We are by law required to ask for no more than a 4 percent increase.”

Diane Farmworth

We’ve cut to the bone, now we are going down to the bone marrow.”

Amy Roderick

TIVERTON — Even if next year’s budget is increased by the maximum allowed 4 percent, the Tiverton School Department will fall far short of what it needs to merely to keep staff and services at their present diminished level, Superintendent of Schools Peter Sanchioni told several committees recently.

A 4 percent hike would provide the schools with total funding of $32,506,856, he told the School Committee at its January 12 meeting.

What is really needed, though is that additional 4 percent hike plus another $1,474,185, he said.

“That’s “a level service budget,” he said. “No new staff or programs. Simply moving everything we have this year ahead one year, meeting all of our contractual obligations … That’s the amount we need.”

And it would restore none of the 24.2 school positions — teaching and support staff — that were eliminated this year, he said.

The superintendent delivered the same message two nights later to a joint meeting of the new Budget Committee, the School Committee and the Town Council.

The question is, he asked, “Do we want a school system that supports its students.”

“We’ve cut to the bone, now we are going down to the bone marrow,” added Amy Roderick, the schools’ director of administration and finance.

School Committee members didn’t debate the need but they were also not ready to support a hike of that size, at least at this early stage.

“We are by law required to ask for no more than a 4 percent increase,” Diane Farnworth said. 

By unanimous vote, that was the amount the committee approved as its preliminary budget proposal at the January 12 meeting.

There were also expressions of concern at the joint meeting two nights later.

“It’s going to be a very, very difficult year,” Town Administrator Christopher Cotta said. “We are all walking on eggshells … At the end of the day, we can only provider those services that the town can afford.”

A Budget Committee member Sheri Aakre said that the town is coping with the loss of casino revenue along with business-related revenue due to the pandemic.

Taxpayers are “not an unlimited resource,” she cautioned.

“We need to be very careful,” added Donna Cook. Residents in town are “hurting.”

Numerous factors contribute to the schools’ fiscal woes, said Mr. Sanchioni and Ms. Roderick.

The early forecast calls for a $605,734 reduction in state aid to Tiverton schools, they said.

“This would be the first year that our state aid has gone down,” said School Committee Chairman Jerry Larkin, although he and others said the town won’t likely learn the final number for quite some time.

Transportation costs are up due in large part to the fact that school buses have been limited to 25 percent capacity.

And personnel costs, including pay raises of 2-plus percent for employees and projected increases in medical coverage costs, among others, are up.

“We had level funding last year and we had contractual obligations that built in an ever greater structural deficit than we already had,” Mr. Larkin said. “That has to be understood by everyone, including us.”

The budget also assumes that all students will be returning to in-school learning next fall.

Committee member Deborah Pallasch asked about several comments she is hearing around town. And on social media, among them the fact that the schools have seen an overall population drop of 90 students over the past five years or so.

True, Mr. Sanchioni said, but spread out across grades K-12 that amounts to only about seven per grade or only one or two in a classroom. And that drop was more than matched by this year’s loss of 24.2 staff positions.

“Every principal could talk about the drastic impact of not having those positions,” the superintendent added.