State Funding to Schools Explained

At the end of Tuesday's Salem School Board meeting, Superintendent Michael Delahanty addressed some funding issues for the 2011-2012 school budget regarding state contributions.

First, Delahanty said the Salem district received $5.3 million in state school adequacy funds as had been planned in the budget. That figure is the same as had been received by the school district for the last several years.

"We originally anticipated for the '11-'12 school year about $3 million more than we had been receiving," Delahanty said. "We were scheduled to bump up to $8.3 million for '11-'12. I had been forewarned back in the fall not to use the higher number for projections. So we took the more conservative approach and estimated our adequacy funds at $5.3 million and estimated the tax impact accordingly."

Delahanty said other New Hampshire towns received more than anticipated and are going through special meeting processes to determine where that extra money will go. Because Salem received what had been planned for, no such process will need to occur.

Delahanty also addressed contributions from the state to the retirement system for school employees. When Gov. John Lynch originally proposed a 0 percent state contribution in his budget earlier this year, Delahanty said the school was looking at a $1.1-2 million shortfall.

"By the time the smoke cleared, our budget was done and our estimate for state's contribution was 35 percent," Delahanty said. "As we approached spring after our school district meeting and elections we were certainly still unsure where the state was going to fall."

After working with Salem's state Sen. Chuck Morse, Delahanty said the state's contribution was 25 percent, leaving the town with about $460,000 to make up from that projection of 35 percent.

"But because the board had agreed to several further staff reductions and program cuts we were able to address the shortfall in that way," Delahanty said.

There will be no impact to taxpayers for making up those cuts, Delahanty said.