WESTFIELD – Director of Technology and Business Services for the Westfield School Department Ronald Rix will be making a recommendation for a budget transfer at Monday evening’s meeting of the Westfield School Committee.
“It’s to cover some of our severance obligation that wasn’t included in the final budget,” said Rix Friday. “So we’re looking to balance it so we can fill those (obligations).”
Rix added that the district has $83,000 of severance obligations for staff that have retired since July 1. These funds will be transferred from an “out of grade” line item.
“Many of our teachers notified us that they’re going to be completing their college degree, be it a masters degree or a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS) degree in December,” he said of the line item. “So they’re be entitled to a pay raise starting in February. So we have money that we have budgeted in there that we’re going to move that out of – hopefully temporarily – then backfill it to cover the expense that we have here in September.”
Rix said that seven staff members employed as teachers, paraprofessionals and secretaries have retired since the start of the summer.
“We had requested a budget of $545,000 last year of our total obligation,” he said. “We decided to have a pay-as-you-go plan, because a lot of times we don’t expend all of that money.”
“If I was thinking of retiring next July, I would need to notify the school department on February 1 that I was considering retiring until they could budget my severance,” he said. “In the past, lets say 20 people do it and only 10 retire, we have to budget our full obligation. So now we’re going to pay it as it actually happens.”
When asked if making transfers of this nature so early in the school year is a common occurance, Rix stated that he thinks so.
“I try to do everything very transparent. We have a policy, that any transfer over $15,000 needs school committee approval,” he said. “Or say we’re transferring from the personel side to the expense side, we need to have approval on that.”
