North Attleborough schools weigh $2.1M in salary costs, athletics and teacher hires after town manager’s lower budget

North Attleborough Public Schools staff told the School Committee on Oct. 26 that a needs-based budget request of $53,400,000 exceeds the town manager’s recently presented $51,300,000 figure by more than $2 million, and the committee agreed not to vote on a final budget until a firm number is available.

Speaker 1, a school staff member, said, “We had, again, developed a needs based budget because we were asked to. And that needs based budget totaled 53,400,000.0, but the town manager did present his budget to town council a couple of weeks ago. And his budget, number is right here, 51,300,000.0, which is over $2,000,000 less than what we had asked for.”

That difference frames choices the district is considering for next year’s operating budget. The presentation laid out a starting point “last year’s budget” of roughly $49,000,000 and a set of required additions, including roughly $2,100,000 to fund salaries…