hard deadlines

Portmsouth Schoool Committee and Town Council joint session.

Nobody looked very happy at the joint meeting of the Portsmouth School Committee and Town Council last night, and while there were a lot of caveats about projections based on preliminary numbers, the bottom line appeared to be shortfalls for the schools in both the current and upcoming year.

And much of the blame was directed at the Governor's proposed budget.

School Finance Director Christine Tague laid out the cuts: $112K reduction in professional development (of which the schools have already spent $60K) and the elimination of permanent aid combined to produce a possible gap of $180K. "This is just the Governor's proposal," said Tague, offering some hope, "The legislature still has to act."

Superintendent Susan Lusi told the Council that they were talking with the union about ways to cut professional development. "We're looking at ways to close this gap, should it truly exist," said Lusi.

Councilor Jeff Plumb asked if assumptions about next year's budget were based on tax increases up to the S3050 cap, which will be a 4.75% increase on the tax levied. When told they were, he cautioned, "You do know this council came out saying 3%. We might have to take a hard look at the future years."

Tague explained the projected budget and the need to go to the cap, noting that the total increase for the schools would be $1.2M. One-time charges would eat up $400K of that immediately, leaving $872K to fund normal increases to existing programs (contracts, utilities, etc.) which already add up to $914K. And that does not factor in negotiations with the NEA. "Even without the teacher contract," said Tague, "we're starting the year with a $41K deficit."

"What was the salary increase last year for teachers," asked Councilor Jim Seveney.

"About $800K," Tague replied.

"So really, we're not looking at $41K," said Seveney. Given that last year, the teachers (other than Step 10s) received only step increases, the likely increase for next year would almost certainly be in that same range.

The news on the Town side was not any better, said Finance Director Dave Faucher, with the available $700K in new tax revenue exhausted paying for mandated pension increases, debt service, and contracted salary increases. "And we haven't factored in the Governor's supplemental aid cut if it applies to next year," said Faucher. "Basically, it's not good news."

Councilor Huck Little got right to the bottom line. "Do you have a list of where we can start cutting?" Town Administrator Bob Driscoll assured the Council that they did, and had been consistently cautious in Town spending all year.

Council President Peter McIntyre asked the question that's been floating around town. "Any thought of closing Elmhurst and saving money there?"

Lusi referred to the work that the Facilities Committee has been doing, and noted that their charge had not been to address short-term budget fixes.

School Committee Chair Dick Carpender addressed it head on. "People are looking for an answer. My response has been that right now we don't know what the budget is going to dictate. It's not our desire to close Elmhurst, but if we're looking at a $1M deficit, all options need to be on the table. Are the short term savings enough for us to take on that task? We don't know. As soon as we have that information, we'll provide it. Reality may force decisions we don't want to make."

Plumb said he understood how hard the decision was. "If you close Elmhurst, I commend you on it. Every piece of news we heard today is not good." But, he added, "These people do deserve a timely answer to the best of your ability."

The last agenda item was a discussion of how to split the revenues from the soon-to-be-built wind turbine, and a joint school-town working group had come up with a proposal that apportioned the income based on electricity consumed, with 60% for the schools and 40% to the town.

Councilor Dennis Canario made a motion to accept this as a guideline, and after some occasionally sharp discussion about committing to numbers before the generator even came online, the proposal was approved unanimously.

Full disclosure: I serve on the Portsmouth Facilities Committee.