In the last of three budget workshops together, the Franklin city council and the Franklin School Board found a way Thursday to close a wide school budget gap – for this year.
The city council also voted to finalize its twice-postponed budget hearing, now scheduled for July 25.
The final proposed 2016-17 school budget has been reduced to $15.3 million from an original $15.76 million approved proposal in late May, $16.17 million presented to the city council in June, and an adjusted $15.7 million total later that month.
With revenue totaling $14.38 million before additional help, according to the resolution approved by city councilors Thursday, the Franklin school board said it was forced to give pink slips to 22 teachers and three support staff in the district on May 15.
The main source of the revenue gap, school officials have said, is due to a loss of just over $100,000 from tuitioned students, a $283,000 reduction in the state’s Adequate Education Grant, and $128,000 less in food services.
In addition, collective bargaining agreements, insurance and retirement costs add over $500,000 extra into the proposed 2016-17 budget.
Following public outcry and joint work sessions with the Franklin city council, however, the school board and city council found funds to close the almost $1 million gap.
Between its first and third budget workshop meetings, the school board eliminated about $800,000 from the $16.17 million budget proposal, pledging, for instance, to do private fundraising for items like books.
At Mayor Ken Merrifield’s suggestion last month, the school board also asked the city council Thursday night to approve the use of $100,000 from a school reserve fund and $160,000 from a special education trust fund to be put toward the 2016-17 school district expenses.
There was initially hesitance from the school board to use the funds in the event that students moved into the district and needed special education services – or if they wanted to repair the Franklin Middle School roof.
“That was a heartbreaking conversation,” Franklin School Board chairman Greg Husband said. But without the funds to keep the 25 staff positions, he added, “we could be in much worse shape.”
In addition, in a meeting last month, the city council approved more than $400,000 to be transferred from city municipal departments into the school department. Those funds came from areas such as the capital reserve fund for buildings appropriation, last year’s fund balance and the total $2,476 in salaries and expenses for Merrifield and Councilor Olivia Zink.
The other major new additional revenue source – $250,000 – is a combined $100,000 in the school district’s end-of-year fund balance, plus another $150,000 originally reserved for SAU reconciliations but available due to the completion of backed-up audits.
On Thursday night, Franklin city council read the resolution with the above numbers, and voted to approve not only the budget proposals for a July 25 public hearing, but to include as part of that public hearing the change in use of $260,000 in school capital reserve and special education trust fund money now planned to be put toward the school budget.
The vote on the resolution – which included $15.62 million in city appropriations – passed unanimously among the city councilors. Councilor Jim Wells then turned to the school board and said, “We’ve managed – because of the light winter and so forth – to close the gap on your income side. What is your plan for next year when the income gap appears? Do you have a plan?”
Husband responded, “That’s going to start right after this meeting is over.”
School board member Susan Hallett-Cook has been spearheading a joint strategy committee, and Councilor Tony Giunta asked to get some of those meetings scheduled soon.
“The momentum that we build getting together . . . is extremely helpful,” he said. “We’ve got to keep on these things.”
Hallett-Cook asked if the two groups could set a time to meet “as soon as possible,” to brainstorm next year’s budget and to talk about reorganizing education funding for Franklin. By the end of Thursday night’s meeting, however, no time or date was decided on.
Several members of the city council and the mayor expressed interest in pursuing big-picture solutions, mainly, receiving more funding from the state for education.
“I think we all recognize the severe challenges we’re facing,” Merrifield said. In previous meetings, he suggested taking another look at a 1990s New Hampshire Supreme Court case that ruled the state’s school funding system was inadequate and unconstitutional.
Wells referenced seeing a Maggie Hassan for U.S. Senate ad on television and the fact that New Hampshire ended fiscal year 2015 with a $62 million surplus.
“Where the hell is it?” Wells asked. “We’re not getting any of it. Somebody has to go after the state and say, give us our damn money.”