Pembroke News : Budget Committee

Spending kept tight at Pembroke School District Meeting

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:29:00 GMT

BY GINGER KOZLOWSKI

Though Pembroke’s residents may have been able to afford an additional math teacher and a program designed to keep kids in school who are at risk for dropping out, fears of how those expenses would turn into a commitment for future spending led those attending the School District Meeting to go with the Budget Committee’s lower proposed operating budget.

All the other warrant articles passed with little to no discussion at the meeting on Saturday, March 7.

David Freeman-Woolpert, chairman of the Budget Committee, presented the numbers to those attending the meeting.

“The proposed school budget would result in a 1.1 percent drop in the tax rate,” he said, while the Budget Committee’s proposal would drop the tax rate by 2.3 percent. “No one on the Budget Committee thinks that’s enough of a drop to accommodate the economic downtown, but it is a prudent budget.”

Part of the reason costs are down, said Freeman-Woolpert, is that special education costs, which spiked last year, are down this year.

Michael Reardon, headmaster of Pembroke Academy, said the math teacher is needed because algebra is now required for students to graduate from high school, and fewer students are coming to the school prepared for that level of math.

He also pointed out that having transportation to alternative learning sites and having a behavioral therapist would give more freshman a fighting chance at graduating from high school.

“Our job as a school and community and nation is to do everything we can to make sure every student succeeds,” he said. “Most kids do great. But a lot of work we do is to make sure all the kids are successful and have a chance for a good life.”

In a close hand vote, a school operating budget of $23,588,989 was passed, a figure $183,000 lower than the School Board had requested.

Pembroke residents will address the town’s expenses on Saturday, March 14, at 10 a.m., at Pembroke Academy, at the Town Meeting.

Cut sports for special education?

Hooksett Editor — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 21:17:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

The Pembroke School District faces cuts in sports and staff in the coming year’s budget if a special education expense deficit in the current budget cannot be defrayed by the School District Meeting on Saturday, March 8.

After the Pembroke Budget Committee asked the School Board and the Board of Selectmen to further shave their budgets, which were already levelfunded, to reduce a potential 10 percent tax increase, the only things left to cut were co-curriculars and teachers.

School Board Chairman Clint Hanson said four teaching positions, one from each of Pembroke’s schools, will likely have to be cut from the proposed 2008-09 budget if the district does not see a significant reduction in its special education costs.

A special education student moving out of the district, for example, could amount to the savings needed to keep teachers and all sports on board, Hanson added.

Pembroke Academy golf and lacrosse will likely be pulled from the co-curricular part of the budget, Hanson said. A “pay to play” plan would not be implemented, he added.

“The board decided several meetings ago that would not be the appropriate way to go forward,” Hanson said, adding the system “creates more problems than it’s worth.”

The board was able to knock about $80,000 from its proposed budget by reducing a deficit appropriation line they included to remedy the $500,000 in unexpected special education expenses to the district this year and a technology appropriation.

The deficit appropriation stands at about $250,000, Hanson said, a number that could be reduced further depending on the most updated numbers for special education costs.

“That’s always going to be a floating number,” Hanson said, adding if the extra money for the hiked special education costs was in the current year’s budget, the School Board’s proposed $23.2 million budget would be within the Budget Committee’s limitations.

During budget deliberations, the Budget Committee asked the School Board to cut $310,000 from its proposed budget to soften the blow of a potential 9 percent increase in the school budget.

If both the school and town proposed budgets and all warrant articles went through, Pembroke taxpayers would have seen a projected 10 percent increase in the tax rate to $25.95 per $1,000 of assessed value. For someone living in a $200,000 home, that’s an extra $448 on the tax bill.

With the $310,000 in school budget cuts and $150,000 in town budget cuts, the projected rate calculated to $25.18, a $1.52 increase over the current rate of $23.66 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

For the same residents owning $200,000 homes, that’s an extra $304 on the tax bill.

Budget Committee Chairman David Freeman-Woolpert said the committee realizes the school district’s plight, and knows that any cuts to the budget will impact the school district in some way. The Budget Committee is proposing a school budget of about $22.9 million.

There is no “fluff” in the school’s proposed budget, but a combination of staggering special education costs, higher county taxes and the second year of the teacher’s union contract, all items the board cannot control, have increased the school’s budget.

“Every discretionary line has already been level-funded or reduced,” said Hanson, including supplies.

Another article on the warrant asks voters permission to do away with a road trust fund currently in place and transfer the funds to offset special education costs.

Another article asks to take $77,498 from the a capital reserve fund to make repairs and improvements to the school buildings, including ceiling tile and floor replacements at the Hill and Village schools, re-painting the stripes in the Three Rivers parking lot and replacing an area of Pembroke Academy’s roof over the art department.

The annual School District Meeting will take place on Saturday, March 8, at Pembroke Academy, at 10 a.m.

After-school programs may be cut

Hooksett Editor — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:44:00 GMT

BY JENN McDOWELL

About 50 Pembroke residents attended a public input meeting on Saturday, Feb. 2, to hear about the Budget Committee’s cuts to the school and town proposed 2008-09 budgets to soften the blow of a hefty projected tax increase.

While there wasn’t much feedback gained from the meeting, it appears the town’s residents are at a loss for how to react to the cuts, which include slicing staff from the school district’s budget.

“Most of the people seemed to be saying, with their silence, that they were in favor of the cuts the Budget Committee proposed,” said Budget Committee Chairman David Freeman-Woolpert.

Unexpected special education costs to the school district this year, particularly in special placement, led to a deficit of about $500,000 within the district, according to Superintendant Thomas Haley.

Add in the second year of a collective bargaining contract with the teachers union, increased transportation costs and higher county taxes, and you’ve got a school budget that is 9 percent larger than last year at around $23.2 million, which would have driven the school portion of the tax rate up by about 15 percent for the coming year.

The selectmen’s proposed budget was a frugal 2 percent increase over last year, but the town is cooperating with the school to drive down the overall tax increase of 10 percent.

Both budgets combined would result in a projected rate of $25.95 per $1,000 of assessed value, an extra $448, to result in a tax bill for a house valued at $200,000 at $5,190.

The Budget Committee asked both the School Board and Board of Selectmen to go back into their budgets and figure out where cuts could be made to help offset the impending hike in taxes, said Freeman- Woolpert.

The Budget Committee’s recommended budgets currently sit at around $22.9 million for the school and $7.6 million for the town, which would result in a 6.7 percent increase in taxes and a rate of $25.18 per $1,000 of assessed value. The $1.52 increase on the tax rate would result in an extra $304 in taxes for the same $200,000 home, a total bill of $5,036.

The School Board was asked to shave more than $310,000 off its 2008-09 proposed budget, which, given their otherwise level-funded budget, would require them to cut staff and funding for after-school programming.

The School Board has not yet decided what positions would be cut from the budget, and would likely not do so until next summer when the official revenues come in and the full impact of the shortfall can be calculated, Freeman-Woolpert said.

Selectmen came back to the Budget Committee after voting to take their share of the cuts, $150,000, from the 2008-09 budget year’s typical allocations for the parks and recreation, large fire equipment and highway equipment capital reserve funds.

Any additional cuts would have to be made to the roads portion of the budget, which the Budget Committee refused to touch.

Withholding those yearly deposits won’t affect those departments for the ensuing year, said Town Administrator Geoff Ruggles, but the potential to offset future taxes with those funds will decrease further down the road.