Members of the Barrington School Committee got an overview Thursday night at what’s in store for them as they craft the next spending plan.

Smiles were few and far between as Finance Director Ron Tarro painted the landscape for the board as they consider making decisions for the 2013-2014 budget.

The current budget is approximately $44.7 million dollars, more than 85 percent of which is salaries and benefits for teachers.

Declining enrollment must be kept in mind, said Tarro. Projections from the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) indicate that enrollment will continue to drop every year for the next 10 years or more than 18 percent by 2022.

“They’re not as reliable as we’d like them to be,” Tarro said of the projections. “But they are a definite factor to consider.”

The board also must consider how the budget meshes with the goals of the recently adopted Strategic Plan for the schools, he said, as well as the implementation of the Common Core State Standards, which begins next year. 

There are a variety of “outside influences” as well, Tarro said, such as federal and state education mandates, medical costs that are expected to rise about 8 percent next year, Rhode Island state aid, legislative restrictions on fees that can be charged, and the municipal employees’ pension rate.

The board also must consider capital costs for things such as replacement technology, the $2.4 million in health and safety repairs needed in the schools, the cost of debt service for a new or renovated middle school, which shows a price tage of $36 million to $39 million, and the current moratorium on building schools imposed by the General Assembly.

“The building moratorium does not stop Barrington from looking at concepts for a middle school,” he said. “We can get steps completed in anticipation of the lifting of the moratorium.

But right now, he said, Barrington can’t count on any reimbursement from the state for building and repairs.

Tarro also described the current budget as “on target” when asked about a possible surplus or deficit from Joel Hellmann, a member of the Barrington Committee on Appropriations. That means there may not be a surplus for the board to bank on as in past years.

Tarro said he needs to get a proposed budget to the appropriations committee by the end of February. The School Committee will get down to some serious work on the budget at its next meeting, which will include a budget workshop, said Superintendent Michael Messore.