BBA tuition hike cut, salaries frozen
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By PATRICK McARDLE STAFF WRITER - Published: February 10, 2010
MANCHESTER – After Burr and Burton Academy teachers agreed to a salary freeze on Monday and school administrators committed to cost-cutting measures that will include job reductions, school officials said Tuesday they were cutting back on the tuition increase they had expected to put before voters in March.
In December, Burr and Burton, an independent high school that serves 10 towns including Manchester, Dorset and Sunderland as a de facto public high school, announced that the tuition for the upcoming school year would be $14,100, an increase of $750, or about 5.6 percent, over this year's tuition of $13,350.
But on Monday, the Burr and Burton Academy Teachers Association voted to accept a salary freeze for the 2010-11 year.
Teachers Association President David Miceli declined to give the vote tally but said there was an "overwhelming vote of support" for the pay freeze.
"It kind of boils down to, it's the right thing to do, for the community, for the school. I don't think anyone foresaw these economic times when we originally signed the contract," he said.
The pay freeze falls in the final year of a three-year teachers' contract. Burr and Burton Headmaster Mark Tashjian said the agreement was simple: What all Burr and Burton employees, not just teachers, make this year is what they'll make next year.
Now, Burr and Burton has reduced its upcoming tuition to $13,725. The difference is $375, or about 2.8 percent over this year's tuition, cutting by half the proposal made in December.
Tashjian said Tuesday that no decisions had been made about how many people would lose their jobs or what positions would be cut at the school but said he expects some will be teaching positions. But Tashjian promised that the school's educational mission would be the first priority.
"We have to take a hard look at what we're doing. We have to look to consolidate sections wherever possible because if you have five sections of something and you can do it in four, you haven't cut programs at all," he said.
Tashjian expects those decisions will be made by March 15 to give people affected a chance to make plans.
Even with the changes, Burr and Burton is expected to end the 2010-11 school year with a deficit. While Tashjian said that figure was difficult to establish, the projected deficit if the changes hadn't been made was about $1.2 million to $1.6 million out of a $13 million budget.
The school has received some positive financial news recently as well, according to Seth Bongartz, chairman of its board of trustees.
The school received a $300,000 gift specifically to reduce that deficit from Barry and Wendy Rowland, a Londonderry couple for whom a campus building is named and who gave the school a $10 million gift in 2007.
But that gift and another $313,000 supplied by the school's endowment are not enough to offset the loss expected because of a drop in students from the sending towns, from about 580 this year to about 520 next year. That number doesn't include students who come in from other districts or international students, but the total enrollment is still expected to drop by about 30 students.
"Our enrollment outlook is worse, not better. Therefore our financial outlook for next year is worse, not better," Tashjian said.
The drop in students is expected to cost Burr and Burton about $640,000 in revenue for the 2010-11 school year.
"All of that leads to, last week, meeting with the teachers association, the leadership, all employees and explaining the situation and requesting a freeze of salaries. … Now a schoolwide pay freeze helps a lot. That starts to give back something that looks like $400,000," Tashjian said.
The school's board of directors met on Monday night and voted to cut the tuition increase, according to Bongartz.
Bongartz said the board members didn't believe the tuition increase was unreasonable since it was primarily expected to lessen the impact of decreasing enrollment.
"We thought the first time around, the 5.6 percent (increase) and taking a 5 percent reduction (in enrollment), kind of splitting the difference, we thought we were doing the right thing for the school, in a way we could manage, and the right thing for the communities because we recognize what's going on with the economy."
He said as school officials listened and continued to talk to the community leaders and school boards in sending towns, they changed their minds.
"It's not that (our proposal) wasn't the right thing to do, it's that given the circumstances … it wasn't enough," he said.
Burr and Burton got letters from school boards in Landgrove, Londonderry and Winhall asking them to take another look at the tuition, Tashjian said.
patrick.mcardle@rutlandherald.com
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