School budget shortfall could exceed $1M in 2011

By Jay Turner

While it is still too early to know for sure, the Canton Public Schools looks to be headed toward a “very, very dark period” for the next couple of years, according to Superintendent Dr. John D’Auria, who previewed the FY2011 operating budget at last week’s School Committee meeting.

Although no actual line items were discussed, D’Auria, along with School Business Manager Ken Leon, outlined some of the factors influencing next year’s bottom line, and they offered at least one scenario based on early projections that showed the schools facing a deficit of nearly $1.2 million.

Of course, that figure could climb even higher — or shrink — depending on a number of “moving targets,” including the state budget, which determines local aid, and the Board of Assessors’ ten-year revaluation of properties, which may or may not capture any additional revenues from so-called “new growth.”

D’Auria said Finance Director Jim Murgia based his current projections on a 10 percent reduction in local aid and a $450,000 increase in revenues from the revaluation program, although he stressed that both figures were “rough estimates” and largely unpredictable.

“If you thought that the capital budget was complicated, that was like fractions compared to calculus,” D’Auria warned committee members.

He said it could be months before the committee knows the full scale of the problem, but in the meantime, he suggested they focus their efforts on “short-term solutions,” such as creating a stabilization fund that would help cover extraordinary costs related to out-of-district special education services.

However, Leon said the problem with that particular plan is that any stabilization fund would have to be replenished after tapping into it, which would be nearly impossible given the schools’ growing structural deficit in special education.

In fact, Canton’s out-of-district services, which are mandated by state law, have resulted in a net deficit of approximately $360,000 this year alone and have forced the School Committee to seek relief from the town’s cash reserves. Meanwhile, next year’s projected deficit is more than twice that number — $894,000, according to Leon’s most recent projections.

But School Committee Chairman Reuki Schutt expressed a “tremendous amount of discomfort” at the idea of carrying any kind of deficit at all, insisting that, as painful as it may be, it is their legal and ethical responsibility to balance the budget each year.

In response, committee member Robert Barker said it was also not fair to the regular education population if they “balanced the budget on the backs of these [special education] mandates,” and he was prepared to echo the point in future meetings with the Finance Committee; otherwise, he said, the schools are “going to have a bath to take” in 2011.

Committee member Liz Salisbury added that the growing demand for special education services is a community issue, not just a financial bullet for the schools to take alone.

But while Schutt did not disagree, she said it was unrealistic to expect too much sympathy from taxpayers: “They’re going to say, ‘We’re giving you $30 million bucks. Educate the kids; make it work.’”

At the same time, Schutt said it was a shame that more people from Canton have not lobbied their lawmakers on behalf of the schools, especially since the vast majority of their children — the regular education students — are the ones most affected by rising special education costs.

Earlier in the meeting, D’Auria touched on that reality by recommending a new budget guideline, whereby shortfalls are addressed in a way that offers the “greatest protection for the learning of all students.”

The School Committee unanimously approved the recommendation, along with another new guideline that stressed a continued focus on energy savings “both by upgrading systems and by changing behaviors that will lead to energy conservation.”

D’Auria said energy is the “one place in the budget that we have a shot at saving some money and not losing quality.”

To that end, the School Committee also agreed to move forward with a plan to make various heating and lighting upgrades using “performance contracting,” a long-term arrangement that uses guaranteed energy savings to fund the cost of the projects. Leon said the company will first complete an investment-grade energy audit, at a cost of $30,000, to determine whether the projects are feasible. He said the schools would have to absorb that cost if they chose to walk away from the contract, but he could not envision a scenario where that would happen.

In other School Committee news:

• The committee unanimously voted to extend its bus contract with Michael J. Connolly & Sons for the 2010-2011 school year. Leon said the total cost for Canton will increase $13,000, or 1.9 percent; however, he said it is still by far the cheapest option for now.

• Schutt announced that committee member Cindy Thomas will chair the superintendent search committee, which will take shape in the coming weeks. Schutt said she and Thomas have two goals for the search committee: ensuring a “broad scope of all interested parties while maintaining a manageable size.”

She said the search committee will recommend three to five finalists, but the job of selecting the next superintendent will “fall completely on the School Committee” and is one of their “gravest responsibilities.”

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