By GLYNIS HART
[email protected]
NEWPORT – A meeting over the school district budget devolved into a tense face-off between Newport’s administration, school board, and the Budget Advisory Council.
Looking at the default budget, the general consensus was that school taxes this year will rise by $3 per $1,000 of assessed value. However, there was some disagreement on this number. The budget requires an additional $1.3 million to meet next year’s needs.
The Tuesday night meeting was divided into two parts: a presentation of the default budget, and a meeting with the budget advisory council.
The default budget was a second version. School board chair Linda Wadensten said an earlier version contained errors and had been shredded. The district has no full-time business administrator since the 2015 breakup of SAU 43, which formerly included Croydon, Newport, and Sunapee. Although Newport continues to use the SAU 43 designation, it is no longer a multi-district entity.
The duties of the business administrator are currently divided between the superintendent and Teresa Taylor, a financial analyst.
Criticisms get personal
Former select board member and former school board member Bert Spaulding Sr. repeatedly attacked the budget numbers, the school board and administrators for budget discrepancies past and present.
“It’s an injustice. It’s a travesty. The citizens can’t begin to follow what you’re doing here because of its complexity and neither can you,” said Spaulding to the school board. “There ought to be a business administrator in this district capable of giving us numbers that are real.”
In addition to questioning the numbers, Spaulding went after Superintendent Cindy Gallagher.
“I don’t understand for the life of me why our superintendent remains. I find her actions deeply sickening,” said Spaulding. “Your numbers can’t be trusted; you have no credibility.
“You’re asking for $1.3 million [in taxes] from this community this year. Ain’t no way in hell you’re going to get it.” Spaulding vowed a majority of voters would join him in rejecting the budget.
“We’re trying to get it right,” said Wadensten. “We’re doing the best we can. We do need a good business administrator … the town backed out, so we have what we have.”
The town select board recently rejected the idea of providing financial services to the school.
Wadensten said the district is looking at three areas for potential cost savings: Insurance, Special Education, and its contract with Goshen. For insurance, she said the district is looking into changing the way it’s delivered, but wouldn’t change what teachers pay for prescriptions. The contract with Goshen is something they will discuss in a meeting with that town select board.
Special ed costs rising
Special education costs, for services mandated by federal law, continue to increase while the district cuts other areas to catch up.
Statewide, an average of 16.8 percent of school children have individual education plans (IEPs). In Newport 21.9 percent of students have IEPs. What services are provided to these students must be determined by a panel that includes parents, physical or occupational therapists, special education teachers and administrators.
Gallagher said the district is working to reduce costly out-of-district placements by developing in-house programs to fulfill the requirements for students with special needs. A program was begun this year in the middle school which has successfully kept six students from being bussed out, she said. That program can provide a foundation for similar in-house teaching.
The district is in the middle of hiring 11 paraprofessionals to handle special education requirements. Gallagher said six are already on board, with another five to come. None of these paraprofessionals will get health insurance or benefits from the district.
Predictive special education requirements cannot be added to a default budget, although they may add $800,000 or more to the district’s costs this year. “You have to match the revenues,” said Taylor. “When this form is submitted to the Department of Education if anything’s wrong, they’ll know.”
“I do not understand the loss of a million dollars in revenue,” said Spaulding.
Taylor replied that a good portion of the costs was based on students the district had anticipated. Special ed students may arrive or leave at any time in the year, with a disproportionate effect on school finances.
Use of fund
balance questioned
As presented in the anticipated revenues, the district will require a draft of $699,293 from the fund balance to reduce taxes. The total anticipated revenues comes to $18,276,000 by including this draft.
Current appropriations, that is the money raised by taxes, stand at $5,899,159. For next year that number is projected to be $7,205,716. Spaulding returned to the $1.3 million difference repeatedly, calling it a threat to taxpayers and accusing the board of dishonesty and incompetence.
Town Finance Director Paul Brown spoke cautiously: “To me, it doesn’t look like errors, but mindful differences you made with the taxpayers in mind.”
Brown said the discussion was not what he thought he was going to be talking about and declined to get into the nitty-gritty. “These are not my numbers … We’re not in my head, but yes, there’s a shortfall.”
Brown advised against drawing down the fund balance for a tax cut. “That $699K is a benefit to taxpayers, but it’s going to turn around and bite you. You’ve set yourself up with a structural deficit. If nothing else changes, you’re going to have to get out of it by raising taxes. Realistically, you’ve set yourself up with a $700K hole just because you turned all that money back to the taxpayers.”
“What is the solution for a structural deficit?” asked Seth Wilson, a member of the BAC.
“You’ve got to suck it up for one year until you bring income and expenditures tight enough together,” said Brown.
Members of the BAC, including Jeff Kessler, Ben Nelson and Spaulding said several times that a business could not be run this way.
After two hours of browbeating, school board members began to fire back. “We’re not selling education,” said Wadensten. “We’re providing education. It’s not a business, it’s a service.”
Wadensten challenged Spaulding to find a place where additional money could be found.
“It’s not like folks are sitting around in hammocks,” said board member Anne Spencer. Spencer pointed out that Gallagher had only received the news that the town wouldn’t assist with financial services five days previously, and had been working to solve the problem ever since. “I believe Chris is killing herself to do this as fast as she can.”
Gallagher introduced the health insurance rates to explain how the district estimates those costs, which are usually revised in March. Spaulding continued to scoff: “It’s gonna fail. If you haven’t looked at every crook and cranny of this, you haven’t looked at other ones. Are you thinking of putting forward a warrant article that includes every tax increase?”
The board said they hadn’t discussed it yet. “We will talk about it,” said Spencer.
“You need no discussion. This shows your lack of leadership,” said Spaulding.
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