CLARKSBURG, Mass. — The Select Board is recommending the town drain its reserves to cover an unexpected increase in the school budget. 

 

But it will still require more cuts from the school side to meet the 4 percent hike board members settled on. 

 

"I want to show the school we're trying, we're making a substantial effort," said Chair Jeffrey Levanos at last week's meeting. "But the bottom line is that's all we have."

 

The school's budget came in at 8 1/2 percent higher, or about $236,000, largely because of an out-of-district placement expected to cost $326,000.

 

A recent school budget draft included a reduction of $100,000, bringing it to $2,973,568, still up 6.86 percent. The Select Board had asked the School Committee to come in at a 2 percent increase, or $2,838,418. 

 

The board's decision last week to drawdown the stabilization was based on two factors: that the town will be getting an influx of several years of free cash and that the school will be reimbursed by the state for the educational placement. 

 

"If free cash gets certified in very early June we could do a very quick special town meeting to move it into stabilization and deal with it in the new fiscal year," said Town Administrator Carl McKinney.

 

Levanos didn't think it would happen, "I want to move on like it's not going to be."

 

Should free cash be certified in the new fiscal year, a special town meeting could be held to move the money into stabilization. 

 

Levanos said he and McKinney had spent most of two hours the day before crunching numbers and coming up with scenarios. 

 

The board members had previously floated the ideas of a Proposition 2 1/2 override or dipping into the stabilization account. 

 

The town's been struggling the last few years with its finances, largely because of turnover in the treasurer and accounting positions. It hasn't been able to get free cash certified since fiscal 2020 and it took some digging to determine exactly what it has in stabilization. 

 

"We had to go through the warrants for the last three years and get them certified," said McKinney, revealing the total amount in the stabilization account is $240,000.

 

The town needs to take $85,000 from stabilization to balance its budget; covering a 4 percent increase in the school budget would leave $34,000 in the account. 

 

McKinney said he'd trimmed about as much as he could from the town side, which saw a significant increases in tuition of McCann Technical School, pension obligations and in the assessors budget for re-evaluations.

 

Town officials had hoped to add another highway laborer this year and part-time help in finances but those plans were swiftly discarded.

 

Select Board member Robert Norcross said the school was important but that the town's priority should be safety, referring to the infrastructure needs throughout town. 

 

"We can't keep hurting the town to make the school whole," he said. "We're trying to do the best we can for the school but the school's not the only thing in town."

 

But, he noted, "if they shoot down the school budget, we're in trouble."

 

With so little left in stabilization, the board members agreed that it wouldn't cover any emergencies so they considered drawing it down even more to prepare engineering for another MassWorks grant.