Saugus schools dig up money to purchase paper

SAUGUS – Due to some savvy spending and even savvier saving the School Department will be able to purchase a limited amount of supplies for the upcoming year.The School Department has long maintained a supply warehouse where copy, white-lined and construction paper were all stored along with pencils, protractors, art supplies and other basic supplies used by the schools. When the budget cuts hit last year the School Committee and then-Superintendent Keith Manville decided not to replenish the warehouse but to use what it had on hand.It worked, saving the department some cash but it also depleted the warehouse completely, leaving them nothing for the upcoming school year.During his last School Committee meeting Manville said conservative spending actually resulted in enough unexpended funds to purchase copy paper, white-lined paper, No. 2 pencils and a few miscellaneous supplies.A savings in legal services alone resulted in $42,000 spent on copy paper.Committee member Rick Doucette questioned just how much copy paper $42,000 would buy.”The order is our normal order but it went up $12,000,” Manville said. “Our normal order is 1,200 cases of paper.”He called the increase incredible but said the cost of paper is going up like everything else.Legal services was about the only thing that didn’t go up, Manville said, largely because the School Department decided to put its lawyer Phil Boyle on retainer rather than pay an hourly billable rate.”It was a good decision,” he added. “It worked out well for us.”Manville said the department also salvaged $5,000 from the School Committee awards line item, $8,000 in printing and $4,000 in the copier lease line.While the small surplus was considered fortuitous Manville said the department typically budgeted $30,000 to $35,000 for the supplies.”This time of year you’re always juggling unexpended funds versus unanticipated bills,” he said. “We will get a full order of copy paper . . . and white lined paper, which we had none of and maybe some No. 2 pencils.”