The Wilton-Lyndeborough School Board has finalized next year’s budget after voters reduced the budget by over $400,000 during the March District Meeting.

During a virtual meeting on Tuesday, the board agreed on an option presented by a board sub-committee that has been working for the past month on paring down the budget from the district’s proposed $13,056,164 to the $12,644,720 approved during District Meeting.

Board member Charlie Post presented the full board with two options which the committee had put together, both of which were similar. He said while the sub-committee had looked at various options, including those that were unpopular with the public during initial conversations, such as making sports pay-to-play and looking closely at the viability of Lyndeborough Central School, their final draft was able to avoid those eventualities.

Among the cuts made were reducing a middle school counseling position and the curriculum coordinator position from full-time to part-time or contracted positions, and eliminating an alternative education specialist, a position which monitored and assisted students who access classes online, and also supervised in-school suspensions.

The board also considered an option that would have completely eliminated the curriculum coordinator, and kept the counseling position full-time, but ultimately chose the first option.

During previous meetings, the board had already given tacit agreement to other trims in the budget, including eliminating replacement of field fencing and goals, furniture replacements, eliminating professional development and travel expenses for Superintendent Bryan Lane, who has announced his retirement after next year, and moving the search for a new superintendent in-house.

The new budget relies more on parents to provide supplies for their students, both for use in the classroom, and field trip fees, although those increases aren’t significant – student supplies were reduced at a rate of about $20 per student, and field trips about $10 per student. However, it was indicated that those cuts are intended to be carried forward in future budgets.

Non-union employees will pay a higher percentage for insurance, and the middle school music position was reduced to part-time.

Employee reductions resulted in the largest savings for the district. Eliminating the alternative education specialist resulted in about $44,859 in savings, reducing the middle school counselor to part-time saved another $41,711 and reducing the curriculum coordinator position another $40,226.

The School Board approved the budget adjustments in a 7-1 vote, with Chair Alex Loverme abstaining, as he does on all votes that are not a tie.

In other budget news, the board discussed the status of hourly employees employed by the district, and whether they should be continued to be employed and kept on the payroll for the remainder of the school year.

The school district employs between 30 and 40 non-contracted hourly employees.

Lane told the board that most of the hourly employees are still working a full schedule. Administrative staff are in the building as needed, but also continue to work from home as well. The food service staff is still preparing lunches for between 30 and 40 students daily.

The board discussed several options for the non-contracted employees, including evaluating their status week-to-week. Some members of the School Board protested that did not give employees enough stability, and suggested that the board vote to continue their employment for at least a month, and then re-evaluate. Ultimately, however, the board decided to end the school year on June 5, and with only a little more than a month to go in the school year, the board decided to continue to employ and pay those non-contracted workers through the end of the school year.

 

Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.