Selectmen cut proposed school funding
Ashburnham-Westminster District's shortfall increases by $154,185
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

A last minute reduction in the proposed funding of the Ashburnham Westminster Regional School District from the Ashburnham Selectmen will send the School Committee back to the drawing board.

After a committee meeting on Tuesday, April 8, School Committee members learned the Ashburnham Selectmen and the Advisory Board had reduced the proposed funding level by $70,000. Selectman Mark Carlisle said on Wednesday the cut came to preserve funding for part of the John R. Briggs Elementary School feasibility study, adding a paramedic to the Fire Department's staff and other capital improvements.

"We're on the sixth version of our budget," said Carlisle. "It's like hitting a moving target."

Carlisle said the $70,000 was cut from the school budget because they had received a substantial increase in state funding while the town was level funded. The town officials determined the town's priority list using the additional money in the House budget compared to the governor's proposed budget to fund the majority of the items and cut the rest from the proposed funding of the district's budget.

Carlisle said $53,000 will go to fund a paramedic position, $34,000 to buy a police cruiser, and $50,000 for fuel costs.

"These were both unanimous decisions, there was no indecision," said Carlisle.

The School Committee had already scheduled a special meeting for Monday, April 14, and Christianson expect this will become the central topic.

"In a lot of ways it's a very impactful decision without the School Committee at the table," he said.

The additional paramedic/firefighter, which Selectmen and Advisory Board members added to the budget proposed by interim Town Administrator Paul Boushell on Tuesday night, will cost $53,000, according to Carlisle.

"We are under risk of loosing our ALS service," Carlisle said.

Fire Chief Paul Zbikowski said even after this position is created, the department will be one person short of staffing the ambulance with a paramedic 24 hours a day. Part of the license's requirement is to have the staffing level within three years of the ALS creation, but the department has had the ALS service for four full years.

"I fully understand the need to fund the paramedic position," Christianson, an Ashburnham resident, said.

But he said there were other ways to go about the cuts and funding the elementary school feasibility study. The feasibility study will have to go on the ballot as a one-year capital exclusion of Proposition 2 ½ to fund the $400,000, but the thought was to fund the majority of the town's 53.53 percent share of that with $160,000 that was originally appropriated to build portable classrooms at Briggs. That would leave about $28,000 that would have to be funded through the override.

"I think the imagination they used to find the money is admirable," said Christianson. "I appreciate that they thought of it."

Carlisle said he wanted to hold that money stable so that is why the boards reduced the amount of money going to the operating budget.

"I didn't want it on the backs of voters," he said. "The bigger priority to me was to get it done. The schools are going to have to decide what they want to do."

The town boards were meeting in the cafeteria of the middle school while the School Committee was meeting in the library, both were discussing budgets.

"When I walked into that meeting I didn't know if we were going to level-fund things or take money out," Carlisle said.

School Committee members feel blindsided by the cuts.

"A week ago I clued in Dave Christianson and Dr. (Supt. Michael) Zapantis that this 2 ½ plus growth was not a given," Carlisle said. "I am sorry they feel that way."

Carlisle said the town already gives over the state mandated minimum, and the $70,000 represents less then 1 percent of the contribution.

Christianson said the comments that 2 ½ plus growth is not a given have happened every year for the six years. But he said he was not given the impression that it was going to mean the district's budget was going to be cut this year.

"I would personally liked them to say use 2 percent, or 2.2 percent, or whatever that is," Christianson said. "You have to definitive. We're trying to do what everybody expects us to do."

This reduction could reduce the district's funded operating budget by $154,185 because the district would not be able to access Westminster proportional share of the budget appropriation. Based on the regional agreement, the towns must contribute proportionally based on student enrollment to the district's budget.

Christianson said 12 hours after finding out the news, neither the committee members or the administration have ideas on where the proposed reductions will be made to bring the budget into balance.

The committee has been looking to present a balanced budget option to voters while asking for an override for specific items to either be added or reinstated to the district's budget. At the end of Tuesday's three-hour long meeting, the committee had informally agreed to request a $295,000 override from the two communities.

The committee agreed that a $370,000 override request to help fund the district was probably what this voters in the district could be able to support. The committee agreed to lower the figure by $75,000 by appropriating that amount of money out of their Excess and Deficiency (E&D) account.

"We've accepted the fact that we can't do everything," Christianson said.

Before they took a formal vote on the issue, the committee wanted the final breakdown of the number, with exact items the additional $75,000 would support in the budget. The committee was also planning to fund $225,000 of the district's capital plan from the E&D account. The goal of the committee was also to get a recommendation from the athletic director on what sports program could be funded with a $100 fee per athlete per sport fee, instead of funding the entire program through the proposed $160 fee for all athletes per sport fee and an additional $135 for ice hockey players.

No one of the School Committee is comfortable with the $160 fee. The district is operating with a reduced sports program funded through the operating budget this year as well as a $100 per athlete per sport fee.