CCS School Board Will Vote March 18 on Revised Budget
March 17, 2010

The School Board will vote at a special meeting at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, March 18, on a revised budget that is expected to include additional cuts of $57,312 from the original budget voted on Town Meeting Day.

The cuts were recommended by the administration, Principal Sandra Jump and Superintendent Elaine Pinkney, at the regular meeting and budget session Tuesday night. Because the amount wasn’t warned for that meeting, a separate meeting is necessary for approval of the revised budget. The revote of the new budget by the Town is scheduled for Tuesday, April 6. A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in the CCS Library.

The largest shares of the new cuts are $20,312 for transportation, and $29, 512 in risk management. The transportation changes will include eliminating one of the seven buses and rearranging bus routes. The “risk management” reduction reflects the differential between the costs of retiring teachers and anticipated new hires for the 2010-2011 school year. Two long-term teachers announced their retirement as of June 30, 2010: kindergarten teacher Susan Lavigne, who has been at CCS for 35 years, and Sheila Aube, grades 5-8 literacy teacher, who has taught at CCS for 39 years. The board accepted with regret their resignations, and applauded their service to the school.

Additional smaller cuts to the budget are in the areas of lighting and advertising.

With these new cuts, the budget will be approximately 2.4% less than the 2009-2010 budget, which was level funded compared to the prior year. The proposed revised budget, if approved by the board on March 18, will include total cuts of about $400,000 from prior year operating expenses, and it includes the first bond payment of $167,000 for the school reconstruction project.