Wenham finance committee pulls surprise on reducing school override figure

Proponents of a $1,889,589 Proposition 2 ½ override for the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District were dismayed Wednesday night when the Wenham Finance and Advisory Committee voted to ask that the district's budget figure be amended at Saturday's Town Meeting.
Wenham's portion of the proposed school override is $601,267, but the Finance and Advisory Committee voted to request a reduction to $413,660.
Richard Boroff, regional school committee chairman, said the school district leadership is checking with its lawyer to determine its options.
"It's certainly a shock," Boroff said, noting that any change made in Wenham also affects Hamilton, which is responsible for approximately two-thirds of the school district budget. Hamilton's Town Meeting is scheduled for Monday, and voters there are being asked to fund $1,288,322 of the override.
"The school committee has the fiduciary responsibility to set its budget," Boroff said. "It's not the responsibility of the Wenham Finance Committee to unilaterally change our budget."
Finance and Advisory chairman Jack Wilhelm said the committee was not setting the budget, "just recommending that voters approve a different amount of money than the amount [the district] presents to the town -- a lower amount of money."
Wilhelm said the committee had received an opinion from Town Counsel Paul Weaver that it was within its rights.
"We want to support the schools," Wilhelm said, noting that Wenham had a tax increase of 11 percent this year, and with the school override plus the town's $153,000 one-year capital override for equipment purchases proposed this spring, the increase in fiscal year 2009 might be an additional 8.3 percent.
"The cumulative increase would be 20 percent," Wilhelm said. "We just think that's too much."
Based on the district's figures, he said, his committee determined that the schools could provide level services with an override of $1,255,000.
Wenham's Town Meeting is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, at the Buker School. Hamilton's Town Meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School.
-David Rattigan