Old or New: Decision Thursday About Next Step for Disputed School Budget

The School Committee will decide on Thursday what its next step will be in establishing a 2012 school budget, after Hamilton Town Meeting voters rejected the School Committee budget on Saturday.

Hamilton’s vote came a week after Wenham Town Meeting voters . But without both towns supporting the same budget, there’s not yet a school budget for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Hamilton voted meaning it would need another Town Meeting if the School Committee came back with a budget higher than the one it approved. Wenham would only need a new Town Meeting if the School Committee’s new budget is higher than the budget it has approved.

School Committee Chairman Alexa McCloughan said Monday that the committee needs to first decide whether the current School Committee or a newly formed School Committee - after next Thursday’s election in Hamilton - will make the decision.

If the “new” committee makes the decision, “they are the ones who have to live with the consequences of the budget,” she said. “But I’m interested in people’s points of view.”

Committee member Lauren Prior is not seeking reelection, which will mean at least one new member. Committee members Richard Boroff and Tess Leary are seeking reelection. Sean Condon, Bill Dery and Roger Kuebel are seeking School Committee seats.

“We need to decide whether we are going to come back with the same budget or another budget,” McCloughan said. “I wouldn’t expect we would make any decision about the number on Thursday.”

The School Committee at , its first meeting after both Town Meetings.

The committee has 30 days to recertify a new budget.

Regardless of whether the current School Committee of a newly formed School Committee takes up the issue, McCloughan said she feels that all nine members need to be part of all of the budget discussions. It is not going to go to the Finance Working Group, that would then bring back a report and recommendation to the full committee.

“I think this is a full School Committee process,” she said.

Regardless of what the recertified budget number is, McCloughan said the committee will “articulate better” its planned use of the excess and deficiency fund money – essentially a reserve account - which was at issue in this year’s budget debate.

One of the reasons the School Committee is seeking the excess and deficiency fund number it has presented was to be prepared for a budget “cliff” in 2013.

For years, the School Committee has been criticized for “limping along, year after year,” McCloughan said. The excess and deficiency fund can be used to help stabilize the budget in future years.

If the School Committee recertifies a new number, McCloughan said the School Committee needs more information.

“I’m not interested in doing our budget by dartboard,” she said, comparing the process to negotiating with her children about a curfew, which can sometimes result in an arbitrarily determined compromise time.

If the budget number is reduced, it needs to be clear why it is reduced, she said.

“I don’t believe right now I have enough facts to come back with a different number,” she said.