Mansfield School Committee Might Go to Town Meeting with an Unbalanced Budget

The Mansfield School Committee agreed on Tuesday that they might go to Town Meeting with an unbalanced budget on Tuesday.

They agreed that to make the required cuts they would be unable to keep level services for the 2012-2013 school year.

“It feels like we’ve been boxed in,” committee chair Michael Trowbridge said. “That’s not to say that we’re not going to have discussions about that [$433,000 improved services plans] and anything else that might change between now and town meeting.”

After four retirements, Superintendent Brenda Hodges said that about $135,000 would be saved to help in the current budget situation. After the estimated savings, the school budget would be $41,772,232 and that was voted 5-0  to be the current budget number.

The total town budget will still have a $2.3 million gap. Trowbridge said that he wants to hold an open session with the Board of Selectmen after a March 31 meeting with Dr. John Mullins concerning the strategic plan for the town.

“We need to be crystal clear at this meeting laying out where these monies are going,” committee member Kiera O’Neil said. “People need to understand the impact of what this means too if we go to town meeting without a balanced budget.”

Hodges pointed out that, while the total amount of funds used by the town in the total budget is 70 percent for the schools and 30 percent for the town, the numbers are not truly reflective of what the town itself funds.

She said that because of $18 million in chapter 70 funding from the state based on the number of students the town has, the actual ratio of revenue the town makes on taxes and other sources of income is 51 percent town to 49 percent schools.

“We put everything in one lump sum and then split it 70-30,” she said. “But if you backed that out and look at the local monies, actually the school takes 49 percent and the town takes 51, which is consistent with other towns around us, it is pretty consistent with towns in the state. But, compared to us, what is not consistent is we’re taking that same amount of money and we’re educating many more students with it… We’re looking at towns that have fewer students, but the revenues are not that much different.”