Lenox School Committee, Selectmen discuss budget

LENOX – At a recent joint meeting of the school committee and the board of selectmen, only one subject was on the table: the budget.

“We want an understanding of what the forecast looks like,” School Committee Chairman Don W. Fitzgerald told the selectmen.

This made for a fairly brief meeting, but not without hammering a few key issues down.

The bulk of the meeting consisted of a conversation led by Town Manager Gregory T. Federspiel on the town’s revenue projections for fiscal year 2014 (July 2013-June 2014). Due to a two percent increase in real estate taxes and boosts in other receipts, Manager Federspiel estimates a total of $300,000 in new dollars to be available to Lenox as a whole.

For the schools, 62 percent of that money, or $186,000, is allocated. With a $14,000 increase in Medicaid revenue, the total new money available to the school is estimated to be $200,000.

However, subtracting the expense projections for FY ’14 might be cutting it close for the school department. The four percent increase in health insurance for a total of $50,000, the Berkshire County Pension payments at $32,000 and an estimated two percent increase in salaries at $160,000 adds up to $242,000, or $42,000 more than the projected new revenue figure.

Although, Lenox Public Schools Superintendent Edward W. Costa II was quick to point out the two percent increase in salaries was not yet a definite budget item, bringing the total new expense projections down to $82,000, leaving $118,000 for salary increases and/or other budget items.

Long-range forecasting

Following her presentation to the school committee late last year, Lenox Finance Committee Chairwoman Lucy Kennedy was also in attendance at the joint meeting.

“As Lucy presented to you, we’ve been looking at long-range forecasting,” Manager Federspiel said.

He added OPEB (other post-employee benefits) is a major concern for Lenox.

“As we retire more people, that problem grows,” he said, adding retirement expenses used to be 10-12 percent of the town’s budget but now make up more than 20 percent.

To help cope with that burden, the selectmen and the finance committee are encouraging town departments, including the school committee, to take the salary differentials between a retired employee and a new hire and set that money aside for OPEB.

“Everyone on the school committee finance subcommittee is on-board with this,” said School Committee Member Jo Anne Magee, adding, however, the full school committee still needs to approve it.

The school committee will meet again on Monday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m. at Lenox Town Hall to further discuss the FY ’14 budget.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on January 10, 2013. Filed under Breaking News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry