Amherst schools budget whittled
AMHERST - Regional school officials say they expect the fiscal 2010 budget they submit to spring Town Meeting this spring will be $1 million less than needed to maintain current services.
"In general we're trying to pare a little bit here and a program there, we're taking cuts from the central office. We're still working on it," Interim Co-superintendent Helen Vivian said Friday.
School officials were relieved, however, to learn that Gov. Deval Patrick has said in recent days that he is not planning to cut state education aid for the current year and plans to suggest that the state level-fund education aid next year.
Vivian declined to be more specific about the preliminary regional school budget but said school officials would announce likely specific cuts at the next Regional School Committee meeting on Feb. 3.
A week after that, the Amherst Elementary School Committee will revisit a controversial proposal to close Mark's Meadow Elementary School to save money in the similarly strained elementary school budget.
"We're not going to have the same school system when we have to take this amount of money out of it," Vivian said. "We're trying to examine ways we can cut and then prioritize what would cause the least damage."
A 7 percent increase in spending over this year's $28.1 million budget would be required to maintain the current level of services. But the Finance Committee has recommended that Amherst school officials submit budgets with a 2-percent maximum increase in tax-supported spending on elementary schools and no more than a 3.5 percent increase in spending on the regional schools.
John Musante, the town's finance director, explained in a memorandum this fall that elementary schools would need a 5.8 percent increase and regional schools an 11.7 percent increase to maintain existing services.
The news that further cuts in state education spending are not imminent was encouraging, Vivian said. "But cutting a million dollars from the regional schools is still a very significant cut. We have spent more time than I care to think about trying to find ways of cutting the budget while still protecting our core mission."
