School Budget: "Everything will be on the table"

A host of program and staff cuts will be up for consideration as the School Committee works to close a $1.1 million budget deficit for fiscal year 2013, officials said Tuesday. 

Superintendent Anthony Pope said "everything will be on the table" as he makes a list of proposals for the committee to consider. "Programs, staffing, sports, music--it's really on the table." 

Mayor Arthur Vigeant and the city council have reduced the original school budget request by more than $1 million, or about 2 percent of the total budget. 

Pope again noted that nearly the entire increase he proposed for next year was made up of special education spending, much of which mandated by state law and court rulings.

Committee member Mark Hediger said the SPED requirements mean cuts can't be made "even-handed." In fact, the $1.1 milion cut represents  a quarter of the discretionary spending the committe controls, once fixed costs such as transportation and special education are considered. He added that class sizes could balloon from 24 students to 31 students at the Whitcomb Middle School with just a modest cut in staffing. 

Vigeant said he wants to see discussion start with the current year's budget and a clearer picture of where the district will end the current fiscal year. He also called on Pope to deliver a "line-item budget" that matches how city departments present their spending plans. 

Meanwhile, former Marlborough Mayor Michael Hogan blasted the ongoing budget process, calling it a "missed opportunity" and saying that it was time for the city to spend rather than save. 

Saying Marlborough and Natick were once considered comparable communities, Hogan laid out data suggesting Natick had weathered the recession better and has continued to attract new families to town--all while investing in community assets. 

By contrast "the last time we built a new park was before I left office in 2004," he said.  Natick is a desirable community in large part because of how much it has invested in schools, he added. "Here, the budget process is an annual food fight with the city council."

Hogan suggested the city needed to consider dipping into its stabilization fund, which he said stood at more than 13 percent of the annual budget, far above the 5 percent level considered to indicate a "healthy" community. 

The committee agreed to hold another budget workshop to hash out details of future cuts, but even that became a point of contention, with a committee member suggesting that school building principals be invited to help the committee understand what proposed cuts might mean for them. But Pope said the final decision on who to include was his to make, just as proposing a budget is his responsibility.