A potential capital override for long needed school repairs was discussed by the (APSC) Acton Public School Committee (APSC) at their Thursday, September 20 meeting to include funding for new boilers, roof resurfacing, and other building repairs. The needed amount will be in the range of $3.8M, but the final amount requested and the items to be included will be decided in budget negotiations during the ALG (Acton Leadership Group) process which will be mainly completed by mid-October.

A potential override for operational expenses was also discussed, and will also be part of the ALG process. This will depend on the revenues Acton will project for FY09 and on the expenses projected for the Town and School budgets.

The new North Acton Fire Station will be presented to voters this fiscal year, likely in the Spring Town Meeting. Preliminary estimates reported to the APSC is a $4M to $5M cost, which will likely be a capital override request that will need to be factored along with the School capital override request. Cost and design details will become clearer in the next few months.

The NESWC fund (transfer station) will be a significant part of the ALG negotiation process this year. The fund is $5M and will be partially released sometime next fiscal year. Jonathan Chinitz, APSC chair and ALG member reported that on a preliminary basis, $2M may be held in reserve for potential environmental liabilities, $1M may be allocated for transfer station improvements to buildings and equipment, and as much as $2M may be available for budget purposes. The use of this funding will be recommended during the ALG process.

Superintendent Bill Ryan pointed out that the School budgets can be readily estimated as having a 5% to 6% growth each year, and there is not a lot that can be done about it. The collective bargaining agreement will increase salaries about 5% each year. The health benefits will increase 7% to 9% each year. The Special Education costs will continue to go up at 10% a year. And all other expenses will go up about 2 ½ %. This increase has been the case for the past several years and requires an approximate $1.4M to cover it, which is a lot of money. This is a preliminary look at the budget that will be presented to the ALG.

The ALG will meet Monday morning at 7:30 AM to continue to receive budget request outlines and to begin the process of determining projected revenues. Spending priorities will be determined, and ultimately an agreement will be reached on budget outlines for each department. This process will be completed by December in order to prepare budget requests for Town Meeting in the spring.

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