The school district is already deeply involved in establishing the Fiscal Year 2018 budget (for the 2017-2018 school year). As you may remember, the current year’s budget (FY’17) was developed with the understanding that the district would help make up the $630,000 in lost revenue from Worthington leaving the district (the state made up the difference in the first year of Worthington’s withdrawal). We’ve already begun discussions with the school committee, and town officials through GTAC, regarding initial ideas about the need for a budget increase for next year.
There are a number of identified student needs and state mandates that we’re responding to now, which will impact the bottom line of the budget, both this year and next. These changes are a mixed blessing. For example, our student numbers are holding steady due to a large number of new families and students moving into the district, but many of these students are English Language Learners (ELL), requiring that we hire another ELL teacher this year, pay to translate documents, and provide interpreters, steps that are all required by the state and federal government. We are also seeing an increase in students who need special assistance, which may require additional health staff, paraprofessionals, and teaching staff. We’re also doing our best to provide services to students in the district rather than placing them out of the district, but this isn’t always possible and out of district costs are rising rapidly even without sending more students out. We also continue to look at administrative staffing, not in terms of further reductions but rather in terms of whether we’ve cut too far and hope to get some input from the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools’ study of district operations currently underway.
While it seems early, the process of developing an appropriate budget takes time and much input. Both the towns and the school have no crystal ball to foretell the future: what will happen with state aid, what calamities might occur, and what needs could arise over the next six to eight months? This makes the early steps in the planning a bit tenuous at best, but is required if we’re all going to get input from multiple sources, have time to share budgets with everyone, and meet the state timeframe for budget development. This is more difficult for the schools than the towns as we are mandated to have a budget ready 45 days before the first town meeting, unlike the towns. The Gateway Towns Advisory Committee (GTAC) has also begun discussing town and school budget as part of its current focus on town and school sustainability.
Another difference between developing town and school budgets is the ease of getting information from the various individuals involved. The schools have the advantage in terms of having paid professionals for whom budgeting is part of their skill set, and evaluation process, whereas the towns often work through volunteers, some of whom have very little experience in municipal finance. The school can request budget information and set meeting dates knowing that our expectations will be met, while towns often have difficulty collecting information and setting meeting dates due to the volunteer nature of our town government. Despite this, both entities always have a budget developed in time for the annual town meetings. I certainly give much credit to our town volunteers who manage town finances and wish the state better understood the issues facing smaller towns and smaller school districts.
As always, we look forward to working with the towns during the budget process leading up to town meetings including sharing information with town officials and the public.
