BCAT News

The first of what is sure to be multiple evenings of Burlington’s May Town Meeting concluded on Monday, with members rejecting the town’s proposed share of Shawsheen Technical High School’s operating budget. Members did approve an amendment for a $1,000 deduction, bringing Burlington’s portion of the budget from $3,906,349 to $3,905,349. The amended motion passed, but as Ways & Means Chair Doug Davison explained that still counts as a no vote.

Shawsheen’s budget has been the subject of much discussion by the Ways & Means committee across multiple meetings, that ended with the committee voting 4-8-0 against. Vice Chair Ed Parsons spoke on the committee’s concerns with Shawsheen’s budget, which included inconsistencies throughout documentation, incorrect assessments on the yearly increase, and accounting issues. Shawsheen only recently hired a Treasurer but is without a Business Manager.

Shawsheen’s budget is split between the five communities it serves: Bedford, Billerica, Burlington, Tewksbury, and Wilmington.

Bedford Town Meeting voted yes. Wilmington Town Meeting voted yes but the town’s finance committee voted against passing. Tewksbury Town Meeting, like Burlington, voted no with a decreased amount. Billerica’s Town Meeting is scheduled to begin May 19, but their finance committee has voted against their share of the budget.

Davison explained that if two of the five towns vote anything lower than what is proposed, the budget as a whole fails. Now that both Burlington and Tewksbury have casted their votes, what happens now?

The Shawsheen School Committee now has 30 days to submit a revised budget to the towns, after which the towns have 45 days to hold a special Town Meeting. If the 45 days conclude without a special meeting held, it counts as an approval. As long as the town approves an appropriation large enough to support the funding they can follow up at September Town Meeting to fill any gaps.

Should Shawsheen not present a new budget, or Town Meeting to vote against any budget, the state would require the town to provide an assessed sum of funds to Shawsheen.

“We’re going to get a bill from the state whether we vote for this or not.” said Davison. “They’ll be able to asses us that money. If we don’t vote a number then it won’t be in our budget and we’ll have to find that money in other line items. It’s going to be more beneficial to us to appropriate an amount.”

Both members of Town Meeting and Ways & Means shared concerns that Shawsheen could come back in the thirty days with a more cohesive budget.

“I do not believe that they have a majority of School Committee members that are willing to commit to the work that needs to be done to clean this up.” said Davison, “I don’t think it’s criminal. We don’t see anything that seems criminal. It’s poor accounting and we just can’t follow the money and follow the books.”

“Shawsheen is a very important part of our community.” said Parsons, “It’s at a very important time as the state is focusing on vocational technical education and is considering funding a major renovation of the school. So it’s critical to get the accounting and financial management in order.”

Davison and Parsons also took time to commend the work of Stacey Huberty and Kent Moffat, the Burlington representatives of Shawsheen School Committee who have worked with Ways & Means on the budget.

You can watch our coverage of the first night of May Town Meeting on our BCAT Government Youtube channel, and jump to the discussion on Shawsheen’s budget here. Town Meeting will resume the evening of May 13 at 7 p.m. at Burlington High School. Burlington’s portion of the funding of Shawsheen’s Feasibility Study is also still to come on the agenda.

Editor’s Note: Ways & Means Vice Chair Ed Parsons reached out to BNEWS to clarify some of what was said during Town Meeting. Wilmington’s finance committee was split on their vote to pass Shawsheen’s budget but recommended that their town meeting pass it. Shawsheen had included incorrect calculations of the yearly increases in their budgets. The state will require Burlington to fund Shawsheen, but the bill will come from the school, not the state.