Board of Directors Scours Board of Education Budget

It’s been a relatively uneventful, uncontroversial budget season for the town thus far, and Tuesday’s budget workshop between the Board of Directors and Board of Education to review the  at Manchester High School offered more of the same.

The education portion of the budget makes up 61.5 percent of for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Interestingly, Shanley elected not to reduce the Board of Education’s budget request as he has done in years past, which if adopted by the Board of Directors would lead to a 1.8 percent increase over the school system’s current budget, which mirrors the 1.8 percent increase in overall town spending called for under Shanley’s proposal.

The Board of Education’s budget, based on a compiled by Superintendent Kathleen Ouellette, basically maintains most current school services by bridging gaps in state and federal funding through the use of about a $1.8 million federal jobs fund grant without having to resort to major staff layoffs.

“I truly based it on student needs in the classroom and I was very, very conservative,” Ouellette told the Board of Directors.

The only aspect of the education budget that members of the Board of Directors seemed to take issue with was the addition of a facilities director for the school district, which was not in Ouellette’s original budget but added in later by urging of the school board. The position adds $113,342 to the budget in salary and benefits.

Members of the Board of Directors wondered why the position was added in such a tight budget year. Patricia Brook, assistant to the superintendent for finance and management, has also been doing the job of facilities director since 2006. But school board members said that Brooks was stretched to the limit and it was important for the school system to have its own facilities director because of the size and age of its many facilities.

“I was pleased to see it added, because I know the additional stressors that are on our buildings everyday,” Ouellette said.

Neal Leon, a Democratic member of the school board, said that over time the added position should wind up saving the school system money through better maintenance of school buildings and the reduction of costly emergency repairs.

“We’d love to say this position can pay for itself in year one, but it probably wouldn’t,” Leon said, but added that “over time it should pay for itself.”

Ouellette said a pending efficiency study should help to identify future areas of savings and reductions for the school system.

But members of the Board of Directors expressed concern that the facilities director position was being added before the efficiency study is completed, which is expected by the end of the school year.

“We’re really talking about funding a position before we see what the efficiency study says” said Deputy Mayor Leo Diana, a Democrat.

Ouellette said the position was needed.

“We know the volume of people who use the facilities, especially the high school, especially the secondary schools,” Ouellette said. “It’s just continuous.”

The Board of Directors will hold one more budget workshop, scheduled for Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Center Hearing Room to review the library and general government portions of the budget, before voting to adopt a budget for the 2011-12 fiscal year at its April 12 meeting. The board could change aspects of Shanley’s proposal before it voted to adopt it.

Shanley’s $163,938,616 proposal for the coming year is a 1.8 percent increase over the town's current budget, and includes a 2.9 percent tax hike and the use of $1.5 million from the town’s reserves. Shanley's full proposal can be viewed here.