Barrington school officials were asking for a $3.096 million increase for their nearly $60 million operating budget. 

The Committee on Appropriations has recommended a smaller increase — $2.556 million.

The difference, wrote Barrington Superintendent of Schools Michael Messore in a district-wide email sent late last week, will force officials to make cuts to existing programs and services. 

“It is important to understand that with the COA's recommended budget, the Barrington Public Schools cannot implement many of the districts priorities for FY23...” Messore wrote. 

“We realize that members of our school community have numerous questions about which cuts the administration will propose for the School Committee’s consideration. We are exploring various options across the board, with a goal of minimizing the impact on teaching and learning to the extent possible.”

In an email to the Barrington Times, COA Chairwoman Cynthia Rosengard wrote that school officials discussed how the $2,555,595 increase could impact the district.

“Superintendent Messore and Mr. (Doug) Fiore, Director of Finance for BPS, presented the impact of the suggested scenarios on the presented school budget – indicating that they had found health insurance savings but would also need to remove four positions – an HR (Human Resources) administrator, a communications administrator, a high school math teacher, and an eighth grade math teacher to reach the requested reduction scenario,” Rosengard wrote. Those four positions had been listed among nine new positions included in the school department’s proposed operating budget. 

In his email, Messore wrote that the district’s budget is facing state and federal mandates and has contractual obligations. 

“…we will have to make difficult decisions to account for the shortfall in expected local funding,” he wrote.

A few months ago, school officials submitted a proposed operating budget of $59.9 million. It included an increase of $3.096 million (or 5.41 percent) above the current operating budget. 

The proposal included a variety of new positions that were identified as important initiatives to the comprehensive strategic plan: a pre-kindergarten teacher, a certified teacher who is also a behavior specialist, an eighth grade teacher, a communications coordinator, a Human Resources coordinator, a K-3 teacher, money for a diversity, equity and inclusivity audit, and more.

According to the March 3 budget presentation, the district is expecting a $1.44 million increase in salaries for the existing staff, and another $531,713 for an additional nine FTEs or “full time equivalents.”

“It is significant to note that Barrington’s per-pupil expenditure still remains well below (over 13 percent) the state equalized average of $17,431…” Messore wrote. “Still, we recognize that the majority of our district funding is supported by local tax resources. For these reasons, we carefully examined our budget proposal to ensure that it is both student-centered and fiscally responsible.”

COA votes

On Tuesday night, April 11, members of the Committee on Appropriations voted 3-2 to reduce the school’s budget increase by about $540,000. 

Ms. Rosengard offered her personal opinion about her committee’s budget recommendation.

“The final tax assessor numbers are not in yet, but my own feeling (not those of the all COA members) is that for half of Barrington taxpayers (those at or below the median home value) to realize what might be less than a $150 of savings on their tax bills next year, we will all experience the potential costs to the success of a priority program to improve policing in Barrington and the schools will miss opportunities to increase the efficiency of their human resource and communications capacity and decrease the resources needed to address the high school computer science and 8th grade math program needs of our students,” she wrote.

Messore shared information about upcoming meetings where the budget will be discussed. There will be a school committee meeting on April 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Barrington Middle School. The COA will present its recommended budget at the May 11 budget hearing, which will be held at the middle school at 7 p.m.

Taxpayers will vote on the COA’s recommended budgets at the financial town meeting on Wednesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. The FTM will be held in the Barrington High School auditorium.

“We will continue to work diligently to secure the financial resources needed to provide an outstanding education to the students of our community,” Messore wrote.