By Darrell Halen
Salem’s Budget Committee decided not to recommend a $1.5 million school district warrant article to fund architectural and engineering plans to renovate Salem High School.
It was one of the decisions the committee made on Friday, Jan. 18, at Town Hall when it cast votes on a dozen warrant articles going to voters this year.
The School Board is asking voters to authorize $1,511,000 for the architectural and engineering work and to use impact fees to cover $250,000 of the cost.
After a lengthy discussion, the committee voted 6-3 to forward the article without recommendation.
One of those six memb
Anners, Ann Marie David, said she wanted to see how the impending departure of Windham students would affect Salem High School: what class sizes and the curriculum would be, how much sports enrollment would change and how the school district would cope with a loss of $5 million in revenue.
“Let the dust settle, let Windham leave and revisit this,” she said.
Several others agreed, and said if the article is turned down by voters, school officials might come back with a scaled-back renovation plan.
School Board member Bernie Campbell said the $41 million renovation project would receive 30 percent in state aid, leaving $28 million for the town to pay for.
Budget Committee member Kathy Cote noted that the bond’s highest tax impact of 73 cents translates to about $213 on a $300,000 home – an expense in addition to paying for regular town and school district spending increases.
But others defended the project. School Superintendent Michael Delahanty said that currently about 2,300 students are being educated in the 230,000-square-foot school. A school being built today with that population, he said, would be 424,000 square feet in size and have 18 science labs.
But the school currently has 12 labs and three “glorified classrooms” that are used as labs where teachers bring in materials, Delahanty said.
“To think we have sufficient space is ill conceived,” Delahanty said. “To think we are going to have too much space when Windham leaves is misguided. We’re squeezing kids and staff into that building and it’s taking its toll.”
“The need for the school is absolutely a necessity,” said Budget Committee member Jim Randazzo, later adding: “Bottom line is, if it gets shot down now, it’s going to cost us a lot more money in the future.”
The Budget Committee later voted 5-4 to forward without recommendation an article to establish a capital reserve fund for renovations to the high school and to place $600,000 into the account. The money is a penalty Windham pays to keep its students at the school an extra year.
The article will be null and void if voters approve spending the $1.5 million for architectural and engineering work.
Voters will weigh in on the warrant articles and the proposed 2008-09 operating budget of roughly $53.5 million at the school district’s Thursday, Feb. 7, deliberative session. It will be held at Salem High School and begins at 7 p.m.
During the meeting, Budget Committee member Stephen Campbell complained that town and school officials have been providing too little information to the panel too soon before it cast votes.
“That’s not the way things are supposed to be run,” he said. “We’re suppose to review this stuff and not be a rubber stamp.”
The following budget warrant articles were forwarded by the committee with recommendation:
• Step increases totaling $404,284 and increases in salary and benefits totaling $730,897 in accordance with agreements between the School Board and the Salem Education Association.
• $31,830 in increases in salaries and benefits to secretaries for the second year of a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the School Board and the Salem Educational Personnel Association.
• $29,120 in increases in salaries and benefits for the third year of a three-year collective bargaining agreement with the Salem Association of Food Service Personnel.
• $83,601 in increases in salaries and benefits to aides for the second year of a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the School Board and Salem Educational Support Personnel Association.
• $198,197 to address deficiencies identified in a 2005 facilities audit, which includes replacement of fire panels, roofing, windows, heating ventilation and air conditioning units, and paving.
• $100,000 deficit appropriation for the current budget, representing the cost of special education tuition for out-of-district placements.
These are the other warrant articles that the Budget Committee forwarded without recommendation:
• Putting $30,000 of surplus money into a capital reserve fund for reconstruction or additions to schools. It will be null and void if the $1.5 million for architectural and engineering plans is approved
• $47,233 for increases in salaries and benefits to custodians in the second year of a three-year collective bargaining agreement between the School Board and Salem School Custodian Employees Association.