Baileyville schools could cost $3.1 million

BAILEYVILLE — The school budget for the 1990-91 school year may turn out to be as much as 25.7 percent more than last year’s budget, but Superintendent Robert W. Fifield said that the staff and school committee had reviewed each request and had worked hard to contain it.

Last year, residents approved a school budget of $2,657,062. The budget projected for the new fiscal year is $3,121,636, 17.4 percent more than last year. If four special articles also are approved, the budget could grow to $3,339,278, 25.7 percent more than last year.

Fifield said that since the school district would end its fiscal year with a lower surplus than last year, local taxes needed to fund the budget would be 22.5 percent more than last year, if only the basic budget were approved, and 36.2 percent more if the four special articles also were approved.

The four articles that voters will consider separately will ask them to appropriate:

$79,000 to lease six modular units for the elementary school that would house art, music, special education classes, the program for the gifted and talented, a computer lab and a library.

$12,319 for a sound system for the elementary school.

$72,322 for the high school to provide access for the handicapped; a large divider wall for a large classroom; and two leased modular classrooms.

$54,000 to provide computers for grades seven and eight which now have no access to computers; and new uniforms for the band.

The town council last week expressed alarm over the size of the budget and voted to delay its presentation to town voters. By a vote of 2-1 with two abstentions, the council last week voted to remove the school budget from the warrant for the March 26 town meeting.

During a conference Monday with the town’s attorney, Lee Bragg, the councilors learned that the budget still could be presented at the annual town meeting if a warrant for the meeting, that contained the budget, was signed by four members of the council.

Fifield defended the budget Monday and said that the school committee this year followed the same procedure as in past years to formulate the budget. He said that in accordance with suggestions made by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, when the Baileyville schools were in the process leading to school accreditation, the school committee this year had included teachers and other staff members in the budget-making process. He said he believed the final budget was realistic and balanced and would provide the local schools with their minimum requirements.

Although some residents questioned the propriety of presenting special articles to the voters, Fifield said he thought such articles were appropriate because they gave residents the opportunity to decide if they wanted to fund special items. He said that when such items were included in the basic budget, residents could not vote against them unless they voted down the entire budget.

As an example, the superintendent referred to the article that would ask the town to appropriate $79,000 to lease six modular units for the elementary school. He said that the elementary school principal had asked for the special article. “The principal said, `If the town votes it down, I can live with it, but at least I want them to have the opportunity to vote,”‘ Fifield said.

In order for the school budget to be presented to the voters at the annual meeting in March, four members of the town council will have to sign the warrant and post that warrant seven days before the meeting.