This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Save Our Sherborn Presents School Budget Research Findings

S.O.S presented their research on the schools Monday night.

The ad-hoc citizen’s committee Save Our Sherborn held a presentation on town finances and school expenses at the Sherborn Town Hall Monday night.

The purpose of the presentation was to “focus on excellence in academic outcomes, rather than level service” and to, “understand how other school districts achieve high performance while spending less.”

SOS member Frank Jenkins told the packed audience that Sherborn is small town of approximately 4,200 residents that hasn’t grown much in the past ten years. In its 17 square miles more than half is set aside for conservation. He said 90 percent of the town’s revenue comes from residential taxes.

Find out what's happening in Dover-Sherbornwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In explaining the town’s budget he said that in 2001 the schools took about half of a smaller pie and that now “schools take a little less than three quarters,” of a larger pie.

He said that this year Sherborn would have to pass an override and come up with other revenue in order to “share that pizza a little more fairly.”

Find out what's happening in Dover-Sherbornwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Jenkins also noted that the town supported eight tax overrides in the past decade until 2007 and that each year fewer residents voted to support it.

Jenkins showed in a graph in the past ten years the increase of general education costs have grown 47 percent to almost $2 million and special education costs have grown 154 percent to around almost $1.7 million. Benefits have increased 155 percent to just over $1.2 million dollars and administrative costs have risen 90 percent, which adds up to approximately $700,000.

He then showed a graph for the town’s obligation towards unfunded OPEBs (Other Post Employment Benefits), which for the schools is $14.2 million, and for the town employees is $4.5 million. Jenkins said his “best guess” at what the town should be putting towards the OPEBs is between $400,000-$500,000 per year for the next 30 years.

SOS member Greg Garland then presented graphs comparing SAT scores, MCAS scores and AP participation among 20 school districts west of Route 128. He said that Dover-Sherborn is an excellent school district when compared to those school districts.

Among the 20 districts west of Route 128 studied, “schools pay a similar amount of money with a wide variety of outcomes," Garland said.

Sherborn resident Peter Caruso noted that the town is paying OPEB, and that it is reflected as three percent of the town’s budget. Lee said that there is, “not a lot of progress” being made.

Lee added that they would like to discuss their research with the Sherborn Board of Selectmen, the school board, the Sherborn Advisory Committee and the Dover Warrant Committee.



We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Dover-Sherborn