The town of Southport’s budget committee has initially approved a school budget of $993,445 for the following school year, which is approximately a 13 percent increase, or $115,621 higher than the previous year. 

Among the highest increase was the cost of tuition for students to attend both public and private schools off the island. The tuitions rose more than $90,000 in total.

Southport school currently enrolls 26 elementary students from pre-K to 6th grade, and 27 secondary education students who attend public and private schools off the island. Next year there will be 31 secondary education students. 

The town’s budget committee met with school administrators at the Southport Town Hall on Feb. 4.

The committee requested a school budget with additional line items so that expenditures would be more transparent. The budget compared previous years’ numbers with next year’s outcomes. Each item was examined line-by-line. 

Nearly 90 minutes passed with discussions ranging from teacher salaries, special education, equipment repair, contracted services, software upgrades, transportation and light bulbs. 

Towards the end of the discussion, the majority of the committee said they understood that expenditures for students’ needs and tuitions is something that is determined largely outside of the school’s purview. 

However, some committee members suggested that the school needs to be more frugal when it comes to purchasing things like school supplies. Committee Chairman Rob Cronk commented on the flat fee that is set aside each year for textbooks, art supplies and other small line items. He wondered if new textbooks really needed to be ordered every year.  

“Ultimately when it comes down to it, it’s only one percent of the budget, something like $8,500 bucks, but what I was curious about is where you can save,” Cronk said.  “If we are looking at trying to maintain a budget that the town is happy with and the people are happy with, you got to look someplace.”

The school budget must be approved at Southport’s town meeting every March. Then, at the start of the academic year, the school budget is audited. That’s when some numbers get adjusted by the auditor, Principal Marcelle Durost said. 

Having a budget calculated on the initial trial balance versus an adjusted balance caused some uneasiness for some committee members.

According to committee member Celeste Brown, there were some numbers from previous budgets that just didn’t add up. Should there be any discrepancies, the committee would want to see them on paper, Brown said. 

Durost said the adjustments by the auditor is not “moving money” but rather freezing lines and accounting for unforeseen expenses and overhead costs. One overhead cost was the new security system that was installed in the school two years ago following the school shooting in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.

School board member Adam Harkins said any numbers that looked questionable to the committee were most likely the result of line items being broken out and moved around for transparency. 

By the end of the meeting, it was recommended by a committee member that a trial balance be calculated before and after the audit for the sake of clarity. 

The committee approved the school budget by a majority vote.