The Finance Committee will ask Town Meeting voters next week to approve an unbalanced budget in an effort to buy both school and town officials some time to determine where to further cut their respective budgets.

Here's the lowdown.

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan has proposed a $54.2 million town budget for the next fiscal year, which begins this coming July 1.

The School Department, after cutting its original proposed budget by nearly $1 million, says it can't cut any more, and planned to go to Town Meeting with a $700,000 gap between its request and Sullivan's $25.3 million budget for "net-school spending" -- that is, everything other than school transportation expenses.

A $120,000 gap also remains in the school transportation budget. If it is not somehow filled, the district will have to reduce busing services.

School principals told the School Committee that any further cuts would dramatically impact student learning. The elementary and middle school principals were charged with cutting $150,000 each, while the high school principal was asked to cut $250,000. Their proposals included cutting "interventionists" who help struggling students, eliminating student activities, and laying off art and music teachers.

Wareham High School Principal Scott Palladino reported that he'd have to get rid of two "major" high school sports, and might have to schedule study halls so big that they'd have to be held in the cafeteria, rather than in a classroom.

Town Meeting begins on Monday. Rather than have a chaotic situation with budget amendments made on-the-fly by voters, the FinCom members hoped that by passing an unbalanced budget -- which cannot stay unbalanced without ramifications from the state -- and vowing to schedule a Special Town Meeting with a balanced budget in 60 days could solve the problem.

The 60-day time period would give the Selectmen, School Committee, and town administrator time to meet and surgically trim their budgets.

Procedurally, the FinCom is allowed to make the first amendment on the budget, once it comes up in Town Meeting's lottery system. Members plan to simply make a change that will make that budget unbalanced, and hope that by explaining the situation, voters will support the measure.

"Both sides will have to give up things that they don't want to," explained Frank Heath of the FinCom while pitching the idea during a joint meeting of the Finance Committee, Selectmen, and School Committee on Wednesday.

Passing an unbalanced budget rather than simply delaying a vote on the budget to a later date would allow the town to pay bills and continue operating after July 1, if for some reason a Special Town Meeting cannot be held or cannot get a quorum before the new fiscal year starts.

"I'd rather not have a fight going back at forth" at Town Meeting, FinCom member Bonnie Cottuli said. "We are offering you a temporary solution to a whole lot of work that needs to be done. ... Whoever elected you knew you had a purpose, a vision for this town. Now it's time to tell the [town administrator] what your vision is. ... We're trying to give you 60 days to find it, because you're not going to find it in the next four days, and nobody wants to hash this out in a crowd in the middle of Town Meeting."

School Committee members were eventually convinced of the idea, though most of the Selectmen remained uncertain. The Selectmen had voted unanimously on Tuesday to support Sullivan's balanced budget.

"I think, as a fundamental matter ... the [Selectmen] will go into Town Meeting supporting Mr. Sullivan's budget. However, we understand that Town Meeting may do something else, and if that happens, I'm appreciative of the fact that you've laid out a road map to deal with that," Selectmen Chair Peter Teitelbaum told the FinCom.

FinCom member Larry McDonald argued that by supporting the budget as it is currently balanced, the Selectmen were handing the problem to the School Committee.

"You keep saying that you're going to work with them to get this done, but you just laid it in their lap," he said, alluding to the difficult budget issues both the municipal departments and School Department have dealt with in recent years.

The officials all agreed that the town's problem is that it is not bringing in enough revenue to offset rising expenses. Some argued that voters haven't been told enough about how budget cuts will affect them, and thus they voted down increases to property taxes at the ballot last summer, despite the town's ongoing budget issues.

"I don't think that we have done, as leaders of this community, a good enough job of explaining what is going to happen if we continue on this road," said School Committee Chair Rhonda Veugen. "We need a short-term fix right now. So if this year is about cutting, should we fight for higher taxes next year?"

Though the FinCom and School Committee members appeared to be looking for a consensus that all boards would support the passage of the unbalanced budget, after three hours of discussion, they did not get one.

But ultimately, it's the voters who will decide whether to pass the balanced budget, or whether to go with the FinCom's plan.

Town Meeting begins at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 22, in the Wareham High School auditorium. For a recap of what's on the agenda, as well as some of the other issues, click the links below!