Font ResizeAccording to district officials, even with a level serviced budget that has already been cut to the bone with no new spending, residents could expect a bottom line of $37,332,985 for FY11. That would represent a 3.8 percent increase over 2010's budget.
School Committee chairman James Frey told town officials attending the Feb. 27 special meeting that even though the district did have a "worst case" budget where no override would be needed, in order to preserve educational programs as they currently exist, the $1.4 million shortfall needed to be made up.
Frey and other school committee members as well as Clare Jeannotte, the district's director of business and finance, appeared before selectmen last Saturday toy supply the board with more accurate information regarding the district's proposed budget.
Selectmen wanted the information for when the time came to decide whether or not to support the schools' drive for an override.
One of the requests asked of the district officials was a budget projection of expenses extending over the next several years. Describing the data submitted Saturday as "conservative,"
Those figures were conservative, said Jeannotte, because they did not include any changes as a result of labor negotiations which will be taking place this year.
The steady increases will also come in the face of declining enrollment in the district.
"We're talking a million dollars a year; year after year, non-stop for Groton," said FinCom chairman Jay Prager."And that's making very favorable assumptions control wise. That means every single year from now on we'll have to pass an override. It's unsustainable."
Prager reminded school officials that superintendent Alan Genovese warned years before that cuts in state aid in the millions of dollars were looming. Why, he asked, didn't anyone listen and prepare for this day?
With a more modest increase in spending on the town side of the ledger, town manager Mark Haddad said that if an override were passed in the amount requested by the schools, every property owner in town would end up paying $508 more each year in local taxes. And that number would be compounded by a similar amount every year should the schools return for more overrides to cover the average 2.5 percent increase each year out to 2014.
"There have to be structural changes," said Prager of the largest piece of the schools' budget: salaries and wages. "It's unrealistic in the context of a community where real wages were dropping. Something has to give. The cost of the schools is outpacing the ability of the town to pay."
Attempting to point out other reasons for the cost increases, Frey pointed to unfunded mandates required of the district.
School Committee member Paul Funch, trying to place things in perspective, noted that Groton-Dunstable's teacher salaries were below the state average so that it was "counterproductive" to focus on wages as the main cause of rising expenses.
"Averages are meaningless," said Prager, pointing out that Groton was a rural community whose wages should not be expected to be as high as in cities. "All we're saying is that there's a new world out there and we've got to live in it. The whole country, every single state, is struggling with these issues."
"The FinCom values education," Prager continued. "The problem is that there's an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Even the state is baling out on us. Something has to happen. We need a lot of new thinking."
Startled by the amount his taxes would rise should the schools win an override vote, one resident in attendance Saturday, said that he could not afford such a steep increase and that he would fight an override.
Frey replied that he hoped residents for and against the measure would take the opportunity to engage in open discussion on the issue but with a March 10 date for the School Committee to vote on a district budget for FY11 coming up fast, there appeared to be little time left for debate.
