The Budget Committee met for its final meeting of 2023 on Tuesday, Dec. 19, where members discussed putting some final touches on the upcoming town budget.
Committee member, Kevin Walsh, was concerned that higher spending in the main school budget might lead to a higher tax rate and a rejection from voters without modifications.
“Right now, the budget as represented, I’m not confident the voters will accept it. I’m trying to get the budget down a little bit,” said Walsh. “I’m not looking to eliminate any positions. As the district hires out its staffing for the ’25 fiscal year if they find there’s the capacity to hire more folks, by all means, hire them.”
He made a proposal that would trim funding for a new consoler, and family student interventionist, and applied behavioral analyst jobs to $1 until more funding became available, something Walsh hoped might keep the town budget lower in the short term without eliminating the positions.
There was some confusion over what impact such a cut would have in practice and whether the school district would have enough flexibility to hire new specialists and paraprofessionals. Ultimately, the Budget Committee took no immediate action on the motion, following a concern that such cuts did not go far enough.
“If you go back just two years, there’s a 23.8% increase in the town appropriation,” said Budget Committee member, Shawn Jasper. “I know, and hopefully everybody knows, the tax rate went up by a dollar last year, which is actually an 8.8% increase. That’s a lot of money.”
There was some confusion over what the exact numbers for the operating budget would be. Part of this came from a dispute between what should be included in the warrant articles with some outstanding salary issues.
“One of the problems is that we are lacking a lot of information. We are still lacking two contracts,” said Jasper, referring to ongoing negotiations that would move 15 part-time paraprofessionals in the school system to full-time. “My motion would be to defund the 15 positions going to full-time and keeping them at the part-time level.”
The cut would reduce spending by around $825,000. Despite the proposal, the School Board has the authority to move money around as needed.
“We expect to have a better benefit of hiring for those positions if they were full-time,” argued Superintendent, Daniel Moulis. There are 38 part-time vacancies that the district has struggled to fill in the past year and there have been complaints of understaffing. “The need is still there, that’s the current need for the 15 positions.”
Despite objections, the Budget Committee eventually voted to make the cuts.
There will be a public hearing with the Budget Committee on January 11 at 7 p.m. in the Hudson Community Center in preparation for the final vote next March.
