L-S facing major cuts again

Published December 9, 2008 | Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School Committee | Updated March 22, 2017 | Automatically Archived on 1/12/2009

This Post has been archived and its content might be outdated. If you are looking for recent content, please check this Committee's Homepage.

After cutting more than $700,000 from last year’s budget, the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional District School Committee may be forced to reduce funding for the regional high school by more than $1.1 million in Fiscal 2010.

School officials presented a grim financial forecast for L-S at a recent budget workshop held by the Lincoln Finance Committee. L-S Director of Finance Judy Belliveau said the school will face a budgetary shortfall of $1,166,174, barring successful passage of a Proposition 2 1/2 override in Sudbury.

“This could really affect us in a way that nobody could have anticipated,” she said. “It’s really unfathomable to us.”

According to Belliveau, Sudbury voters could be asked to approve an override to fund a 4.5 percent budget increase for the school, beyond the 2.1 percent guideline set by the Sudbury Finance Committee. Successful passage of such an override would reduce the budget gap to about $600,000, she said.

Without an override, Belliveau said, the school would be forced to make drastic cuts, which could include eliminating one administrator, 10 teachers and five support staff.

Superintendent/principal John Ritchie said these personnel cuts would lead to a dramatic increase in class size and a decrease in curricular opportunities.

“The magnitude of the problem we face is profoundly alarming,” Ritchie said.

Ritchie acknowledged that school officials may be dealing with a “perception problem” as they try to convince Sudbury voters to support an override. Ritchie said some residents may suspect the administration of overstating the direness of the situation as the school appeared to have come through relatively unscathed from two failed overrides last year

Ritchie said the reality is that the School Committee was able to use a series of one-time fixes, such as increasing fees for athletics and other activities, to cushion the blow of last year’s cuts, limiting staff reductions to 2.5 full-time equivalent positions. But with those options exhausted, Ritchie said the next round of cuts would have a much more profound impact on the day-to-day operation of the school.

“This would be a very different kind of high school,” he said.

School Committee member Eric Harris, of Lincoln, said an override would be a tough sell in Sudbury. Harris said the issue of funding for the schools has become so politicized that each side is more interested in winning than reaching common ground.

“I think the problem for the School Committee is we have been singing the same song in a variety of ways,” Harris said. “If we are perceived as leading the effort … if we are seen as being too political … it actually hurts us more than it helps us. That’s the dilemma.”

School Committee member Mark Collins, of Sudbury, said there has been a groundswell of citizen support for an override campaign this year. Collins said a budget symposium held at the school on Tuesday night was the first of several sessions planned to provide information and answer questions about the school’s financial situation.

Harris said the School Committee also plans to post frequently asked questions and other information about the budget on the Web.