Town officials push for lower school budget
By Caitlyn Kelleher Journal Reporter

Town officials have asked Ashburnham- Westminster Regional Superintendent of Schools Michael Zapantis and the regional school committee members to keep teacher negotiations low and advocate for more money from the state.

Town officials and school committee members met Tuesday in a joint meeting. The superintendent is proposing a budget of $28,197,668 budget, which could require a $2 million override to fund.

Two members of the Westminster Advisory Board told school committee members that the projected increases - more than $600,000 - in contract obligations simply made the budget unsustainable.

The school committee is in the midst of negotiating with the district's teacher's union.

Advisory Board member Keith Harding advocated not giving the teachers any raise and in fact cutting their salaries to bring them more in line with the state's average salary. He said teachers would still choose to work in the district because of the other assets.

"We have a great facility," Harding said. "We have a great boss in Dr. Zapantis. We have parents that are involved."

Fellow board member Brian Rollands agreed. He said it seems as if "we are paying our teachers really well to work in a really good district."

Harding and Rollands presented Department of Education reports showing the district's average teacher salaries are well above the state average. School committee members acknowledged the teachers are paid above the state average but thought the numbers were different those DOE was reporting.

"I think it is unconscionable that this is all done behind closed doors," Harding said.

Christianson said the committee has to abide by the federal rules governing negotiations, so they can't release the details of the meetings.

He said that the committee represents the community members and the community's values in those meetings. He added that 80 percent of the district's cost is personnel and that it is a "people-service business."

School committee member Keith Glenny said reducing the salaries of teachers is not a good idea.

"It's going to kill the teacher core of this district," he said.

Ashburnham Town Administrator Kevin Paicos said, "I don't think it should be a goal to pay average wages. If you pay average wages you get average teachers."

He said the important cost-saving issues weren't going to come with reducing salaries but in reducing health insurance costs. He said if a new agreement can be negotiated with the school district employees, Westminster employees and Ashburnham employees then the double-digit increases should stop.

Ashburnham Selectman Jonathan Dennehy supported lobbying the legislature for more funds.

"The state should increase their budget to us by at least the mandated foundation budget," Dennehy said.

School committee members agreed but weren't hopeful about seeing additional state revenue.

"Every year we petition our legislators to step up to the plate," said Glenny.

Harding said adding more state revenue to the district budget gets difficult because the state revenue isn't growing more than 2 or 3 percent a year.

"The pool is just not getting bigger," Harding said. "I wonder how we can support the system that grows at 6 percent a year."

Westminster Advisory Board member Ken Brustall said the district is going to have a hard time passing an override of $1.3 in Westminster and over $900,000 in Ashburnham.

"It's going to be very hard," Brustall said. "I think we really need to go back and sharpen the pencil."

He asked for more details in the technology expenses for the district. Zapantis said he would supply the information.