RUHS, Tech Center Budgets
To Be Voted Next Week
By Sandy Cooch

Voters in Braintree, Brookfield and Randolph will head to their respective polling places next Tuesday, Feb. 6, to vote on a $7.78-million Randolph Union High School budget and a Randolph Technical Career Center budget of $2.54 million.

Polling hours and places are:

Braintree: 10 a.m.-7 p.m. in the town clerk’s office;

Brookfield, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. at Brookfield Elementary School; and

Randolph, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. at the RUHS Murray Auditorium.

The RUHS budget is $87,969, or just 1.14% higher than last year’s, while the RTCC increase is 1.93%, or $48,256.

Also on Tuesday’s Australian ballot is an article asking voters to place $148,560 in surplus funds from the 2005-06 RUHS budget into a building maintenance fund. A similar request was approved last year and school officials have modestly tapped the fund to assist planning for a bond vote for school repairs later this year.

An informational session on the RUHS and RTCC budgets will be Monday, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m., at the RUHS Murray Auditorium. The annual meeting, with election of school district officers, will begin at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 6, after the polls close.

RUHS Budget

An initial scan of the RUHS budget might produce alarm, as the "special programs" portion of the budget contains an apparent $568,476 (or 61%) increase. However, all but $23,000 of that increase is a state-mandated reporting change that moved $545,400 from the bottom of the budget (under "Sped transfer from towns") to the RUHS budget proper.

Another $23,000 increase is in the co/extra curricular expenses. According to RUHS Principal John Holmes, the 9.8% increase in this line item is primarily for the athletic program, with salary increases for coaches and game officials, and higher transportation and equipment costs.

A $10,000 (10.5%) increase under maintenance includes higher costs for woodchips, which are used to heat the school, and for re-tiling the floor and re-painting the walls in one of the wings of the school, Holmes said.

Teacher salaries are up only 1.4% ($28,000) because one teaching position, which was not filled this year, was dropped from the budget.

Assessments Steady

Each of the three towns in the district are assessed their share of the RUHS budget based on how many students they send to the high school.

Swings in numbers—for example when one town sends a big sixth grade to the junior high, or has an especially big class graduate from RUHS—can result in sizeable shifts in the assessments.

However, this year, with only small changes in the ratios and a modest increase in the budget, assessments are only changing by a percentage point or two. Braintree will see a $24,000 (2%) increase and Randolph will have a $38,600 (1%) increase. Brookfield, which has a modest drop in student numbers will have a $10,000 (-1%) drop in its RUHS assessment.

RTCC Budget

The technical center budget has a 1.93% increase. RTCC Director Bill Sugarman explained this week that half of the $48,000 increase in the proposed $2.54-million budget is in the adult diploma program that RTCC offers.

Each year about 12 adults of all ages, who had dropped out of school, enroll in the program. Sugarman said costs are going up not because of more students, but because those who are enrolling need more courses to fill diploma requirements.

Enrollments in RTCC’s regular programs are staying steady, at about 150 students, Sugarman said.

His budget is "really tight," Sugarman said, adding that a surplus from two years ago, which was used to make some physical changes and improvements to the center, had helped keep budget increases down.

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