Canton School District Grappling with Budget

is grappling with the Fiscal Year 2012 budget. On Thursday, the Superintendent of Canton Public Schools made a budget presentation to the committee.

Currently, the School Committee is looking at a $31.7 million budget for Canton Public Schools and needs to cut about $1.3 million, School Committee Chair Reuki Schutt said.

In January, the committee presented a very preliminary budget to the town’s , Granatino said.

“It’s obviously a very time consuming process that every district goes through,” he said. “When you build a budget, their needs are what we try to meet,” he said of the students and teachers in the classrooms.

Over the last two months, the schools’ principals presented budget recommendations, enhancements and savings options, Granatino said.

Missing from the FY 2012 budget is the $364, 987 in stimulus money from the federal government, a one-time cash capital amount of $250,000 and Annual Town Meeting’s one-time cash aid of $440,000. “Over a million dollars is not part of this picture this year,” the superintendent said. From the start, “we’re already at an uphill battle.”

The target budget the School Committee has been asked to meet by the town is $30,440,978, Granatino stated. “We are just under one million over the target budget,” he told the committee.

Yet with enhancements, including special education programming, homeless student bus transportation (which is mandated), and after-school supervision, the new needs-based budget totals $31,786,467, Granatino said. The deficit with the needs-based budget is $1,345, 493.

In order to “roll forward the existing staff and programs, the district needs an additional $999,026,” he said. “To add programs and staff, the district needs an additional $346, 467.”

Granatino is working with administrators and the school committee to come up with ways to address the deficit. “We as educators do not want to cut any programs. But I understand the realities of our fiscal situation.”

If the district made up the deficit with only cuts, that would mean fewer classroom teachers, fewer class offerings, an increase in and transportation fees, no ability to deal with extraordinary SPED increases from new enrollments and a reduction in maintenance in the school buildings, according to Granatino.

He also said the district could save about $238, 532 if the schools “adhere more closely to state bus-fee guidelines, reorganize educational assistance support and create in-district Special Education programming.”

If needs-based additions are added to budget, the district would have more elective course offerings, three in-house special education programs, would meet the state mandates for transportation and have flexibility for growth in preschool, he said.

The School Committee will continue to discuss the budget at their next meeting on March 10 at 7:00 p.m. at Canton High School.