Hamilton-Wenham School Committee ask for $1.9 million override

The Hamilton-Wenham Regional School Committee voted Monday night to request a Proposition 2 1/2 override to help fund its fiscal 2009 budget.
According to an e-mail from Superintendent Marinel McGrath, the override will cost individual taxpayers an average of $393 per year.
The proposed override of $1,889,589 is less than the figure officials had used at budget presentations, and was lowered because of the March 20 House and Senate Joint Resolution on Chapter 70 aid that will give the district an additional $97,800 in state funds.
The '09 budget will maintain the current level of services, and be used to fund a small number of initiatives recommended in the administration's strategic plan. The total proposed budget for the school district is $27,031,567.
Hamilton voters will be asked to vote on a Proposition 21/2 override of $1,288,322 at Town Meeting May 5 and the Wenham override, for $601,267, will be voted on May 3.
Both towns passed school overrides last year, $340,121 in Hamilton and $154,817 in Wenham.
-- David Rattigan