By Beth David, Editor
Fairhaven Town Administrator, Keith Hickey, and Superintendent of Schools, Tara Kohler, have released a video to explain how the proposed budget will affect the school department with and without the override.
Town Meeting members will vote on a balanced budget that makes cuts to several departments and funds the schools at just barely over the Net School Spending (NSS) amount mandated by the state. Town Meeting will also vote on a budget override proposal for an additional $760,149 that would have to pass at the ballot box on 6/9 to go into effect.
Ms. Kohler explained that the override would allow the school to reinstate two teaching positions that were cut last year, and restore a special education (SPED) program that was also cut last year. It would also provide enough funding to put the schools comfortably over NSS.
Ms. Kohler said that when the district cut the SPED program, they had to get a waiver from the state.
The risk now, she said, with being “scary close” to NSS, is if the town dips below the minimum, the state can step in and force the town to fund the schools at a certain level.
Ms. Kohler said the state average is for school districts to fund schools at 27% over NSS. Fairhaven is at 2.4%, putting it in the bottom 35 of 300 districts.
The video is available on FairhavenTV.com at https://tinyurl.com/5cxs5kmt and on the town’s YouTube channel: https://tinyurl.com/3mfu9r3t
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