GRANBY — After a long discussion, Town Meeting voters on Monday restored $345,938 to the school budget which will be used to reinstate some of the middle school math and high school English classes, as well as elementary school music and physical education instruction, that otherwise would have been eliminated.
The move averts almost half of what would have been an $800,000 shortfall in school spending for the fiscal year beginning July 1. The added money will come from the general stabilization funds and brings the town’s school spending to $7,940,600.
The 167-65 vote means that some but not all of the anticipated cuts to the schools will be restored. Before the vote, School Committee Chairman Emre Evren said that the additional money would go to reinstate some math instruction at the middle school level and English instruction at the high school, though both of those will be reduced, as well as half a position in high school social studies.
The money will also go toward instrumental and choral music instruction at the elementary school level as well as elementary school physical education.
Also reinstated is a special education teacher at the Junior/Senior High School.
Evren also said that the town recently learned of an out of district placement for a student requiring special education services that the additional money will also cover.
Items that will be lost from next year’s budget because of cuts will be one teacher each from the second, third and fourth grades. There will also be reductions in general music instruction in the elementary schools as well as French language and some Advanced Placement classes in the upper grades.
An effort to improve the technological infrastructure of the schools by allocating $124,000 for faster internet connections, Cloudbook computers and a support staff position will be postponed.
The Town Meeting in the Junior/Senior High School, which concluded a session that began May 9, lasted 4½ hours.
The overall Granby budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, which passed by majority vote will be a little over $19.2 million. That is down by 6.5 percent from the current year’s expenditures of $20.5 million.
The two reasons the town’s overall budget is down next year is that this year’s spending included more capital expenditures and a warrant article to add $900,000 to the stabilization fund — which will not continue going forward, Finance Committee John Libera Jr. said.
Town Meeting defeated by majority vote a move to spend $50,000 on an engineering study of the West Street Elementary School which is scheduled to be replaced in two years by a new school that would be built next to the East Meadow School.
That will be renovated as part of a $34.2 million building project, approximately half of which will be paid for by the state. The study was supposed to help determine the condition of the building, which the town will have to find a new use for or demolish when students move out.
Voters approved just under $40,000 for a new marked police cruiser. The vehicle it will replace will go to the animal control officer, according to Police Chief Alan Wishart.
Libera said that the town has about a combined $3.2 million in three stabilization funds. He spoke against using any of that money for the schools, instead offering a motion to appropriate the additional money for the schools contingent on approval of a Proposition 2 ½ override vote. That move was defeated by a majority vote.
Libera said that revenue the town used to get from a landfill before it closed two years ago is no longer available to bolster the stabilization funds.
In the future, he said, the town will need “either a massive increase in state aid or a change in the educational model.”
Before the vote, Evren made an impassioned plea for the extra money, saying that the School Committee is dedicated to finding long-term solutions to persistent budget shortfalls. “Our promise to you is that we will start working on our next budget as soon as this one is approved, but we cannot let the children down,” he said.
Eric Goldscheider can be reached at eric.goldscheider@gmail.com.