School Board Adopts $59 Million Gross Budget

The Salem School Board voted 5-0 to adopt the proposed 2012-2013 district gross budget of $59,975,337 Tuesday night, with the Budget Committee slated to get their first look at the budget Dec. 7.

SAU 57 Michael Delahanty said that gross budget represents a 1.62 percent increase over the current year.

Since last discussing the budget last week, Delahanty said changes including a $2,391 increase in worker's compensation insurance and an $8,731 decrease in property liability insurance were added into the budget.

Following more discussions with Town Manager Keith Hickey regarding the funding of the School Resource Officers, Delahanty said the school district will plan to fund the full cost of thoese officers during the 2012-2013 school year.

Originally the district was going to pay the lower cost of three new officers that weren't going to be working in the schools.

That full amount will be $286,199, which is $54,915 more than had originally been included in the budget. To mitigate that cost increase, a re-keying project at at $21,500 will be put off and some $6,000 in maintenance work was transfered to capital projects.

In addition to adopting the budget, the School Board also ratified four union contracts Tuesday for teachers, food service, custodians and educational support staff, respectively. The first three contracts are for two years through 2013-2014 while educational support staff is through 2012-2013.

Delahanty said all the contracts are "fair" and "consistent with the circumstances of the economy and what we face with our budget."

None of the contracts include wage increases of higher than 2 percent.