AdCom education subcommittee, Selectmen support recommended school budget; override vote expected next year

March 24, 2021 by Carol Britton Meyer

The Advisory Committee education subcommittee -- in a vote of 5 to 0 on Monday -- approved recommending the proposed fiscal 2022 $61.8 million school budget to the full AdCom on Thursday night (March 25), followed by a unanimous vote of support by the Selectmen last night.

AdCom is expected to vote on the overall budget, including the schools, that evening during a remote meeting. The Selectmen and School Committee plan to participate. The Committee was also part of last night's Selectmen's meeting.

Of the total school budget recommendation, $60.4 million would be funded by the taxpayers and $1.4 million by federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief stimulus money, which is incremental.

If the full AdCom votes numbers that are different from the ones the Selectmen voted, it is customary for the board to further discuss and potentially re-vote the budgets so that they are aligned with Ad Com going into Town Meeting.

If that happens, the Selectmen will then recess and resume their own meeting for a budget discussion and possible re-vote.

"It's always our goal that AdCom, the Selectmen, and the School Committee are in full agreement with the budgets presented to Town Meeting," Selectmen Chair Mary Power said. The AdCom's final recommendation will be published in the Town Meeting warrant.

Selectman William Ramsey, who has three children in the Hingham Public Schools, said he supports the full budget recommendation -- which includes funds to help students catch-up during and post-pandemic -- finding it "compelling. The need is there. The teachers have done a great job, but kids don't learn well on computers."

Override vote likely in 2022

Noting that an override is likely next year, along with debt exclusions for Foster School and other large capital projects down the road, Ramsey said "we'll have some difficult decisions to make as a community.  We need to address the needs of all of our residents -- including seniors -- and town employees."

The Selectmen supported an overall fiscal 2022 $132 million town budget -- including the schools, municipal departments, capital outlay, and shared expenses such as active and retiree employee benefits, debt service, and property and casualty insurance.  Town Meeting has the final say on the overall municipal and school budgets.

Recommended: 32 new school positions

The school budget includes 32 new positions to address the learning gap experienced by students as a result of the pandemic and also the resulting social-emotional issues.

Four additional new positions are included on the municipal side -- an assistant town administrator for finance, a heavy equipment operator for the landfill/recycling area, a mental health clinician to provide support to the Hingham Police Department in responding to calls, and a senior planner for the community planning department -- for a total of 36 recommended new positions.

Priya Howell thanked the board for supporting the full recommended school budget. "As a parent, my primary concern is definitely the school budget," she said, while at the same time fully supporting funding the recommended new assistant town administrator for finance position. This would help alleviate the current bottleneck in the Selectmen's office and ensure that citizens have access as appropriate to town administration.

"This overall proposed budget would be funded [in part] using $5 million in one-time money -- $2.4 million from the town's rainy-day fund and $2.6 million in federal stimulus money -- a combination of American Rescue Plan government funding and education relief money," Power explained.

School Committee member Libby Lewiecki thanked the board for their "commitment to the proposed school budget this year." She recalled that during her first year on the Committee, it became clear to her "that a level services budget was not sustainable for the schools and that more funding would be required in the near future."

School Committee Chair Kerry Ni also expressed appreciation to those who support the school budget proposal. "We're on a good path going forward," she said.

A year from now the town is anticipating receiving an additional $1.2 million in government aid to apply to the town's fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2024 budgets, according to Power, although that is not a given.

'Close to the edge of the cliff'

To be clear, Power emphasized, "we only have broad guidance about how we can use the federal and education relief money. If Town Meeting authorizes this budget and we can't use the money as we thought we could, we would have to use more of our fund balance [rainy-day money]. We're getting close to the edge of the cliff with this budget."

Power went on to say that federal stimulus money is funding all of the potential 36 new positions, which will cover their costs for fiscal 2022. However, she said, "there's a question mark as to how they will be funded beyond that. It's really likely that we will be asking the town for an override next year."

Passage of an override requires a majority vote at Town Meeting followed by a majority vote at the ballot box. If it doesn't pass at Town Meeting, the ballot question doesn't count. An override becomes part of the permanent tax base.

Citizens with different voices will be heard

"If Town Meeting doesn't authorize an override for some reason next year,  we may have to contract [town] services," Power said. It's important that the public knows how this budget is being funded. It will be important that all community voices be heard -- we've already heard the views of many [citizens], and there are lots of different voices. We want everyone to feel they have been heard, regardless of the decisions we make."

A debt exclusion, i.e. for Foster School, requires a two-thirds Town Meeting vote because a borrowing is involved [for a certain period of time], and a majority ballot vote. A ballot vote would be null and void if the Town Meeting vote fails.

Power said that what brought her "over the hurdle" to decide in favor of the full recommended school budget is the fact that the Advisory Committee, Selectmen, and School Committee will all weigh in on the upcoming long-term strategic plan for the schools. "It will take all of our collective efforts to do that," she said. "I trust that as part of that effort meaningful actions will be taken and carried out -- this [fiscal 2022 school budget recommendation] is a big ask, but I think this year it's the right ask to make."

Education budget growth 'not sustainable'

At the same time, Power went on to say, the education budget growth over the past 10 years "is not sustainable, even before the pandemic.  If it continues on that trajectory, it will be harder and harder to add new mandated or other programs."

If the proposed fiscal 2022 school budget is adopted at Town Meeting, "it will mean that close to 70 percent of our tax dollars support education, which is a math problem," Power said. "If that is left unaddressed, it will make it difficult to fund Foster School or other new [initiatives and programs]."

For full budget details, visit the School Committee link on the HPS website.

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