School budget formally set, higher fees approved
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

The Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee certified a lower budget on Tuesday, June 24, which matches the amount of money the town residents have already appropriated.

The Committee took the vote a week after an approximately $295,000 Proposition 2 ½ vote failed in Ashburnham and passed in Westminster, because of the regional agreement both towns must pass the measure to get the extra funding.

"We're recreating the situation that was created between 2001 and 2004," School Committee Chairman David Christianson said.

The vote certifying the lower budget was locking in the $1.2 million of cuts sustained by the school district after last year's failed override, he said.

Committee members voted 6-2 to set athletic fees at $170 per student per sport and $170 for those in the marching band. The two dissenting voters were Committee members Keith Glenny, who historically votes against charging for any part of public education, and Christianson.

"This is fundamentally wrong," Christianson said. "It's against the grain of public education."

The higher fees, which will allow the district to offer all the sports programs, other than wrestling, is a change from this previous school year when the district charged $100 per student per sport but offered a limited number of sports. Parent and community groups donated money to allow the other sports to be funded.

Committee member Gwen Farely said she would like to see data about the number of families that have multiple children participating or a child in multiple sports. She said she wants to see the data to determine the impact on capping the fees for a family.

The Oakmont Booster Club and others have stepped up to pay for students whose families are struggling to make the payments. Students that qualify for free and reduced lunches also do not have to pay the fee.

Committee members held off a vote on raising gate fees until their next meeting concerned about the impact of raising both participation and attendance fees in the same year.

"You can't lose sight of the fact we're now in the business of raising money," Glenny said, trying to make a point about the implication of fees.

The committee voted unanimously to deny a request to reimburse the Booster Club - for the supplies for the dugouts at the field. The committee had been holding off on making a decision on this issue for a couple of months and many expressed the opinion that in a different time or financial situation they may have made a different decision.

In other business, Business Administrator Sherry Kersey explained the two areas of the district budget that were overspent and in which the Committee needed to find other available money to balance the accounts.

The Committee voted to transfer about $24,000 from the Excess and Deficiency account to cover a deficit in the student activity fund. This occurred because not as many students as predicted paid the fee - $60 for high schoolers and $50 for middle schoolers - to participate in clubs and activities. For the upcoming school year these activities have been fully funded within the district's budget.

The other area with a short fall is the food service budget, which has a deficit at the end of May of over $28,000. The Committee won't transfer any funds to cover that shortfall until July when the fiscal year closes.

Committee members said another shortfall in the account was not acceptable. Last year the committee outsourced the meal portion of the department to Chartwells. This summer, Zapantis is looking at the Charterwell employee costs and their program.

The School Committee has not settled contract negotiations with the food services personnel yet. That contract expired on June 30, 2007.

The goal is to have the department be self-funding.