Board votes to keep classes small

SALISBURY — Members of the Salisbury Central School Board of Education approved a spending plan for the coming year that shows a 2.43-percent increase over this year’s budget. The bottom line in this budget is $4,688,969, an increase of $111,291 over this year’s budget of $4,577,678. The vote was held at a special board meeting in the school library on Monday evening, April 13.

Although the spending increase was moderate, and was almost identical to the budget increase from last year to this year, the Board of Finance has requested that the Board of Education keep its budget increase for the coming fiscal year down to a 2-percent increase.

The increases in this proposed spending plan are mainly for items that school board members and Principal Christopher Butwill repeatedly described as “out of our control.� These include salary increases for teachers and other staff members that are required by contract. The salaries show a total 6-percent increase, or $138,493; salaries for teachers and administrators for the coming year will total $2,411,488. Butwill’s salary will go up 3 percent, from $98,175 to $101,120.

Rawlings noted that the teachers are now in the third year of a four-year contract. Negotiations for a new contract will begin this fall — which necessitated an increase in the budget line item for legal fees to advise the school board during the discussions. Legal fees are anticipated to cost as much as $15,000 in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. In this budget year, legal fees were expected to cost $4,000; so far, it looks like the board will spend $3,500 on attorney costs.

Other significant increases in the budget include the cost of school buses and transportation, and insurance and health care.

At a previous meeting of the board, members discussed whether the size of the faculty should increase, decrease or stay the same. At that meeting, a majority of board members voted to keep the size of the staff the same, ensuring that class sizes at the school will remain small.

Butwill re-examined the budget after that vote and managed to cut an additional $15,000 from the spending plan.

“This is a very tight budget,� he said. “Every line has been scrutinized and pared down as low as it can get.�

The board members agreed that it would be difficult to find another $12,000 to take out. They also noted that the budget for this fiscal year was already tight, and had shown an increase of 2.3 percent over the 2007-08 budget.

“That was also a tight financial time,� Butwill noted, with high oil and health-insurance costs.

Board member Brian Bartram reiterated his opinion, expressed at the prior board meeting, that the staff should be decreased and class size increased.

“Small class sizes create the community feeling at this school,� Butwill said. “And to say that one class has to be exceptionally larger than the other classes... that’s a hard choice. Small class sizes are part of an excellent education and the people in the community support that choice.�

Only one other option remained: The board discussed taking out any funds for capital improvements for the coming year. With the capital reserve account removed from the budget, the increase would be 1.89 percent.

“But that’s the one line the Board of Finance specifically asked us not to cut,� board member James Meyer commented.

In recent years, capital improvements have included replacement boilers for the two that conked out; and new windows. Rawlings said that the estimated cost of two ongoing capital projects at the school has been reduced in recent weeks, “so having $25,000 in the capital reserve line is not as necessary as we had originally thought� when preparing the spending plan.

The board members decided to present the spending plan with a 2.43-percent increase to the Board of Finance at the final budget meeting this Thursday, April 16, at Town Hall at 7:30 p.m. Four members including Rawlings voted in favor of the plan; board members Bartram and Kay Lindsay voted against it.

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