Tough budget decisions could be on the way for some MA schools

February 24, 2016 5:47 pm

By Ana Bottary

anabottary@yahoo.com

@anabottary

Tough budget decisions could be on the way for some Massachusetts schools after looking over Governor Charlie Baker’s education funding plan for 2017. He’s proposed a 1.6 percent increase for school aid state-wide. The plan would leave Attleboro schools with a $4 million deficit.

"The last couple of years we’ve had similar, although smaller deficits, so we have already had to make a lot of cuts. There are not a lot of ways or places to cut anymore," says Stephen Withers, Chairman of the Attleboro School Committee.

Withers says to make up the $4 million deficit, they’re looking at wage freezes, charging students to ride the bus/eliminating services, and even charging user fees for sports.

“Those are the ways we could get closest to the $4.3 million and that doesn’t even get us there,” adds Withers.

Norton schools will be feeling the financial pinch as well. The district will receive between $45-$50 thousand.

"As I said publicly already once, that is going to cover my paper order, including bathroom paper, paper towels, and paper to write on and to copy. That is about it. So what happens to all of the other costs?" says Joseph Baeta, Superintendent of Norton Schools.

Baeta says they will apply for grants from the feds, but says they’re hard to come by for a small district. He says just to maintain what they currently have, they need 1.6 million dollars.

"Literally fees increasing we will take a look at programming where we can make cuts, and then we will take a look at actual personnel."

ABC6 News is told it will be a few months before any definite changes are made in either budget. There have been petitions signed by districts advocating for an increase in funding that have been passed on to the Governor.