Uxbridge school board delays action on budget

Uxbridge school board delays action on budget

By Susan Spencer TELEGRAM  GAZETTE STAFF
susan.spencer@telegram.com

UXBRIDGE — With the town's fiscal 2015 budget $951,000 out of balance after annual town meeting, the School Committee Tuesday opted to wait until final state aid and school employment figures were in before making budget adjustment decisions. These numbers should be more clear after June 30, officials said.

Voters in May had approved an amendment offered by the School Committee to bring next year's level-service budget to $18.5 million, as recommended by the School Department, from the $17.6 million proposed by the town manager.

At Tuesday's meeting, School Business Manager Donald R. Sawyer recommended that the School Department look at budget cuts based on $300,000 in delayed technology and curriculum programs and salary and insurance savings.


He expressed concern, however, about dipping into an additional $400,000 reserve account built up over 12 years of school-choice revenue. Mr. Sawyer said the school-choice reserve was the only safety net the department had for emergency mandated costs, such as higher special education needs.

Town Manager David A. Genereux said he had hoped to begin three-year budget models with the School Department, but the current shortfall had to be dealt with first.

He added that the $2.5 million in the town's stabilization account was, like the School Department's school-choice revenue reserve, for emergency use and not operating expenses. He said it also accumulated largely from one-time revenue, including a land sale and initial tax-lien auctions.

"At some point in time, we have to look at these things like they're not there," Mr. Genereux said about budgeting without considering the $400,000 school-choice reserve and the $2.5 million stabilization fund.

The town's fiscal policy is to allocate stabilization money above $2.5 million to capital needs, such as school roof repairs and culvert work.

"Every time we dip in (to the stabilization fund), the opportunity cost is not what we're spending, it's what we're losing," Mr. Genereux said.

Mr. Genereux added that the town and School Department needed to work together on a two-pronged approach toward ongoing fiscal stability. Besides budgeting for the current year, next year and the year after that, he said, town leaders needed to make economic development activities a priority to increase the tax base.

In other business, committee members voted unanimously to keep the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System as the district's preferred assessment tool for now, rather than pursue the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. Projected costs for introducing the PARCC and its effectiveness were not yet known, Superintendent Kevin M. Carney said.