During the Jan. 13 BASD school board meeting members heard an in-depth presentation on the districts preliminary budget. The district begins the budget process with a $16.9 million deficit.

The district's goal this year is the same as it has been the last couple of years; sustainable budgeting. They look at what they can preserve and what can be restored said Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy.

Business Manager Stacy Gober said, "We have already gone through and looked where we could go back and shave where we could - $2 million - before we brought it before you tonight. We are not anticipating any additional subsidy in the governor's budget. We cannot continue to tap our fund balance for revenue."

Roy said that it is important that the board and the public know what is driving expenditures right know, noting that if all the charter school students came back the district would save $10 million. It is important that the public know that school choice is a cost.

"When talking about expenditures, talking about future of the students, we tried over the last four years to make sure those pathways are least expensive," said Superintendent of Curriculum Dr. Jack Silva. "We have our eyes set on what we want to spend on, there are no easy decisions."

Roy also presented a list of "shelf" items that were not in the budget but that he would like to see added.

"The reason we want to approve the preliminary budget is exceptions for certain expenditures," said Roy.

Out of the short list Roy highlighted two projects as his top priorities: Additional kindergarten classes and adding lacrosse to both high schools as an official sports offering. Currently lacrosse is a club sport that is paid for by the district, but not controlled by the district.

Resident Stephen Antalics during public comment urged Roy and the board to not put lacrosse in the budget and add pre-k classes instead.

In the coming weeks Gober and her team will meet with the heads of each department in the district to go over expenditures and see if expenses can be cut further. I

The district is looking at a preliminary budget of $242 million with a $16 million gap, Gober said.