SALISBURY — The Board of Education met Wednesday, March 4, to go over budget numbers before Chairman Roger Rawlings, Vice Chairman Jennifer Weigel and Salisbury Central School Principal Chris Butwill took the figures to the Board of Finance.
Rawlings started the meeting by saying, “Our backs are up against it a little.�
Rawlings said he had no specific comment on the larceny charges filed against former board clerk Lori Tompkins, who appeared in Bantam court Monday, March 9, and will enter a plea March 17 (see story, Page A1).
But Butwill noted that in order to get as accurate a picture as possible of the school’s finances, “We started with every line at zero and then built it up. We did not start with last year’s budget.�
Other budget items with a tangential connection to the Tompkins case were reduction in hours and benefits for the board clerk position (from full-time with benefits to 25 hours per week and no benefits); additional overtime pay for custodians to allow contractors to come in and lock up after they finish work in summer (a duty the board clerk handled); and a doubling in the line for auditing, under “Purchased Services.�
Rawlings said of the auditing fees, “It’s pretty obvious we needed more.�
Are staff cuts feasible?
Salaries for teachers and other certified staff rose 5.16 percent, from $2,128,916 to $2,238,753. Most of this is contractual; some teachers achieved higher pay grades by completing graduate work.
Butwill’s salary rose an even 3 percent, from $98,175 to $101,120.
Health and dental insurance for certified employees (i.e. teachers) was up 8.38 percent, while insurance for non-certified employees dropped slightly. Overall, employee benefits rose by $43,947 or 5.48 percent, for a total of $846,090.
The budget also contains provisions for new computers.
Rawlings asked Butwill a larger question: Is SCS “appropriately staffed?�
Butwill said the budget has provisions for two teachers returning from leave and their replacements leaving, but the number of staff remains the same. He also said that there will be one less section of first and third grade, and that the incoming kindergarten class will be large at 37 (including at least two children who do not speak English).
Rawlings asked if it is possible to create a third section of kindergarten, and Butwill replied that if the paraprofessional currently assigned to the cafeteria is reassigned, another section could be an option.
What would the impact be?
Weigel asked if it is realistic to eliminate sections at the middle school. Butwill said that would mean larger class sizes and fewer options. Rawlings chimed in, looking ahead to his meeting the following night with the Board of Finance and anticipating questions about class size.
“We can’t support an eighth-grade math class with eight kids. I really thought we were going to be reducing one teacher.�
Board members Jeff Lloyd and Jim Meyer raised objections. Meyer said he thought cutting staff at the middle school would be “short-sighted.� Lloyd called the budget as presented “responsible� and added that the school could very well have increased enrollment as economic conditions force families to take children out of private schools.
Butwill said it is possible to eliminate a middle-school teaching position, but it would require creating a draft schedule to see what the impact would be.
And as long as the subject was on the table, Butwill went ahead with estimated cost savings should the middle school cut back on staff:
With one less teacher, the savings would be $36,053; with two gone, $94,461. That final scenario would leave the school with an increase of less than 1 percent in the overall budget.
There was no apparent enthusiasm on anyone’s part for either notion, however. Rawlings said he would rather retain people than make cuts, but added that should the board decide to cut staff, the children would receive “the same professional teaching and care, but the same programs? Maybe not.�
The meeting ended on a note of thanks and congratulations for Meyer, who paid for more than a dozen large picture frames to be used for displaying student artwork in the middle school. He said that student pieces would remain on display for a year or so; the artist then gets the work back, but the school keeps the frames for the next round of artists.
