Franklin schools could lay off 45 teachers and other staff members next year in what's shaping up to be a particularly grim budget season.
Superintendent Wayne Ogden presented a $55.5 million budget to the School Committee on Tuesday night that fell $3.3 million short of what officials consider to necessary to deliver the same level of services as this year, the board's chairman said.
"We have been predicting for years that we would be in this position," Jeffrey Roy said in an interview after the meeting. "This does not come as a surprise."
The town will have between $1.8 million and $2 million in new revenue for the 2009 fiscal year, according to Town Ad ministrator Jeffrey Nutting, but "that is far below what it will take to maintain a level-service budget," Roy said.
In Ogden's spending plan, which represents a 1.5 percent increase over this year's budget, the elementary schools would lose 15 positions, the middle school would lose 12.5, and the high school would lose 17 teachers and one administrator. However, Roy notes that two new teaching positions have been added at Franklin High, for a net loss of 16 positions.
"In past years, we cut supplies and other things that stayed away from the classroom," Roy said. "But those things are so low that the only cuts we could make at this point were to personnel, which represent 80 percent of our budget."
Ogden has "absolutely not said which positions would be cut," Roy said.
The superintendent also proposed raising bus fees another $100, to $325, and cuts in supplies and programs across the system.
The news is not encouraging on the municipal side of the budget, where Nutting has asked departments to prepare both level-service and level-funded budgets, and is meeting with them to discuss their requests. He plans to present a budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 to Town Council this month.
Deborah Bartlett, vice chairwoman of the Town Council and chair of the town's joint budget subcommittee, said personnel cuts almost certainly would be necessary to balance Franklin's overall budget, projected to be approximately $88 million.
"Obviously, there are going to be some policy decisions on the part of the whole council if there are layoffs, which it looks like there will be," said Bartlett, noting that the budget panel is to meet Wednesday to assess recommendations and decide the next steps.
The shortfall of several million dollars is occurring in spite of voters' approval of a $2.7 million tax increase last year, which boosted residents' property-tax bills by 8.7 percent this year.
So far, there seems to be little support among elected officials for asking voters to weigh in on another Proposition 2 1/2 override, which Nutting said "is not even on the radar screen."
The Town Council last year decided to ask only for the money it needed to cover a one-year deficit. "We knew this wouldn't solve the problem for a very long time," Bartlett said, adding that she would not support asking voters for an operating budget override again this year. "Quite frankly, I don't think people can afford it. We need to find some creative ways to make the amounts of money we have work."
But Roy believes that residents should have their say.
"I think we have to give the community the opportunity to express its opinion about whether they want to see these cuts, or an override," Roy said. "It should be presented as an option."
This year's budget crunch is partly the result of Town Council's commitment not to use money from the town's stabilization fund, which stands at $4.3 million. "We've been living off our stabilization account for years and need to stop doing that," Nutting said.
Fixed costs and lower local receipts from motor-vehicle taxes and investment interest are also contributing to the gap, he said.
Nutting said he believes the next fiscal year, as the town attempts to wean itself off the stabilization account, will be the toughest. "I think we'll have a bad '09, but things will slowly improve and I think we'll have a better '10."
In the coming weeks, the School Committee will assess its options for addressing the deficit, but "there is no alternative" to these cuts, Roy said.
"We've done a lot of creative things to generate revenue, but there's only so far we can go," Roy said. "This is the year" the shortfall "will come to fruition. The discussion will be whether people find this acceptable."
