Politics & Government

School Proposal Still $345K 'Above Target'

Supt. Dr. Bernard DiLullo said the Johnston School Committee plans to try and cut its fiscal 2013 spending plan after the Apr. 1 deadline to submit it to the town.

After three budget workshops — and in the face of three pending contracts — the Johnston School Committee on Mar. 22 approved its $49.2 million fiscal 2013 budget proposal with $345,000 left to cut if it hopes to meet .

As it stands, the school budget would go up by about $878,000 — or 1.78 percent — under the proposal approved by the committee. The board's proposed budget anticipates a $533,000 increase in state funding.

Supt. Dr. Bernard DiLullo, during a recent phone interview, said the board decided to approve the spending plan and submit it to the town by Apr. 1 "with the stipulation that there's obviously more work to be done on it."

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[The Town Charter requires the mayor to present his budget plan to the council by Apr. 1, though the council may allow the mayor additional time to draft the municipal budget and submit it to a council vote in time for the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. Last year, .]

According to a spreadsheet prepared after the Thursday night session, committee members agreed to a $100,000 cut in the district's special education tuition budget — the line item that pays for students to be placed outside of Johnston — as well as $70,000 in heating fuel costs and another $30,484 in tuition for regular education programs in other communities.

Find out what's happening in Johnstonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The retirement of the district's technology director will allow a savings of another $21,000, while cuts in expected unemployment costs ($10,000), education supplies for elementary schools ($5,000), fire safety equipment ($2,500), and art and library supplies for Ferri Middle School ($1,500 combined) make up the rest of the committee's recommended reductions.

During previous budget workshops, committee members discussed the possibility of saving busing costs by either changing the start times for the high school and Ferri — which would allow routes to be combined — or starting high school bus runs two miles from students' homes, instead of the current distance of one mile.

Member Joseph Rotella (Dist. 4) said during the workshop on Mar. 20 that — or the equivalent of two buses — by taking these measures.

But DiLullo explained that, following a study by Facilities Director David Cournoyer, "we'd need the same amount of buses [if the middle and high school start times were closer], because we need that many seats — it's like 20 buses we need for transporting the middle school/high school combination, which is the same number of buses we use right now."

Any potential savings, DiLullo added, would be in driver time and fuel costs — though it's not likely that would reach $100,000.

Changes to the start times of schools would also have to be negotiated into a new teachers' contract, DiLullo explained. Teachers have been working without a contract since last September.

DiLullo also said that the district intends to include the potential for combining bus runs in its to-be-negotiated bus contract.

"We asked people to bid on that combined run as an alternative to what we have now, so hopefully we'll have those numbers at our next meeting," DiLullo explained.

If successful in further trimming its budget, the school committee would ensure a fifth straight year of no increase in the town's payment toward education costs.

Part articles on this topic:

  • , Mar. 21, 2012
  • , Mar. 19, 2012
  • , Mar. 16, 2012


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