Shrewsbury sees financial strain ahead for schools, town
By Marc C. Sanguinetti CORRESPONDENTSHREWSBURY — Town and school officials at Wednesday night's School Committee meeting reviewed the findings of a report released last month by the 2013 Fiscal Study Committee. The study found that resources and budgets across virtually all municipal and school departments are strained with little expectation of increases in revenue or state aid.
The report concludes that the community must set priorities for services to maintain if residents expect the town to continue to work within the current budget parameters for fiscal 2015.
Selectman Maurice M. DePalo appeared before the School Committee to review the study's findings. The 2013 Fiscal Study Committee, which prepared the report during the past four months, was comprised of selectmen, members of the Finance and School committees, and town meeting members who met with various town and school department heads to review the budget process. Mr. DePalo said everyone working on the study expected to find areas either to increase revenue or cut excess expenditures.
"Sixty different personalities coming at this from 60 different angles came to the same conclusion," Mr. DePalo said. He said the problem isn't bloated budgets or excess spending, but rather a finite pool of revenue and resources spread thinly across the various municipal and school departments.
"It's all going to come down to a matter of choice. What do you want from town government?" Mr. DePalo said.
Superintendent Joseph M. Sawyer agreed, saying the terms "crisis, bleak, and sobering" are all applicable to the current budget process. He said the School Department needs to start filling in the holes it created by eliminating teaching positions and deferring investing in technology, professional development and textbook upgrades.
School Committee member Jason F. Palitsch, a member of the study committee, recommended looking at special education expenditures. He said he wants to develop innovative programming to keep students with special education needs from transferring out-of-district, which costs the school district significant resources every year. School Committee members agreed to take up the issue in January.
These people came to the same conclusion that we would have if we did this same study. The money from different agencies that contributed in the past are no longer kicking in to help out. I asked to have this article put on the blog because it shows one thing, the School Department working with the town. I do not know how things have gotten to the point they have here in Templeton, but things have to change. The fact that some people think one department is more important than the town town it's self, is very wrong. When the Schools can give out 4% raises and fatten their administration while the workers for the town loose their jobs, then we know something is very wrong. How we fix this, I do not know, but we need to find a way. Bev.
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