Marlborough approves $6.2M school budget, keeps guidance counselor at part-time

Mar. 7—MARLBOROUGH — Voters at the town's annual school district meeting Saturday passed a $6.2 million budget and a pair of maintenance-related warrant articles.

None of the approximately 20 residents at the annual meeting, held Saturday morning in the Marlborough Elementary School gymnasium, opposed the budget proposal — down slightly from the current fiscal year — in a voice vote.

Seated at a distance from each other, voters also approved warrant articles to replace a hot water heater in the school and complete various infrastructure projects, like installing new lighting and resurfacing the parking lot.

The $6,152,738 operating budget that voters passed for 2021-22 is about $40,000 — or less than 1 percent — lower than the district's current-year budget. However, school-related property taxes in town will increase this year, School Board Chairman Jeffrey Miller said, because other sources of funding declined.

Miller told attendees Saturday that the district's unreserved fund balance, which can be used to help offset property taxes, is projected to fall nearly $60,000 from the previous budget year, but said "the real killer" is a $219,000 reduction in state funding. As a result, Marlborough residents are projected to pay $3,675,197 in local school-related property taxes this year — up 5 percent from last year.

While reviewing the budget proposal with voters, Miller said a $72,000 rise in teachers' salaries incorporated wage increases from a four-year contract that voters approved last year.

"It is not because we are granting big increases this fiscal year," he said.

Christine Callahan, a resident with two children at Marlborough Elementary School, opposed the school board's plan to cut funding for a guidance counselor position by 20 percent, eliminating its full-time status.

Calling for the district to restore the job to full-time, she argued that students are battling even more stressors than usual during the COVID-19 pandemic. Callahan warned that students will need substantial support navigating social interactions after being out of the classroom, at least part of the time, for more than a year.

"We are going to be facing some social and emotional needs that we have never seen before," she said.

Miller said that since the district added a behavioral counselor this past year, the school board decided to reduce funding for the guidance counselor position because the two roles shared some overlapping responsibilities. (The board proposed the same reduction last year, when the district was searching for a behavioral counselor, but district officials restored full funding for a guidance counselor after residents opposed the move, Miller said.)

"I'm very happy that we have both positions ... but it's a terrible time to be thinking about cutting the guidance counselor position," Callahan said.

She was echoed Saturday by Marlborough Education Association President Staci Willbarger, speaking on behalf of the union.

Voters approved the $6.2 million operating budget as the board proposed, however, without adding money to restore the full-time guidance counselor.

Residents also approved two other articles without much discussion.

One of them proposed spending $15,000 from the district's capital reserve fund to replace a hot water heater that school board member Mark Polifrone said is broken and cannot be repaired.

The other would withdraw $95,000 from the capital reserve fund for various infrastructure projects. School board member Casper Bemis said those would include replacing existing fluorescent lights at Marlborough Elementary School with LED bulbs and repaving the school's parking lot.

Before the meeting concluded shortly before noon, Miller introduced a pair of resolutions recognizing former school board Chairman Joseph Puleo, who retired last March, and outgoing town and school district Moderator Edward C. Goodrich Jr. for their public service.

Referencing an incident from earlier in the meeting when Goodrich could not hear a speaker, Miller paused before recognizing the moderator and asked Goodrich — seated several yards away — whether he could hear, drawing laughs from attendees. Miller described Goodrich as a "cornerstone of Marlborough's democratic process," and the commendation drew a standing ovation in the gymnasium.

"I still should have retired two years ago," Goodrich joked.

Marlborough residents will vote in town and school elections Tuesday, which include a contested race for a one-year term on the school board between Edward Bryans and the incumbent Polifrone.

Caleb Symons can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1420, or csymons@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter @CalebSymonsKS.