The town needs more money.

That was the consensus at a joint budget hearing of the School Committee, Board of Selectmen, and Finance Committee on Wednesday, January 18.

With budget problems on the horizon as fiscal year 2013 approaches, the town must figure out how to get more money.

In presenting his budget for next year, Wareham Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch echoed statements he made at this time last year: "The money we have requested is needed to close the achievement gap between Wareham's children and the state's average."

But Rabinovitch's proposed $27 million budget is approximately $2.8 million above the $24 million "placeholder" figure for the School Department in Town Administrator Mark Andrews' town-wide budget.

The town does not yet know what the state will be doling out for aid, so it is unclear whether Andrews' $24 million placeholder -- based off of funding received for the current year -- will increase or decrease once the state firms up its numbers.

Andrews cited decreasing revenues from excise tax payments, since residents are keeping their older cars for longer. He said the decline in that revenue source illustrates the "tremendous challenges we face in the town."

"I'm not telling you to go out and buy a new car," Andrews said, perhaps only half-joking, "but if you can do it, go out and buy a new car."

The superintendent's budget has not yet been approved by the School Committee, a necessary step before it goes to Andrews for submission into his final budget, which Town Meeting voters will be asked to approve in April.

Rabinovitch explained that the budget in its current form includes everything that school principals and directors requested -- not necessarily what those principals and directors "thought we could afford."

Though some might call such a budget a "wish list," School Committee member Cliff Sylvia said that wasn't the case.

"Make no mistake about this. I've been around a long time. ... This initial principals' budget that was submitted to the superintendent, that's not a wish list," Sylvia explained. "That's bare bones. The wish list was thrown out the window 10 years ago."

Cuts to the proposed budget are inevitable, and the situation is grim.

"I know that this is preliminary," Rabinovitch told the crowd in the middle school auditorium, which was full of teachers and parents. "We don't have state figures. But we have a large problem."

Town officials criticized the formula the state uses to calculate "Chapter 70" aid -- the money it provides to help fund the school system.

"On paper, Wareham looks like a very rich town because we have 57 miles of coastline, we have a lot of coastline property," Sylvia explained. "Our overall tax revenue probably doesn't match our surrounding communities. ... We are a very poor town. If they did the formula [based] on family income, we would make out very, very well."

But, Sylvia noted: "The most important thing to keep property values up, and to encourage people to settle here, is a good school system. ... Are our kids less important because their families are less affluent? The responsibility for funding education rests with us and we have to accept that responsibility."

Teachers and parents alike, citing ongoing problems with the leaking high school roof and the lack of money for textbooks and other supplies, asked town officials to find some way to increase school funding.

Judith Whiteside, a Wareham resident and 10th grade teacher, told officials about the "conditions under which I practice my craft."

"The roof leaks, so probably three times a year I have a wastebasket catching the running water as I try to teach Hamlet," Whiteside said.

Whiteside says students ask her questions like, "Why doesn't the school have enough money to buy books?" and "Why doesn't Wareham care about me? Just because I come from a poor family does not mean that I do not deserve an education."

Wareham High School basketball coach Kevin Brogioli, who lives in Wareham but serves as a principal in the Old Rochester Regional school district, also spoke of the leaking roof.

"We did have our first rain out in my 27 years as a basketball coach last year," Brogioli joked, before bringing up a concern echoed by many others: Wareham students are leaving Wareham Public Schools because of the state of the school system.

"As a Wareham resident, as a Wareham High School alumnus, as a parent of four kids in the Wareham school system, it pains me to see Wareham students in Old Rochester," Brogioli said. "It pains me to see Wareham losing its best and brightest students for a school 10 miles up the road."

Town officials also heard concerns from the point of view of a current Wareham High School student.

"I think that we have a really good school," said Sandra Kunze Sarkisian, before noting: "We don't have books, and there's so many kids in some classrooms that the students can't keep up with them. ... Maybe people should keep that in mind. Go in sometimes and see how these classrooms work out."

Until the state finalizes its numbers for local aid, officials will not know exactly how bad the budget situation is. All are preparing for the worst: cutting services in the town and in the schools, unless Town Meeting voters can be convinced to vote for a Proposition 2 1/2 override or a debt exclusion, both which would raise property taxes.