The first draft of the district’s 2017-2018 (FY’18) budget was presented to the school committee and community at their January 11 meeting. Despite increased costs of nearly one million dollars, the projected increase in the overall school budget is just one percent or $159,386. While this draft budget will change over the next few months as some figures become solidified (for example we have a placeholder cost in place for fuel oil that we’ll lock in through a bidding process over the next few weeks), this provides an excellent starting point for discussions around the school budget.
Budget discussions will continue at each school committee meeting until they take a vote to move the budget forward to the towns during their second meeting in March (March 8): one week following our Public Hearing on March 1 at Gateway. We also anticipate that the Governor’s budget recommendations (House One) will be out at the end of this month, which will allow us to predict town assessments for the February 8 school committee meeting. As with the original school budget, the assessments are only an estimate until we get a final student count on March 1st and until the state passes the final state budget for FY’18.
There are a number of major increases in the district’s expenditures for next year (you can view all of the details of both the budget overview and the actual line item budget on the district’s website). These fall into several major categories including additional student requirements and needs ($157,524); increases in health insurance premiums ($162,444); student transportation ($44,261); student tuition for charter, school choice, and collaborative placements ($312,829); a 1.5% increase in staff compensation ($129,584); other contractual obligations ($20,601); textbook replacements ($17,350); fuel oil ($33,834); and making up for the loss of revenue from revolving funds ($45,387). The first draft of the budget does not include a number of items that are deemed important in moving forward including a curriculum director, a technology director, funding either the stabilization account or the OPEB trust fund, an expansion of the life skills program, ELA/Math coaching positions, replacing a high school English teacher or providing additional stipends to create new teacher leadership positions. Given our understanding of the financial difficulties facing some of our member towns, adding up to $550,000 to fund these items seemed unwise at this point. The school committee may add a small amount to the budget to address at least one of these issues (Life Skills) to potentially save the district money over the long-term as we begin to finalize how to address some identified upcoming needs for students.
To offset these increases the district has worked diligently to hold down, or reduce, costs in several areas. These include reducing out-of-district special education placements (-$345,865); reducing the amount of electricity used (despite an increase in the cost of electricity the district has reduced our total electrical bill by -$38,392); special education transportation costs (-$99,403), debt service (-$21,140); and internet service (-$15,064).
Again, the final difference in the total budget is $159,386 (1%) meaning that the projected budget for the next fiscal year is $1,787,006 less than the budget for fiscal year 2009, a significant reduction over the past ten years despite increases in inflationary pressure on health insurance, utilities, salaries, and supplies/textbooks. The district remains committed to an open process in reviewing the budget prior to town meetings and would appreciate the opportunity to answer any questions or concerns from community members.
