HUNTINGTON – While the length of their meetings is generally more comparable to “War and Peace” than “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, rain Wednesday evening, and the potential for icy road conditions, saw the Gateway Regional School Committee hold a quick meeting last night, where the budget for the fiscal year 2015 was approved.
The budget, known as version 1.2, was trimmed from $16,895,40 to $16,824,695, and needed to be passed yesterday evening or at an emergency meeting next week, as the 45-day window before the first town meetings will have passed by then.
Committee Chair Gretchen Eliason did add that the Finance Subcommittee had met with Stefanie Fisk, the district’s business and finance officer, regarding version 1.1 of the FY15 budget, and has an additional meeting set up with Fisk to discuss version 1.2.
“This is a reasonable proposal with the emphasis on all the right places,” Eliason said. “I hope people support it.”
Significant changes between versions 1.1 and 1.2 included a $47,000 increase from $90,000 to $137,000 in contracted special education, recognizing that services for more students would be provided in-house rather than out-of-district, which would contribute to significant savings in special education tuition, which version 1.2 cut from $348,995 to $175,312.
Committee member Jeff Wyand raised questions about the increase, but Fisk assured him it was done with the intention of saving on tuition.
“A student that we had budgeted for out-of-district placement, we will be servicing that student in-district with a contracting service,” Fisk said. “The organization we contract out with is not an in-house person.”
“It’s a student who we’re trying to prevent from going out to a very expensive placement, so we’re trying to provide services here and in the home,” added Alice Taverna, director of Pupil Personnel Services for the district. “Which, right now, are much, much cheaper than sending them out (of district).”
The decrease in special education tuition accounted for $173,683, while another decrease of $6,078, from $364,462 to $358,384, would be provided in the form of health insurance for retired employees, whose coverage will now be shifted to Medex.
Health insurance costs for active employees would increase by $61,816, from $1,432,138 to $1,493,954.
Changes would include qualifying events, open enrollment additions, and changes between exiting and new employees.
Version 1.2 saw a decrease of $70,945 from 1.1, and subsequently passed with a vote of 12-1.
Gateway Superintendent Dr. David Hopson expressed relief that the budget passed, and is looking forward to seeing what Beacon Hill will do with the state budget.
“The budget as adopted is based on the Governor’s budget, and if state aid changes between his budget and the House and Senate’s budgets, we’ll then offer it back to the School Committee,” he said.
Regarding the version 1.2 changes in special education, Hopson said the district would benefit.
“The special education department looked at the lower cost (of providing services in-house), and our Pupil Personnel Services Director determined we can give the student the same instruction required by their Individualized Education Program here without sending them out of district,” he said.
