Challenges for Change to kick-start budget discussions

By COURTNEY LAMDIN | Staff Writer
mireporter@mac.com

The School Board will start its fiscal year 2012 budget discussions more than a month early this year to tackle additional cuts mandated by the state’s Act 146 legislation.

The Challenges for Change law requires a $23.2 million cut in education spending statewide; Milton’s share is $318,466.

At its Aug. 9 meeting, the board agreed to notify the state of its intention to meet the cut by December 15, which means budget discussions will begin this month instead of in November. The board hopes to set a budget by December 13; last year it was set January 25.

One factor confusing matters is $19 million in federal funding that Vermont is slated to receive for preserving teacher jobs.

At this time, no details have emerged as to how that could play against the cuts required by the legislature, said superintendent Marty Waldron.

“There will be clarity at some point,” Waldron said. “Right now people are out celebrating the fact it’s going to save jobs, but we just don’t know how it’s going to be applied yet.”

Waldron also noted the hesitance to hire teaching positions with grant money: after the funds expire, boards are faced with either rolling the cost into the local budget or cutting the positions.

Waldron hopes to have more information on this after a Sept. 2 Superintendents' Association meeting, he said.

The $19 million aside, board chairman Doug Stout said the six-figure cut would likely impact personnel, which, along with benefits, forms the greatest portion of the district’s budget.

“[Personnel] may not be the only thing it would affect, but it seems like that’s almost got to be a given,” Stout said.

Waldron said the administration will also look at programs and services, but that “virtually any choice would have some staffing implications.”

There are also inflationary costs to consider, expenses like electricity, insurance and staff contracts that typically increase each year.

“That would also impact our choices of what we have to do to live within that target,” Waldron said.

Waldron encouraged the public to be informed about the budget process.

“We can’t make the assumption that everything we currently have is going to continue into fiscal year [2012], because right now we know that that’s impossible,” he said.

Stout invited public input to help determine priorities, which are often “very interesting” discussions, he said.

“It gets down to the core set of beliefs of: what is the mission of the school, what are we trying to accomplish and values – what is most important to our community and to our kids,” Stout said.