The Jaffrey-Rindge School Board has asked district administration to cut $900,000 from the 2019-20 proposed operating budget.
The district’s draft operational budget currently stands at $26,504,900 – a 4.41 percent increase over the 2018-19 operational budget. Cutting $900,000 would drop the increase to .86 percent.
“I believe we will be able to [cut the money] in a responsible way that won’t hinder the education of students or employment of our staff.” Superintendent Reuben Duncan said Monday.
The district has had a budget surplus between $700,000 to $1.2 million over the past four years, board chair Laurel McKenzie said Saturday.
The school board met with district administrators and a budget advisory committee throughout much of the day on Saturday to discuss the budget proposal.
There are a number of position changes and additions proposed in the current draft budget.
Proposed changes include: adding a Jaffrey Grade School/Rindge Memorial School assistant principal and a full-time assistant principals secretary, making the athletic director position full-time, changing the curriculum director position into a curriculum manager position, and combining the school board secretary and communications coordinator positions.
There are no proposed position cuts in the proposed budget, other than those that will be eliminated for new, expanded, or combined positions.
Saturday’s draft budget included a full-time preschool teacher and 1.6 full-time equivalent preschool associate positions for Jaffrey Grade School – which would help to increase preschool offerings in the district – but those positions will be removed as the district needs more time to figure out where the preschool classes would be held.
“The problem is infrastructure – do we have the appropriate place to house Pre-K students?” board vice chair Charlie Eicher said.
Removing those positions would eliminate $111,583 of the $900,000 recommended to be cut from the budget.
Much of the conversation on Saturday morning dealt with the title of the new athletic director position – whether it should be an assistant principal or a director position.
The board voted 4-3 to make the position a director position. The full-time position would be in charge of all extra curricular activities including sports and clubs.
“I object to the title of assistant principal,” board member Jeff Clark-Kevan said. “We’ve already determined that position has its hands full as a full-time job without having him do teacher evaluations and other duties.”
Duncan explained Saturday that the assistant principal title would be an opportunity to allow flexibility to the position, rather than create a wealth of additional duties for the position.
The school board is scheduled to finalize the proposed operating budget on Jan. 7.