WESTBROOK – As school officials weigh a decision on whether to migrate to a new finance system backed by the city, Superintendent Marc Gousse says the shift “wasn’t on our radar.”

The city of Westbrook, which will begin to develop the 2015-16 budget on a finance software system known as Munis, has advocated for the school department to join the same program, in an effort to make the budget process more seamless.

Gousse said Tuesday that while he is for continued collaboration with the city, the two entities have been on separate finance systems for as long as he can remember. He said that in the past, when the city has chosen a new software system, there was never a push to move the school in that direction.

“It’s not to resist having the single system, but there’s a reason we’re on this platform,” he said, referring to perceived issues with software designed for municipalities.

The discussion on shared finance first came to a head during a joint meeting in late September, convened to discuss a recent school enrollment study, which predicted significant growth during the next 10 years at schools that Gousse has said are at capacity.

The September meeting marked the first joint meeting since budget discussions in early 2014, when the City Council originally rejected the 2014-15 school budget. Following eventual approval, the school department vowed to hold monthly joint meetings, but none had been held until September.

“We need to do a better job of collaborating, and working together in some of the areas that we can,” Hilton said at the meeting.

Gousse said Tuesday that going into this year, a discussion on a shared finance system, while important, “wasn’t on our radar.”

“While the question of software may be important, I think we have some significant issues that we need to look at and put at the forefront,” he said.

Gousse mentioned the recent unveiling of development plans for the former Clarke farm property off Spring Street, where some 180 units of housing could be constructed over a five-year period and have significant impact on school enrollment.

However, Gousse said he sees multiple facets where the city and school are already collaborating, citing the Westbrook Community Center and Public Services, where the school houses a bus maintenance facility.

In early 2013, the school department decided to move away from a shared finance department with the city, seeking better control over its own staff, and grant reporting, in particular.

Westbrook Schools currently maintains and forms budgets using a program called ProFund, which was recently bought by finance software company Tyler Technologies. Tyler Tech also owns the municipal finance program Munis, a program the city of Westbrook just purchased for roughly $100,000.

Dean Flanigan, the school department’s director of operations, said Tuesday that he estimates that 95 percent of school districts in Maine use the ProFund software, known to have school-oriented features such as accounting for multiple grants.

Gousse said the school’s annual maintenance fee for the ProFund software is $15,000, with no other costs. He said the city offered to pay the conversion fee for the shift to Munis, but that the annual maintenance fees for Munis would exceed their current payment.

“It does the things we need it to do,” he said about ProFund. “Part of our challenges were dealing with the financial disarray back in 2011, and we’re in a good place financially now.”

However, according to City Administrator Jerre Bryant, the new Munis software has been updated and expanded to adhere to the needs of school finances, a catalyst to city officials seeking discussion about moving the school department onto a shared system.

Flanigan said historically, Munis has been nothing more than a system geared toward municipalities, and that Tyler Tech still plans on offering both systems.

“Consideration of this question has been very thoughtful,” Gousse said, referring to a long process by Flanigan to research what other cities are doing.

Flanigan said he visited the school departments of South Portland and Scarborough, both of which share a Munis software package with their city departments, and said, “there were some things that concerned me.”

Alicia Gardiner, Westbrook’s comptroller, said Wednesday that in discussions with representatives from Tyler Technologies, she has been assured that common concerns from school officials have been addressed by the new package that the city purchased.

Gardiner said the most obvious benefit of a single system would be avoiding “redundancies” in tax paperwork. She said the city must issue two separate sets of tax documents due to the separate systems.

“Change is daunting and a lot of work so I don’t discount their feelings toward a potential move,” she said. “However, to me, none of the reasons they’ve cited as not wanting to move are valid enough to not continue toward combining the two systems.”

Gousse said another concern is for the training and cost of professional development that would be needed to migrate to a whole new system, given that some 50 school employees use the software.

“Why would I trade my vehicle in, when the vehicle I’m driving is doing everything well,” he said.

Gardiner said Wednesday that the school department’s shift away from a shared department in 2013 could also be at the heart of the issue.

“Control over their process is certainly at the forefront of why they don’t want to move onto a shared system with the city, as a shared system could be viewed as moving backward toward less control over their finances,” she said.

She added that she has worked to assure school officials that they would continue to have autonomy with their finances.

“But, as of right now, they can control what my staff and I get to view in the system and with a shared system, that wouldn’t be an option,” she said.

Flanigan will make a formal recommendation to the school’s finance committee at its next meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The day before, city and school officials will hold a joint meeting on the finance systems at City Hall.