York Town News
Budget review process continues
By Jennifer L. Saunders
YORK - In these frigid February days, the May budget vote might just seem like a long time away, but for school and municipal department heads and the Budget Committee, the line-item review is well underway.The Budget Committee began its ongoing review process last week with a detail-by-detail look at the proposed York School Department budget. During the review process, Budget Committee members ask specific questions on requests - those presented and even those deleted earlier in the budget process - and on funding levels in advance of their vote, scheduled for later this month, to place requests on the ballot for the May referendum.
The fiscal 2008 School Department budget is proposed at approximately $22.8 million, with about $2.2 million for debt service. That figure shows an increase of 4.1 percent over the current fiscal year and includes a plan for full-day kindergarten.
The full-day program has been a goal of the York School Department for several years, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Henry Scipione told the Budget Committee last week.
Also included in the operating budget are funds to address maintenance needs and increased energy costs.
The town's operating budget is proposed at almost $13.6 million and has received a unanimous nod from the Board of Selectmen, coming in on target with the recommendations of the Property Tax Task Force. Budget Committee review on the town budget is scheduled to begin with the York Public Library's funding request this coming Thursday, Feb. 8, at 6 p.m.
In addition to the operating requests, the town's Capital Committee, which includes members of the Board of Selectmen, School Committee and others, has recommended the town fund a total of approximately $7 million in capital projects in the year ahead, including about $500,000 to be combined with existing funds toward an addition to York High School for arts instruction space, $500,000 toward implementing the town's major drainage remediation plan and $6 million for a new Town Hall.
In presenting the school budget requests, Scipione and other administrators highlighted the need for the additional instruction space at York High School and the discussion behind such programs as the kindergarten expansion. Scipione explained that the full-day kindergarten is coming forward now because of a projected drop in enrollment from 1,971 students to 1,902 in the next academic year.
By shifting positions from other grades at the elementary and high school level, he said, the full-day program can be implemented without hiring new teachers. Scipione pointed out that all of the initiatives fall below the 4.7 percent target for increased taxpayer impact proposed by the town's Property Tax Task Force.
"I am delighted, and have been for several years, that the School Department and the School Committee look at that as a ceiling, not as a target," Budget Committee member Dave Lincoln said of the effort to come in below the task force recommendation for operating budgets.
Over the past week, the Budget Committee had the opportunity to discuss individual budgets with the school principals, Scipione, Assistant Superintendent Jim Amoroso and other department heads, and was scheduled to receive additional information at its meeting Tuesday evening, Feb. 6, which was scheduled after press time.
The Budget Committee's review is scheduled to continue with the review of town budget requests tomorrow in the York Public Library's conference room, followed by a meeting at the Senior Center on Feb. 13.
Beginning next Thursday, Feb. 15, the committee will return to its regular schedule of Tuesday and Thursday meetings in the Community Meeting Room at the library, and those sessions will be televised leading up to the Feb. 24 budget vote.
