Swampscott school budget positioned to avoid ‘cliff year’

SWAMPSCOTT – Members of the Finance Committee praised School Superintendent Lynne Celli Thursday night for a $25.85 million school budget that they hope will postpone the impact of expiring state and federal funds until 2013.”I admire the work that (the schools) have done to present a steady budget in the face of a difficult situation,” said Finance Committee Chair Michael McClung. But I think we are all pretty clear that we face a challenge” in the future.The Finance Committee met with Celli, school district Budget Director Ed Cronin and School Committee member Maureen Thomsen to discuss the proposed 2012 budget. The balanced proposed budget totals $25,847,439, an increase of 2.8 percent from 2010-2011.Cronin characterized the budget costs as very “steady” from the previous year. Celli attributed the majority of this increase to pay raises over the next three years that were negotiated into a new teachers contract. The budget proposal reflects few changes to the services provided by the schools. One position at the middle school will be eliminated. An elementary school health position will be added.But the district’s funding sources are very different from recent years.Because of a reduction of federal and state funds – in particular, a 15.71 percent reduction in the state’s contribution toward reimbursing the town for special-education costs – the school district applied a combination of unallocated grant money and revenue from a tuition fund to fill a $428,000 gap, said Cronin.The town’s contribution to the schools will also increase by 2.33 percent, according to the proposal.Cronin said that these actions enable the town to delay the “cliff year,” or the year when federal and state funds that have supported the school essentially fall of the cliff. He said that the school district hopes this delay will give legislators another year rework funding formulas and then provide more money to the schools.Cronin added that the district will examine the tuition Nahant pays to send its students to Swampscott schools. The current tuition agreement is scheduled to be renewed in 2013, Cronin said.But, while they acknowledged that tough decisions must be made in the future, most Finance Committee members seemed pleased with the current budget and the outlook for the future.”I think we’re all concerned with what the next few years will bring,” said Finance Committee Vice Chair Don Pinkerton. “But I think we’re looking pretty good for now.”