School Dept. Faces $1.3M Drop in Next Year’s Budget

January 8, 2010

The Pembroke School District could be facing a possible $1.3 million shortfall in the fiscal year 2011 budget if stimulus money, or “stabilization funds,” are not added to the budget through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

According to Superintendent Frank Hackett, the district has not yet heard from the state regarding the funds.

Last fiscal year, the school budget was cut by $1.3 million but regained the loss in funding thanks to the ARRA money.

On Feb. 2, Hackett and the administrative team will present an Administrative Recommended Budget to the school committee for FY11.

“We are interested in looking at rungs of the ladder. We will be looking at a list of what kinds of reductions and the priority of reductions and what they would be if we had to make th em because of a decline in funding,” said Hackett. “I’m always confident we will figure something out, I think what we have done well in the past. The school system has done a good job. We are a responsible school system and we boast class sizes many schools would like to have. So I know we will figure something out but the question will be how painful it will be.”

During last Tuesday’s meeting with the school committee, Hackett said the problem with being such a “lean” school district is that it is harder to deduct from programs currently running.

School committee members had the chance to offer their perspective Tuesday night about the FY11 budget.

Committee member Paul Bosworth said it was important to maintain the current class sizes in the district when considering the budget for next year.

Hackett said Pembroke was the only district to lower classes sizes on the South Shore over the last two years, despite the economic decline.

Committee member Michael Tropeano said Tuesday night during the discussion that he also wanted to keep fees from going up for various school organizations because other fees in town such as trash and tax fees have recently increased.