North Middlesex Regional School Budget Cuts $527,914 But Leaves Assessment Options Unresolved

PEPPERELL — March 31, 2016 — North Middlesex Regional School District budget talks leave member-town assessments unresolved ahead of annual town meetings. At a joint session Thursday in Pepperell with selectmen and finance committees from Pepperell, Townsend, and Ashby, Superintendent Joan Landers and Business Administrator Nancy Haines presented a fiscal year 2017 budget reduced by $527,914 from the February hearing draft, bringing the projected increase to 2.82 percent over fiscal year 2016 excluding debt service — down from an initial 3.97 percent. The district's finance subcommittee is weighing two options that would each reduce combined assessments by $140,000: drawing an additional $140,000 from the excess-and-deficiency fund, bringing the total E&D draw to $490,000, or cutting the school resource officer for $80,000 and taking $60,000 from E&D. Pepperell Selectman Steve Thomas said his town entered the cycle facing "an 8.35 percent increase" and a "$9.1 million assessment, which was out of the ballpark." Ashby board member Mike McCallum pushed back on the reserve-draw approach, warning it "snowballs" and that the district should "just pay the bill when it's due." Haines cautioned that drawing $140,000 from E&D in fiscal year 2017 would create an automatic equivalent increase in fiscal year 2018 even under a fully level-funded budget; the full school committee is set to vote on the options at its April 4 meeting.