At its September 24 meeting, the school committee voted to modify their meeting schedule this year to provide additional time to work on the district’s budget for the 2015-2016 school year (the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget). They also voted to continue their use of a finance subcommittee for the detailed review of finances in the district including such things as quarterly reports, budget reports, fiscal policies, capital planning, recommending guidelines for stabilization funds, and completing special projects. This should provide the members of the school committee, and by extension the general public, with both a broad overview of the budget process and more understanding and input into the specifics of the budget.
As a result, school committee meetings will being at 7 p.m. on the following dates – December 10, January 14 & 28, February 11 & 25, March 4 (Public Hearing) and March 11. The committee voted to add a special ‘budget’ item to their agenda (after meeting presentations and before the communications portin) to ensure that this topic will be addressed specifically at each of these meetings.
As a beginning step to understanding the budget, Ms. Fisk (Gateway’s Business Manager) and I developed and presented an overview of the budget process that evening (the presentation slides may be viewed on the district’s website, under ‘Presentations to School Committee’). This presentation was intended to help people begin to understand the budget development process and obtain an overview of budget changes since Fiscal Year 2010. This included the overall reasons for having a budget (for student education based upon the district’s vision and approved district goals); how budgets are put together (the process, timeline, format, and town assessments); a brief history (expenditures over time, expenses by area, changes in major accounts, revenue history, town assessments, local aide, grants, and revolving accounts); and looking at potential issues in the future (questions about state aid for education, changes in town assessments due to having one less town in the district, and changes in local assessments due to the state foundation budget).
As the committee moves forward in the process, they will take a deeper look at budget development, review the preliminary expenditure budget, get the opportunity to have budget presentations, and pose questions to various administrators, hold a public hearing, and eventually adopt a budget for town ratification. School committee meetings, both as an entire committee and as subcommittees, are open to the public. Thus, if you desire more in-depth information about budget development and wish to ask questions or share your thoughts, feel free to join us! At the minimum, each presentation, and the minutes of school committee meetings, are all made public via the district’s website so, even if you can’t make the meetings, you may review the same information.
