000	$           (75,630)	-20.1%
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT	$    24,879,013	$      25,392,276	$           513,263	2.1%
	$    38,723,292	$      39,452,890	$           729,598	1.9%
REVENUE
TOTAL MUNICIPAL	$      4,938,670	$        5,032,007	$             93,337	1.9%
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT	$      3,332,211	$        1,768,977	$       (1,563,234)	-46.9%
TOTAL	$      8,270,881	$        6,800,984	$       (1,469,897)	-17.8%
NET TO TAXES
TOWN  SERVICES	$      7,198,929	$        7,336,367	$           137,438	1.9%
Local Homestead Exemption	$         375,630	$           300,000	$           (75,630)	-20.1%
COUNTY ASSESSMENT	$      1,331,050	$        1,392,240	$             61,190	4.6%
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT	$    21,546,802	$      23,623,299	$        2,076,497	9.6%
TOTAL	$    30,452,411	$      32,651,906	$        2,199,495	7.2%
TAX RATES (Rounded to nearest ¢)
Local Homestead Exemption	$              0.22	$                0.18	$               (0.05)	-20.6%
TOTAL MUNICIPAL	$              4.25	$                4.31	$                0.06	1.4%
COUNTY ASSESSMENT	$              0.79	$                0.82	$                0.03	4.0%
SCHOOL DEPARTMENT	$             12.74	$              13.88	$                1.14	8.9%
TOTAL	$             18.00	$              19.18	$                1.18	6.6%
TAX RATE VALUATION BASIS	1,692,995,900	$ 1,702,025,100	$   9,029,200.00	0.5%