HUNTINGTON – At Wednesday’s Gateway Regional District School Committee meeting, Gateway Superintendent Dr. David B. Hopson presented Version 2.0 of the 2013-14 proposed district budget.
This budget represents a 2.5 percent increase over the current budget, and if passed, will be the first increase for the district since 2009, according to Hopson.
The current Version 2.0 of the budget had been trimmed by $121,000 from the first version, following a vote by the school committee in January to limit the increase to 2.5 percent.
Hopson said that Version 2.0 of the budget maintains single grade classrooms, and doesn’t eliminate student choices and opportunities, noting that the school committee also voted in December for a budget that maintains the current level of student services.
All is not equal, however, when it comes to changes in contributions by the seven district towns to the budget. While overall the assessments to the towns increased by an average of 4.33 percent, the impact on individual towns varies widely, Hopson said. For example, Russell’s assessment is up by 10 percent, while Worthington is down by almost 12 percent.
In his Superintendent’s Corner on Feb. 1, Hopson explained it this way: “In part, the increase in town assessments is due to a loss of federal revenue, particularly money from the economic recovery/stimulus efforts. On a town by town basis, the differences in assessments range from a decrease (-11.83 percent) in Worthington to an increase (+10.31 percent) in Russell. These differences are not caused by the budget but rather by changes in the percent of students from each town in the district combined with the required minimum contribution established by the state. Worthington’s minimum contribution decreased by 18.85 percent while Huntington’s went up by 6.24 percent. What you can deduce from this is that, even if the Gateway Budget did not change from last year to this year, some of our towns would still see an increase in their town assessments,” Hopson wrote.
Hopson also shared a prioritized list of what additional cuts would be made to the school budget if Version 2.0 is not approved. This was requested by the Gateway Town Advisory Committee in January.
High on the list are a reduction in hours for the secretarial pool. At the Wednesday’s meeting, Jeanene Iglesias, guidance secretary for the junior/middle and high school, spoke about the reaction of the secretaries on seeing their positions so high on the list of prioritized future cuts.
“The secretaries are very disappointed and shocked that they are on the list and at the top,” Iglesias said. “I would like to assure you that if the secretaries are reduced there will be a critical delay in the information the state wants from the district.”
Iglesias went on to say that secretaries’ hours have been cut before in the last 10 years, after which a state review found that there were not enough secretaries and paraprofessionals to support the mission statement at Gateway, and their hours were restored.
Hopson said there are decisions to be made when considering this budget. What level of services do the towns wish to provide for children? At what level would the state set the budget if the school committee and towns cannot adopt and approve a budget?
Version 2.0 of the budget, which is available on the district website at: www.grsd.org/information will be presented to the community at large at a public hearing on Wednesday, March 6, 7:30 p.m. at the Gateway Performing Arts Center. Hopson has previously said that this hearing is the last best chance for the community to weigh in on the budget before the school committee votes to adopt it or not on Wednesday, March 13. Twelve members of the school committee must vote in favor of the budget to present to the towns at their annual meetings.
