11.37 Percent School Budget Increase Proposed

Calling the year ahead “a time of unprecedented complexity,’’ Superintendent of Schools Jay Cummings presented a fiscal year 2013 budget tonight with an 11.37 percent increase over the current budget.

The total proposed budget is $25,921,870.

He said the increase was the result of several factors:

The opening of a new Grafton High School, which results in the addition of 10 full-time equivalent positions and added utility costs for heating, phone services, supplies and electricity. Total cost: $659,000

Termination of federal stimulus funding. Since fiscal year 2010, this money added $2.4 million to the town’s schools. Cummings wants to move three positions that had been funding through these grants into the main budget. Total cost: $150,000.

Contract increases. All bargaining units received a 2 percent increase for fiscal year 2013. Total cost: $898,000.

Creation of full-day kindergarten. Bringing on this change will require the full-time equivalent of 5.5 positions. Total cost: $274,395. He noted that in future years, state funding will increase, because the half-time kindergarten students will now become full-time and will be counted differently. That difference will result in a positive balance of $66,645 in fiscal year 2014 and future years, he said.

Staffing needs. In addition to high school staffing increases, the full-time equivalent of five positions is being requested. Total cost: $250,000.

School Committee chairman Kathy Halloran said this budget was reasonable in light of all the proposed changes.

“It’s so above and beyond normal circumstances,’’ she said. Those circumstances include bringing on a new building, reorganizing the grade schedule, the addition of full-day kindergarten and adding full-day kindergarten, she said.

“This is very fiscally responsible and responsive,’’ she said. The budget, she said, represents a “genuine authentic assessment of what we really need.’’

The year that Grafton Elementary School came on line, the budget increased by 9 percent.

School Committee member Teri Turgeon said the budget was “a needs list, not a wish list’’ but said she questioned whether it will be approved as it now stands.

“I don’t think we’d be honest with ourselves’’ if committee members thought it would be approved in its current form, she said.