Old Rochester Regional Superintendent Doug White faced little opposition from local residents when he proposed the school budget for the Old Rochester Junior and Senior High Schools at a public hearing the evening of Monday, March 5 in the high school’s cafeteria.

White explained that the budgets for the district are broken into three categories: Level Service, Level Funded and Proposed. Under Level Service, there would be no changes to the staff or services at both schools from the previous fiscal year. Under Level Funded, there is no increase or decrease in the number of money spent from the previous fiscal year. The proposed budget is what the school sees fit to propose to the towns.

The goal is to have as small of a deficit between Level Service and Level Funded as possible. For 2013, Old Rochester has an amount of $17,132,282 for its Level Service budget and $16,639,305 for its Level Funded budget. This means the deficit between the two is $495,282 and is the figure that the School Committee and administrators from the three towns have been working to make as small as possible without making major changes to the schools.

White explained that there are a variety of different areas that the schools plan to cut corners while trying not to make any drastic changes. In terms of transportation, the school was able to work out a deal with its transportation company to receive a discounted rate for the final two years of its five-year contract.  Additionally, the school plans to use all utilities and telephones in a more efficient manner to save money.

In terms of staff, there are two planned retirements from both schools. A custodian that serves both schools and an English teacher from the high school will retire after this year, and White says they will not be replaced.

Seven other support staff paraprofessionals will be eliminated. These positions include classroom aides and other clerical workers such as secretaries.  The cuts from these part-time salaries will total $152,455, which is a 10.93 percent decrease from 2012.

The overall money spent on substitute teachers, tech support assistants and custodial staff will also see a 7.1 percent decrease from 2012 as the school looks to shed $52,445 from last year’s budget.

Several non-negotiable areas that are facing increases are causing the cuts to salaries and utilities, White said. First, contractual obligations to fulfill salary raises to professional teachers in both schools will increase the budget by $125,047 or 1.61 percent. Also, benefits to pay the contracted teachers will increase by $183,265, or 2.94 percent in 2013.

White also hopes to add a full-time Director of Technology position next year with a salary of $45,000. However he said that he has applied for a $500,000 technology grant that, if received, would compensate the individual in that position.

Each year, the three towns in the district are responsible for putting a forth a certain amount of money for the schools. This figure is known as the Foundation Budget and is regulated through the state.

The three towns will put forth a combined total of $8,089,994 as their minimal contribution for the Foundation Budget in 2013. However, the state mandates that the district spend $10,099,046 on the schools, therefore they will allocate $2,009,052 in Chapter 70 funding to meet this requirements.

Marion, Rochester and Mattapoisett also agreed to give an additional $3,976,452 on top of the minimal contribution in order to best benefit the students in the district. Each town’s sum is calculated based on the number of students residing in each town.

With all of the factors considered, the proposed assessment from the towns for the 2013 school budget is $13,663,851, which is a $14,354 (or .11 percent) increase from 2012.  This means that the town and school committee were able to cut a deficit that was nearly $500,000 to just over $14,000 to preserve the programs that are offered at both schools.

“We cannot possibly maintain the same program,” said ORR School Committee Chair Peter Bangs. “I commend them for finding creative ways. We don’t want to see any programs cut.  We would rather see the money shuffled around.”

The ORR School Committee will meet next Wednesday, March 14 to hear a formal proposal of the budget. Two of the three towns must vote in favor of the new budget in order for it to pass.

By Katy Fitzpatrick

The Marion Planning Board unanimously voted to present two warrant articles for the Annual Town Meeting scheduled for May 21. The articles would tweak zoning bylaws to allow for greater flexibility in the areas of accessory and association piers and for accessory dwelling units.

At the board’s March 5 meeting, Vice Chairman Tom Magauran described the proposed bylaw changes – reviewed and approved by Town Counsel Jon Whitten – that would loosen some of the bylaws in the books.

The warrant article regarding accessory association piers would allow residents to construct them even if their lots do not currently conform to zoning requirements. Currently bylaws require that residents’ lots conform to today’s zoning rules.

Magauran explained that the “unintentional consequence” of the upzoning that took place in 1996 and 1999 is that more associations cannot build piers because they are on nonconforming lots, even if the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers approve of the work. He said he knew of at least three incidences where residents were denied projects because their lots were nonconforming.

“Everyone was saying it was fine, but we couldn’t say it was fine,” Magauran said, estimating that 84 to 94 percent of town residents reside on nonconforming lots due to the upzoning in the 1990s.

To resolve this issue, the warrant article would amend bylaw language to allow pier construction for property that abides by current zoning “or was lawfully in existence on May 1, 1996. “All board members support the article.

“To me, it is all about fairness,” Magauran said.

The second warrant article concerns accessory dwelling units. Essentially, the revised bylaw language would increase the allowable square footage for accessory dwelling units from 850 to 1,200 square feet.

Thus if a resident wanted to build an unattached unit for a family member, they could make it larger and it still would be qualified as affordable housing (which caps square footage to 1,200 sq. ft).

Chairman Jay Ryder said that following the board’s affirmative vote, he would speak with Zoning Board of Appears Chairman Robert Wedge to secure his endorsement.

The board scheduled a public hearing, which is required prior to moving to the Town Meeting floor, for the articles on April 2 at 7:05 pm.

By Laura Fedak Pedulli

Parents of students in the Sippican School community will have to wait longer for the proposed budget for the fiscal year 2013.  But with the wait comes good news that was delivered to parents in an e-mail sent by Marion School Committee Chairman Brad Gordon earlier this week.

During a School Committee meeting on February 1, Gordon reported that the school would have to trim approximately $235,000 from their budget based on the preliminary numbers he was given.  However, after receiving more accurate information from the town, he was pleased to announce that the budget cuts would only be $54,000 instead of $235,000.

“While still significant, this amount of budget reduction will have a far less dramatic impact on programs and staff at Sippican School than the earlier projection,” Gordon stated in the e-mail.

Heading into the new fiscal year, the school is facing a variety of problems including higher special education costs, tuition for students attending Bristol Aggie Vocational and Technical School and contractual increases to staff salaries.  Despite the challenges, the committee hopes to be able to decrease the impact of the budget cuts on their students.

“While we are still focused on minimizing the impact of budget cuts on next year’s Sippican School programming, we are very pleased that those impacts will be far less than previously expected,” said Gordon in the e-mail.

Gordon knows how difficult it has been to make such a drastic decrease in the budget cuts, and is grateful to the cooperation and support he has received from various town officials during the process.

“We sincerely appreciate the efforts of the Marion Finance Committee, the Board of Selectmen and the town’s administrative staff for their hard work, cooperation and continuing support of Sippican School in these difficult financial times,” Gordon wrote in the e-mail.

The $235,000 budget cut proposal was slated to be presented at the March 7 School Committee meeting.  However, given the new developments, a formal proposal for the $54,000 budget cut plan will be presented at the School Committee meeting on April 4 after the budget subcommittee meets with school administration.  The meeting will be held at the Marion Town House at 6:30 pm.