The Up-Island Regional School District (UIRSD) school committee met Monday night at the West Tisbury School and discussed the fiscal year 2018 draft budget at great length. School committee chairman Michael Marcus of West Tisbury said that the budget was too high and asked the administration to find effective ways to lower it.
School administrators presented a $11,245,465 budget, which represents a 5.4 percent increase over the FY17 budget, which ends June 30, 2017.
The UIRSD committee moved through the budget item by item. Mr. Marcus took a fine-tooth comb through the long list of expenditures with the help of fellow committee members Kate DeVane of West Tisbury, Jeffrey “Skipper” Manter of West Tisbury, and Robert Lionette of Chilmark, in an effort to better understand the specifics of certain items on the budget.
West Tisbury principal Donna Lowell-Bettencourt attributed the increase in the budget to a rise in student enrollment.
“I’m hearing great defense of the costs, and I want to hear great flexibility and some solutions,” Mr. Marcus told school administrators.
Superintendent Matt D’Andrea said the district’s budget increased 16 percent, with “significant hits” from residential placement, workmen’s compensation, retiree health insurance costs, payroll, cost of living compensation, and food service salaries.
Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt said the committee asked that the principals keep school programs in place when looking to make budget cuts. But due to the growing number of students she said she’d have to cut programming and asked that the committee aid her in the process.
“I do think you’re going to have to do some work yourselves with what you want to see,” Ms. Lowell-Bettencourt told the committee.
Mr. Marcus asked that she look at everything else on the budget first. He also asked the administration to look into having new providers and bringing in other bidders as a way to lower costs. Mr. Lionette requested a three year to five year lookback at areas that were “habitually over budget” as a way to easily identify trends.
Committee members agreed to have separate budget meetings in the future, apart from their regularly scheduled meetings, given how time consuming it was.
Towards the end of the nearly three hour meeting, a motion was made by Mr. Lionette to approve an exchange program in the United Kingdom, as well as an overnight camp and two ski trips. Mr. Manter seconded it but asked that they receive travel alerts to ensure student safety. The committee approved it unanimously.
At the outset of the meeting, committee member Robert Lionette made a public apology to Amy Tierney for an angry outburst he directed at the school business administrator.
“Clearly I was frustrated, and speaking in such a manner is not instructive and does not represent my town or the district,” Mr. Lionette said.