WILMINGTON- The financial outlook for the 2011 budget may call for austere measures, Twin Valley School Board members said Tuesday.

Board members began their annual line-by-line analysis of the 2011 school budget. Although the preliminary budget indicates an increase of less than two percent over the current budget, supervisory union business manager Ronda Lackey revealed that early revenue estimates are about $200,000 lower than current levels. Board member Tom Manton predicted that deep budget cuts were in the cards if the board was to keep the towns out of the Act 68 “penalty box.”

“I just want to send a message that we have to look at some fiscal restraint,” Manton said. “We’re going to have to start looking at staff here pretty soon.”

Board member Jack Kincella asked administrators to look at staffing, and be prepared to recommend cuts. “We’re in trouble here,” he said.

In other fiscal discussions, Kincella also questioned a number of expenditures in the current batch of bills. One bill appeared to indicate that the school was paying $54 for two softballs. Twin Valley High School Principal Frank Spencer said athletic director Buddy Hayford does balance quality against price, but that the “two” on the bill likely referred to two dozen softballs, not two $27 softballs.

Kincella also questioned travel expenses for conferences, and an expenditure of $720 for two security guards on Halloween night. “We’ve done that for several years,” Spencer said. “The day after Halloween we were always dealing with vandalism. Since we started hiring security we’ve had no problems.”

“Maybe you could have one guy and spend $360,” suggested Kincella. “I just think we have to take a look at these things.”

In other matters, the board heard from Twin Valley Facilities Committee Chair Phil Taylor, who said the committee is moving forward with preliminary designs from two design/build firms. One of the firms is creating a design concept for a renovation of the current Twin Valley High School facility that would have a final price tag of about $6 million. Unlike previous efforts, the current design process is, at least partially, cost-driven. “They’re working backward from the cost,” Taylor said. “So as they move along with the design they’re looking at the numbers to see if it matches the budget.”

Taylor noted that the “total” cost goal of $6 million includes a number of things that may not be included in a final bond amount, such as permit costs.

The second firm is looking at feasibility and cost of the so-called “consolidation option.” Under the option, the two towns would consolidate their elementary schools. The combined school district would include an elementary school at DVES in Wilmington, and a middle/high school in Whitingham. The design/build firm will offer a design that may include construction at one or both of the two schools.

The board also returned to an earlier discussion on the best way to reach a public decision on which option would be the ultimate choice. The board had considered either a straw poll or a binding vote on the issue, but Manton said a binding vote could only be held on a question that would result in the expenditure of money, according to Wilmington Town Clerk Susan Haughwout. “So that leaves us with a straw vote, unless we want to attach some money,” he said.

Manton also noted that thanks to the required 40-day warning period for a vote, if the board hoped to have a bond vote at Town Meeting, the straw poll would have to be held and the results tabulated and interpreted before mid-January. “I’m not trying to stick a fork in it,” Manton said, but it would have to go like an oiled machine to get a bond vote at TM. I think we have to look at the realities of what we have to do to get where we can vote on a bond. We may have set the bar a little high.”

Manton suggested holding the straw poll at Town Meeting. “Then we would have the rest of spring to get it out to the community, and we can go from there.”

Lackey asked what the board would do if one town picked one of the options, and the other town picked a different option. “I think the board needs to articulate a position before the vote,” said Metcalfe. “If the towns are split, do we leave it to the board to decide what to do?”

“If that’s what we’re going to do, let me start formulating my letter of resignation now,” quipped Manton.

The board decided that they would make the decision in the event of a split between the two towns, but only after “reaching out to the community to see if we can come to a consensus.”

Manton said he was putting on his “ogre hat” to discuss a request from the eighth grade to approve a class trip to Gettysburg, PA. Manton’s beef was with the expense of the trip, and the short amount of time students had to raise money. The trip is slated to cost about $238 per student, which Manton agreed was a low price. But he pointed out that the class only has about 10% of the money they need for the trip in the bank now – the class would have to raise more than $200 per student before the trip, scheduled for this spring. If students don’t raise enough money, Manton said, parents will be asked to come up with the difference. “I think an eighth-grade trip should be limited to four times what they have in the bank at the time of the request,” Manton said. “We’re in a deep recession, and there’s only two months to raise the money. It’s a large burden to the staff who provide them with the mechanism to raise money.”

“$238 per kid doesn’t seem like a lot to send a kid to Washington, DC, and back,” Metcalfe said.

“It is when you’re unemployed,” Manton replied.