Schools OK budget, now it's up to mayor, council

The School Committee approved Superintendent Philip Thornton’s $167 million budget as is on Wednesday, but it’s still unclear how it will fare when the spending package reaches the mayor’s desk and followed by the City Council.

On Friday, Finance Committee Chair Ed Ladouceur hadn’t made up his mind on whether he is open to giving the schools the additional $4.8 million in funding requested. He wants to see Mayor Scott Avedisian’s budget and plans for the schools before he and the council make any decisions.

“Let’s wait until we see what the mayor’s doing,” he said. “Once the mayor gets his proposed budget to us, I’ll do my due diligence as finance chair.”

The school’s budget will request 4 percent more, a jump to $124 million in taxpayer funding as opposed to the previous year’s $119 million, in funding from the city. It will first be sent to Avedisian, who will put his budget before the council next month. The mayor previously said that he’d spoken with Thornton and School Committee Chair Beth Furtado to discuss what the increases would fund and the “pros and cons of budgeting with a contract resolution and without a contract resolution.”

The only “nay” vote on the school budget came from School Committee Member Karen Bachus, who said she dissented because she wanted more funding go to classrooms. On Wednesday, she didn’t express much faith in its chances.

“The City Council always disappoints us, so this is almost an exercise in frustration,” she had said. On Friday, she added, “I will be very surprised given the history since they cut us 5 percent back in 09-07. However, miracles do happen!”

After the budget was approved Wednesday, Furtado said committee members have “asked what they’ve asked” and all that’s left to do is wait.

“I believe [the budget] is not asking too much – $4.2 million of the $4.5 million are increased costs that we cannot afford and that we should not afford,” she said. “I know that this is going to come back to us after the appropriations from the city and we’ll have to make cuts that I fear that none of us are going to want to make.”

As it stands now, salary costs laid out in the budget are projected to increase by a net of $1,858,971 from last year. Set aside is $2,350,940 for the possibility of teacher raises pending a contract settlement. No staff reductions are planned, but the budget says there may be a need to re-purpose certain positions to meet student needs. However, the additional need of about $4 million in funding could lead to a need to reduce staff or programs if those funds are unavailable, it notes.

The budget also designates $511,300 for additional Chromebooks and $630,800 for Modern Classrooms and standardizing instructional technology equipment, including smart TVs, document cameras and promethium educational devices to be installed in the high schools. School Technology Director Doug Alexander had previously said during a separate presentation of the budget that between 140 and 150 promethean boards, about 75 per school, would be installed in the high schools.

Additionally, approximately $39 million for the schools would come from the state budget. That aid will be determined in June pending General Assembly approval of the governor’s budget.