January 21, 2009
Salem Observer
With hopes of having funding restored for kindergarten pinned on a Feb. 5 deliberative session, school officials are examining what budget cuts could be made to ensure the program is in place come fall.
According to Superintendent Michael Delahanty, if the funding is not restored to the district’s operating budget, school officials would have to cut out other programs to make up for the $700,000 difference. While the state is offering $900,000 in aid to help start the $1.6 million program, the district will have to come up with the rest of the funding elsewhere.
Delahanty said he has been asked by the School Board to look into areas of the budget that can cut back without violating state requirements, including potentially ending bus service for high school students, not providing transportation of the high school band to away games, holding off on school repairs and imposing fees on student athletes.
According to Delahanty, eliminating busing for the town’s high school students could free up about $600,000 in the budget and taking the school band off away games could save a further $25,000.
“There is some talk among board members that it would be important to not fund something else and fund kindergarten instead,” Delahanty said. “There are programs that are affected if the board decided to have kindergarten even if the budget wasn’t restored.”
One of 11 communities affected statewide by the change in the state’s definition of an adequate education to include the kindergarten year, Salem is struggling to fund the program after a 5-4 vote by the Budget Committee last week removing the money set aside for kindergarten from the district’s operating budget.
According to Ed Murdough of the New Hampshire Department of Education, while state officials understand Salem’s situation, the district will still have to comply with the law. Unless the Legislature gives the district another extension – which is unlikely, according to Murdough – the law requires a kindergarten program in place by next year.
“We understand that everyone has got difficulties, particularly this year. School districts often don’t get the budget that they ask for, but that doesn’t relieve them of any of their requirements,” Murdough said. “They work with the resources they’re given and sometimes eliminate things that aren’t required.”
School Board member Bernard Campbell said the immediate challenge facing the district will be convincing voters before the Feb. 5 deliberative session that funding a kindergarten program is necessary and beneficial to the town. While the economic climate has made it tougher, Campbell is hopeful that the funding will be restored.
“How has the nation always sold the concept of a publicly funded education? The concept is that a better educated work force is more productive and it’s better for the community,” Campbell said. “It benefits the society in general.”