ORANGE — Mote than half of Orange’s $20 million budget for the 2019 fiscal year will inevitably go toward funding education.
The Ralph C. Mahar Regional School has submitted its final roughly $13 million budget proposal, and the assessments to member towns Orange, Wendell, New Salem and Petersham — which will show up as line items in their budgets to be voted on at respective annual town meetings.
Orange, bearing the brunt of the cost to the towns, is slated to pay $4,149,063, an increase of roughly 3.5 percent over this year’s $4,011,821.
At Orange’s annual Town Meeting on June 18 residents will vote on the budget — which is article 13 — including the assessment for Mahar, with the Selectboard Wednesday approving the budget as a warrant article.
While other aspects of Orange’s budget are in flux, and the Finance Committee needs to come up with at least another $21,000 in recommended cuts to next year’s budget proposals, the Mahar assessment is final.
Increasing costs at Mahar are driving the increase in its budget and town assessments, and the school committee has indicated several cuts to be expected for the next school year.
Late buses, an administrative assistant, two members of the teaching staff and a private lawn-keeping service are all being eliminated.
Furthermore, Mahar’s technology budget is being cut by $34,496 and the health insurance budget by $173,973.
According to Superintendent Tari Thomas, the costs of health care and special education at Mahar — 17 percent of Mahar students use special education services — have risen.
Most of the increases in special education funding is due to individual education plans, Thomas said. This year, 123 Mahar students had IEPs.
State aid has only increased by $18,840 for next year, a 0.35 percent change over this year’s $5,394,990, and contractual salary increases have exacerbated the need to make cuts.
According to Thomas, the district is currently in negotiations with both teaching and non-teaching personnel.
The assessment to Orange covers roughly 34 percent of the overall Mahar budget and is calculated according to a regional agreement and the Minimum Required Contribution defined by the commissioner of education — $1,618,441 for Orange.