School Board Trims a Little - $200,000 - Off The Budget Request

The Board of Education's wallet is more than $200,000 lighter when it comes to the 2014-15 budget proposal heading into Wednesday night's workshop. 

The workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. at the education administration building at the corner of school and park streets.

On Monday, the Board of Education trimmed $226,388 off the bottom line, which now stands at $52,687,371, an increase of 4.34 percent over the $50,494,787 budgeted for the current fiscal year. 

The reductions include:

• $9,700 from a paraprofessional account that showed up twice by mistake because it initially was part of the Community School program at Maple Street School, Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway said.  

• $24,000 from a paraprofessional/clerical account. 

• $50,000 in special education savings located by a consulting firm. Conway said the firm is studying ho the program is administrated so more savings can be identified, even after Feb. 10, when the budget is delivered to Mayor Daniel Champagne. 

• Based on actual expenditures, it appears the school system can save $10,000 each on medicare and Social Security next year, Conway said. 

• Pending bids can save money over several accounts, Conway said. They include: 

- $75,384 from HMO medical insurance.
- $20,000 from the prescription drug program.  
- $12,500 from telecommunications.
- $10,000 from a copier lease account. 

• The school board reduced custodial and secretarial overtime accounts by $10,000 each. 

A math teacher's salary of $54,437 had to be put into the budget proposal because it was mistakenly left out, Conway said. It was a priority of Rockville High School principal Andrew Rockett, she said.