School Board Looks for Options Other than Cuts

The Board of Education spent hours Monday night listening to Superintendent Kathleen Greider’s suggestions on how to trim $431,000 from the board’s recommended budget but after discussing the proposed cuts, decided to delay the vote and pursue other options.

I know everyone at this table gives 110 percent,” Chairman Mary Grace Reed told the board. “There’s nobody here who wouldn’t — when we look at the level these cuts are at, so direct to students, to services, summer school help, reading recovery when you literally have identified students who do not receive services — I know there is no one not willing to come back.”

As an alternative to the superintendent’s suggested cuts, Reed put other options, suggested by various board members, on the table for consideration.

First, the board will explore whether it could underfund its self-insurance fund, despite a recently passed joint policy with the Town Council, requiring self-insurance be fully funded for all expected costs.

“One of the reasons we never got ourselves in the position we’ve been in the past four years is there’s been a creativity used in accounts such as self-insurance,” Reed said. “We are looking for the creativity and flexibility that Farmington councils and boards have used for generations — it’s not magic how we ended up with a low tax rate and excellent school system.”

While Bernie Erickson supported looking at self-insurance, Betsy Kaplan, who served on the committee that saw the policy passed, did not.

“Having been on the self-insurance policy committee, I don’t know if it’s a good idea to right off the bat go back to the same behaviors,” Kaplan said. “We created the policy for a reason.”

Second, Reed said she had discussed with the council the possibility of the district shutting down all nonessential accounts for the rest of the year and using whatever savings could be found to fund dire needs, most likely technology.

“I’d like to talk to the superintendent about a number if we were to tighten our belts in a way that has not been done before and to work to see if we can reduce some of the worst of the impacts here,” Reed said.

The council would not need to authorize the plan, Reed said, but she wanted to maintain trust between the elected bodies and transparency before the community.

“I don’t support the freeze or prepayment at all,” Jon Landry said. “I think it goes against general budgeting for the most part… This is a budget, not an expense account… I agree we can be creative and flexible to some extent but it should all be within the same area.”

Third, members discussed whether the district might charge the before and afterschool care program, EXCL, for rent on using the district’s buildings. The EXCL account is separate from the district’s budget, though its director is a district employee and its clients are its students. The idea stemmed from a similar practice used in this year’s budget, when the district, for the first time, has charged EXCL for use of copiers and supplies.

Landry, Kaplan and Bill Beckert (also parents who use EXCL) and district Business Administrator Mike Ryan expressed concern about the proposal.

“I have a problem with EXCL in that they are students and [EXCL Director] Vince [LaFontan] is an employee of our system and now we’re going to charge them rent to be in our buildings. The parents pay into an account for services paid to EXCL so we can’t use that money for anything other than EXCL — we shouldn’t.”

Ultimately, Paula O’Brien summed it up.

“I’m not comfortable making any full decisions tonight without exploring the options,” she said. “It dismays me to look at any of this [proposed cuts]… It just is unacceptable. We need to look other places before we start.”

The board will meet again Monday, April 2 at 7 p.m. in the Farmington High School library to hear from the superintendent about the options, then will likely vote.