Committee offers up warrant articles for school, bell tower and roof repairs

Friday, February 19, 2010

HOLLIS – Only a handful of residents attended the public hearing on the school district budget at Town Hall, and only one remained, when about four hours later, the Budget Committee agreed to reconvene this week.

The committee planned to tour the Hollis Upper Elementary School on Wednesday afternoon to survey repairs and see where a proposed $500,000 would be used to make the lower level of the building fully functional again.

The classrooms on the lower level were closed for about half the school year after officials found mold just before the start of the school year. Children and teachers were moved to makeshift classrooms in other parts of the building.

The district has spent about $250,000 so far for cleanup, testing and the replacement of all the ceiling tiles on the lower level using money from a contingency fund.

Officials said the contingency fund was unusually large, in anticipation of more spouses and family members of employees signing up for health care benefits, a response to the declining economy, that did not play out.

Meanwhile, the town is asking voters to support a warrant article for $400,000 to make critical repairs to the bell tower and roof at Town Hall.

Neither spending request was proposed with a plan to bond the project. Instead, if passed, taxpayers would be asked to make a one-time payment: an additional 47 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, or $141 on a home assessed at $300,000, on the school portion of the tax bill for the HUES repairs; and an added 32 cents per $1,000, or $96 for a home valued at $300,000, for the Town Hall repairs.

If all of the town’s money warrant articles pass, taxes on the town portion of the tax bill would increase 67 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, or $201 on a home with an assessed value of $300,000, a 13.4 percent increase.

The Budget Committee voted to support the Town Hall repairs, and Chris Hyde, the Budget Committee chair, said following the engineer’s report Tuesday, Feb. 9, he was convinced the repairs are urgently needed.

Neither town nor school officials recommended bonding the high price tag repair projects, saying in a difficult economy, they wanted to avoid further debt. But resident and school district official Tom Enright told the board during the public comment period of the meeting that they might have considered a short, commercial loan.

“It’s too late now,” Hyde said Feb 11.

Hyde said that the School Board had “achieved the objectives of the Budget Committee” in attaining a flat budget. But he pointed out that the proposed operating budget does not factor in the cost of renovations to the upper elementary school.

“This adds considerable complexity,” he said.

The proposed $11.71 million school district budget, which does not include the other eight warrant articles, represents about 75 percent of the tax bill, while the town portion is about 20 percent and county and state contributions make up the remainder.

Some spending, however, is not optional.

Calling the HUES mold problem “an extraordinary event,” Hyde said while officials may find some places to reduce costs, the repairs were not one of them. Likewise, fixes to Town Hall must be made as soon as possible, given the safety and liability risks, the Budget Committee chairman said

Hyde also said there may be some discrepancies between his committee’s and the school district’s bottom line, the amount needed to be raised by taxes to pay the school bills.

Local taxpayers this year are paying $7.53 million toward operating the school district, while school officials have said they will need to raise $8.78 million, an increase of $1.2 million, this year.

“We’d like to find additional cuts to defray costs,” Hyde said.

On Feb. 10, he said, the Budget Committee found “too many variables we couldn’t explain.”

That kind of situation never sits well with a Budget Committee. But in a year marked by continuing job losses, wage and benefit cuts and rising prices for everything from milk and bread to heating fuel, gasoline and electricity, there’s more pressure to bear.

“In normal times, budgets are sometimes contentious. Getting the balance right is hard, and at the same time, you have an obligation to provide services,” said Hyde. “The economic times have been extremely hard. I haven’t seen this in my lifetime, and the kicker is that we have two buildings that need significant repairs and they need it now.”

For many, if not most residents, said Cameron Drive resident Iris Realmuto, the economic hardships they or their neighbors face are unprecedented.

“People are looking at this and saying, ‘I’ve lost my job. I’ve had to take decreases.’ It’s a hard pill to swallow,” she said, responding to a discussion on Feb. 10 about the collective bargaining agreement the school district and teachers union had just settled.

Salaries and benefits are included in the operating budget. They represent the lion’s share of the school budget that cannot be cut.

The school district support staff, which does not have a contract, rejected an offer from the district earlier this month.

The Budget Committee planned to reconvene Thursday.

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.