BRISTOL — Groton Selectman John Rescigno went before the Newfound Area School Board on Feb. 11 to get answers to what he saw as budget discrepancies, but which School Administrative Unit 4 Business Administrator Michael Limanni explained as fixed-cost purchases made possible by seeking efficiencies and taking advantage of money from staff turnover.
Rescigno came to the meeting at Newfound Regional High School armed with specific budget questions.
“I’m all for saving the town money and making sure it’s spent wisely,” Rescigno said, “but I’m also for education. Kids need certain things. It’s about spending money wisely.”
He started with a budget line for technology services, saying the budget called for spending $25,000 in 2017, but the district spent $88,000. The next year, there was nothing in that budget line, but the district spent $6,000.
“How can you be off by so much?” he asked.
Superintendent Stacy Buckley pointed out that the school district has to budget a year in advance, before knowing what specific children’s needs will be.
“We deal with students, not widgets,” she said.
Limanni explained that the school district prepares a budget each year with known priorities and costs, but because Newfound operates under a 2 percent tax cap, many of those items have to cut to bring the budget in under the cap.
“The key is the savings,” Limanni said, noting that staff turnover results in savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because half of the staff is nearing retirement age, those who leave are replaced by people lower on the pay scale, he said.
“Teachers’ contracts are 80 percent of the budget,” Limanni said, “and through turnover, we have $800,000 to $1 million in benefit and wage savings. We can’t anticipate the turnover, because we offer the contracts in April” but not all those who are offered contracts choose to return.
Grant funding is another area where the district may receive unanticipated revenue, but the grants must be used for specific items — sometimes items that were not included in the budget. School Board Chair Jeff Levesque of Groton noted that a library grant they received fell into that category, allowing them to purchase library material.
Limanni said the district was able to install a fiber optic system through unbudgeted revenues that came in, and they accomplished a lot by seeking efficiencies in purchasing. By changing purchasing policies and negotiating service contracts, the district realized some significant savings, he said.
Other places publicize such accomplishments but, Limanni said, “Frankly, we don’t have time.”
At mid-year, Limanni said, the facilities and tech staff, along with principals and administrators, go back and revisit the items that had to be removed from the budget, and with the savings, they are able to make some fixed-cost purchases — items that can be taken care of with that year’s funds, without becoming an expense in the following year’s budget.
Limanni said all of the costs Rescigno listed were items that had been priced a couple of years in advance, but were unable to be listed in the budget because doing so would exceed what is allowed under the tax cap.
He said that, before spending any surplus funds, the administration has several conversations with the school board and budget committee chairs.
