Board of Ed shaves budget by $72,000

SHARON — At its regular monthly meeting on Monday, April 11, the Board of Education reduced its proposed budget to $3,686,345, a 1.99-percent increase over this year’s budget, or $6,274,426 including Sharon’s portion of the Region One School District budget. The changes were made to satisfy the recommendation of the Board of Finance on March 29 that the budget be brought down to no more than 2 percent over this year’s budget. The fiscal year begins July 1. The previous budget bottom line proposal for the coming fiscal year was $3,758,345, a 3.98 percent increase. The Board of Education removed $47,000 from the capital expense line, which had originally been budgeted for $50,000. That money would have been used for long-range improvements and large-scale projects for the school building.Further cuts were made to funds set aside for building maintenance: $15,000 was removed from the building repairs line, including $8,450 for the dormers, gutters and cupola and $6,550 for the slate roof. This leaves $25,833 in the budget for building repairs, down from $49,283. Also, $10,000 for painting was cut. The total amount taken out of the budget was $72,000. The town meeting vote on the Sharon budget will be May 13 at 8 p.m. at Town Hall.