John Stark hoping to save jobs

Members of the John Stark Regional school board discussed $158,000 in cuts made to their proposed budget in order to comply with residents’ vote to adopt a default budget for the second year in a row at their last meeting.
Previously, Principal Michael Turmelle, Business Administrator Jim Crane, and Superintendent Doug White had met to make those cuts, and they presented them to the board last Wednesday.
The group said their primary goal was to make the cuts without affecting instruction.
“I think it’s a workable budget,” commented Crane.
However, Turmelle noted it wasn’t ideal.
Major cuts were made in athletics, professional development, library books, and computer equipment. Other savings were found in worker compensation insurance, as well as anticipated savings in gas and oil.
Roughly $30,000 was cut from the athletic budget. Within those cuts was a $10,000 reduction in new equipment, which would have been used for new uniforms.
Also cut within the athletics department was two JV Cheerleading teams and two freshman reserve teams that didn’t run last year.
The new working default budget also features a $30,000 cut in professional development, effectively eliminating the entire line item.
Crane explained they cut this money under the assumption that some of the stimulus money the school receives will be geared towards teacher development.
“I was comfortable widdling around the edges so long as it didn’t interfere with our instruction,” Turmelle said of their efforts to cut the budget.
Board member Kate Walton felt they could still trim other pieces of the budget, providing the example of field trips
Walton expressed how she believed field trips were a luxury and if they were eliminated the board would have an additional $35,000 to put back in to areas cut such as athletics.
“People would rather cut the music department than athletics,” said Walton, adding that the budget has been cut to the bones and leaves “no room to play.”
Turmelle warned the complete elimination of field trips would significantly change the education the school provides, although he agreed it was another area that could be trimmed.
Board member Don Gage agreed with Turmelle, noting there are some field trip experiences that can’t be replicated in rural Weare and Henniker.
White added that although the budget is now balance, they can still move money around within that budget.
“What we wanted to do was give you an idea of how we could balance the budget. You as the board need to give us other guidelines to work with because we can move things around,” White stated.
Other ideas floated by Walton included instituting a user fee for those involved with athletics, and increasing the price of parking passes.
Walton felt these implementations would be a way to shift the burden from the school to the families. She also expressed that these changes might make residents realize the school could no longer cover those costs, and maybe they’d put the money back in the budget next year.
No decisions were made on the topics discussed, but the board will be discussing this more each month.
Also at Wednesday’s meeting, White announced the recent hire of a new Business Administrator for the 2009-2010 school year—Dan Starr.
Starr is currently the Business Administrator in SAU 63, in Wilton, NH. Before this he was an adjunct professor at Plymouth State University.
Among Starr’s areas of expertise are budget building, state reporting, group purchasing, revenue production via facilities usage, computer systems development, and equipment and software inventory.
“He has a collaborative leadership style that will be instrumental as he works with the many stakeholders in SAU 24,” read a recent press release.