School Committee Approves Budget, With An Overriding Message

What was suppose to be a Belmont School Committee meeting Tuesday, April 23, to discuss "B" increasingly turned to talking about "O."

That would be "B" for budget and "O" – the letter which one meeting participant used rather than speak out loud what they were thinking – as in override. 

The meeting in which the school committee voted to accept the latest variation of the coming fiscal-year budget – after an increase in state aid to Belmont in the legislatures budget and an infusion of money from town accounts will reduce the number of teacher position cuts by half – concerns voiced by parents with youngsters at the Wellington Elementary School moved the discussion on how to secure funds to keep teaching aids slated to be eliminated for the 2013-14 school year.

And for some in attendance, the solution appears a simple one.

"So what is a budget override, when does it happen and who initiates it?" asked Wellington parent James Propp-Gubin, resulting in a wave of good-natured laughter from the committee and residents after both School Committee chairwoman Laurie Graham and Belmont School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Kingston explained that financial constraints placed on the town's ability to raise money was resulting in difficult decisions on priorities within the system. 

"This is not a spending problem but a structural revenue problem," said Kingston who said he, Graham, the three member Board of Selectmen and Town Administrator David Kale agree that there currently exists a "structural" tension in the town's inability to raise the necessary revenues to properly run both town and school departments. 

"We can't raise revenue greater than two-and-a-half percent," said Kingston referring to the "Proposition 2 1/2" limit – passed in 1979 – on increasing property tax revenue. 

Under the school department's budget that would retain teaching positions, the town needs to raise enough to allow the school budget – the largest department in town – to increase by about three percent from last year's fiscal budget.

"So we need to raise the extra half-of-a-percent from other sources," said Kingston. 

"The town needs to prepare for an override," warned Kingston.

Yet the School Committee's Kevin Cunningham warned those who believe that an override for schools is the solution could find themselves on the wrong side of a town-wide vote. (Despite several recent attempts, Belmont has not approved a Prop 2 1/2 override in more than 12 years).

Overrides fail when they appear to be proposed to solve "a crisis" rather then creating a sustainable solution to limited revenue, said Cunningham.

It was those challenges that brought out about a dozen Wellington parents who questioned how the current priority list is giving the town's newest school the short end of the education stick.

Influx into Belmont of private school student

With the Wellington garnering a greater number of the sudden influx of students into the system this year – the department reported nearly 100 new students, many coming from private schools, entering the district – class sizes in the modern new school that opened in 2011 are above those in other elementary schools. 

In fact, a typical Wellington class room is about eight percent larger than comparable classes in the other schools, said parent Dan Barry.

And while the Wellington will see a new second grade teacher along with an assistant principal who will also work as a school councilor in September, those will be achieved by eliminating the four grade-level aides now in the school. 

While parents in the fall may have been supportive of adding an assistant principal, today, they would prefer to have the four aides, said Barry. 

As for the current $44.3 million budget the School Committee approved unanimously, what appeared "dire" in February when the initial version was introduced to the committee by the department is now considered "constrained," according to Kingston. 

Then, the town and school committee were calculating state aid to Belmont to be "level" funded or no increase from the previous year. 

On Tuesday, an additional $274,705 in available revenue was added to the preliminary fiscal 2014 budget, half – $141,000 – of which is coming from an increase in general local aid based on the state budget formulated by the Ways & Means committee of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

The remaining amount is coming from savings found in town accounts and in the conversion from oil to gas in heating Belmont High School, according to Kingston.

In addition, the coming fiscal year's budget does burn through some "seed" money by drawing down one-time fund, raiding $190,000 in credits set aside from the town's involvement in a special education collaborative with neighboring towns. 

That along with nearly $100,000 from a combination of Town Education funds as well as money from the Foundation for Belmont Education added another $420,000 of "outside" funding into the budget.

The added funding does help the school department eliminate some but not all cuts for next year. Rather than nearly eight full-time equivalent positions being cut, now 2.8 positions will be eliminated and most of that will be done by not hiring to replace those who retire. 

There still will not be any money to implement last year's advisory committee on Enrollment's recommendation on reducing class sizes, additional support staff or adding sports in the middle school. 

Yet the budget approved this week will change considerably by the time it is finalized in June. As with every year, it is likely the legislature will compromise with Gov. Deval Patrick on a local aid package – Patrick's budget proposal would have provided Belmont with more than $600,000 in school aid – that will "sweeten" the pot of money heading to municipalities.

As stated two years ago at Town Meeting by then-Warrant Committee Chairwoman Elizabeth Allison, "the cavlary seems to always come over the hill at the last minute," after the legislature filled an even greater local school aid gap in May of 2011.