Opinion: Regarding the use of one-time funds in schools budget
Feb 18, 2025
To the editor:
I need to respond to an opinion about school funding being "cut."
The Dartmouth School Committee has used nonrecurring money (savings) to fund recurring expenses (salaries). This is a recipe for disaster and the coming crash is entirely foreseeable. The savings will run out and the salaries will be cut. Those personnel cuts do not mean the School Department is receiving less funding or that funding is being shifted to other departments.
School funding is determined by a state-mandated formula with automatic raises built in. The town cannot and has not deviated below the state funding formula. The Dartmouth School Department sees at least a 2.5% increase in funding every year and usually more than that. There have been no "cuts" in funding.
The percentage of the town's budget allocated to the schools is growing and has been for many years. No other town department is similarly situated. All have had to cut personnel and their other spending as a percentage of the total budget. This is done in other departments because it is good fiscal management.
What we have in the School Department is spending of one-time funds for long-term obligations. The entirely predictable result will be "cuts" when the one-time revenue runs out. One needs to look no further than the School Committee and administration when this occurs. They are driving over a fiscal cliff and asking that someone buy them a plane before it is too late. There are other options, turn the wheel or hit the brakes! What is happening now is not a viable plan.
Sincerely,
Willliam Trimble
Dartmouth
