The Finance Committee continued to review the budget on Tuesday.

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Finance Committee wants to see if there is even more money available to pull out of the education budgets.

 

On Tuesday, committee members said they wanted more answers about both the Mount Greylock Regional School District budget and the Elementary School budget, feeling that each have more money than they need.

 

The town administrator, however, said the dollar amounts aren't worth the fight.

 

Committee members said they were concerned that Mount Greylock school officials had returned to give a "formal" presentation to the committee after voting to add an additional $42,100 into the budget.

 

Those additions resulted in a  $15,896 increase than previously presented and that much more than Town Administrator Paul Sieloff based his proposed budget around. 

 

"My opinion is that they haven't made a formal presentations to us," said Finance Committee member Ronald Tinkham. "I am not in favor of supporting a Mount Greylock budget at this time."

 

Tinkham said three issues concern him: estimated increases in state aid that will presumably go to the school and isn't budgeted, the vote to add $9,100 for team meetings for middle school faculty, and a lack of coordination in handling school choice and tuition.

 

"We have regional transportation that it appears that is going to be change drastically," Tinkham said of the state aid. "It shouldn't be just additional money they can spend on whatever... It is not free money for them to use anywhere." 

 

He said he doesn't believe the school should be paying an additional stipend of $9,100 for team meetings because he believes teachers should be doing that anyway.

 

And, a topic Tinkham has been continually looking to address, he believes the elementary and high schools are all opening choice and tuition up to too many students and requiring extra staff — though school officials will say they only open choice and tuition in undersized classes so as to receive revenue without costing extra.

 

Sieloff said it isn't "unreasonable" to have those questions answered, but he doesn't believe the numbers will change much. 

 

"At this point in time, I don't know if they are willing to reopen discussions at this point," he said.

 

The regional school district is asking for an assessment of $102,870, which is a 3.3 percent increase. That is down from an earlier request of $200,211, representing a 7.6 percent increase. While the 3.3 percent increase was more than Sieloff's request of only 1 percent, the administrator used savings in the Elementary School budget to offset the increase and avoid an override vote.

 

While the Finance Committee and the Board of Selectmen have both voiced displeasure with the Mount Greylock budget, Sieloff said the money may not be worth fighting over. He said the argument is really over just a few thousand dollars that can be absorbed into the budget so voting the budget down and going to a district vote isn't worth the effort. Sieloff believes the Board of Selectmen agree.

 

"I don't think it is too much to say, let's have them come in and justify the additional spending," Sieloff said.

 

The Finance Committee agreed that Tinkham and Sieloff will compile some questions the committee would like answered prior to voting for or against supporting the budget. The Finance Committee's budget is the one voters are asked to vote on at town meeting.

 

The committee also questioned the Elementary School's need for a $60,000 reserve account. School officials approved a budget $182,823 less than last year but had concerns that they cut a little too close on some items. School officials built in a $60,000 reserve account just in case. The committee budgeted all of the anticipated school choice revenue in the process despite being unsure of the final choice numbers and need.

 

The town agreed to set aside $25,000 in additional reserves — a move that baffled even the Finance Committee.

 

"I was surprised they accepted that," said Chairman Al Terranova.

 

The Finance Committee now has control over that reserve and said it'll only be approved if there is an emergency — not to hire additional teachers later in the year. 

 

"I hope they realize that the money in the reserve fund has very specific reasons," Terranova said.

 

With the Elementary School budget, Tinkham said he isn't concerned with additional state revenues because those would go back to the town. However, he questions the need for the school budget to include a reserve fund of $60,000 that school officials control.

 

He also questioned impacts such as the salary for the new principal and the health insurance from the reduction of staffing.

 

Sieloff, again, however deterred the Finance Committee's effort, saying those smaller impacts would likely be offset by such things as revenues coming in low or other lines costing more. 

 

"At this point, I don't feel I need to talk to the elementary school about anything," Sieloff said, reminding the committee that budgets are really based on guesses.

 

He added that the health insurance impacts, which is in the town's budget, wouldn't be spent anyway. He plans to keep those funds in the budget.

 

"Those numbers are not exactly accurate because you don't know what health insurance people are going to take, if they are married or single, if you hire somebody new, you don't know if they'll take the insurance," Sieloff said.

 

The Finance Committee reviewed the rest of the town budget and seemed OK with the answers Sieloff provided. Increases include a $5,000 hike for the town accountant in an effort to bring a new accountant on early to learn the job, more hours for the treasurer, paying employees the increase in minimum wage in the Board of Registrars, water testing for both Berkshire Spring and near the landfill, a raise for the wire inspector, and a $25,000 increase in county assessments to pay for any expertise needed for the proposed natural gas pipeline process. 

 

"You have a budget right now that will increase the tax rate by 2 1/2 percent," Sieloff said. 

 

The Finance Committee hasn't completed its review of the budget and will soon take a look at the proposed warrant articles. 

 

Sieloff said the Board of Selectmen will approve the final changes to the budget in a few weeks and the proposal will be a "balanced budget."