Dr. David Hopson
A significant amount of information on the district’s budget is available to the public and can be viewed by anyone with Internet access. In addition to budget documents going back several years, we also have all of the FY’14 (school year beginning September 2013) budget information posted on the district’s website (www.grsd.org> Information>Budget>2013-2014 Budget).
On this site, you’ll find two informative documents developed by the School Committee’s Finance Subcommittee: a budget primer that outlines the process, defines many terms, and provides much useful information; and a review of the Chapter 70 funding formula (which determines how much the state provides for education funding and how the towns’ minimum assessments are determined).
In terms of the budget, you’ll find the first version of the budget (expenditures only as this was developed before the Governor’s House I budget was released) and the second version of the budget that will be reviewed at the public hearing on March 6 in the Gateway Performing Arts Center. For those interested in more detail, you’ll also find the line item budget as well as the fourth quarter FY’12 expenditure report that shows what was budgeted and spent in FY’12.
For an in-depth review of the items that are supported by the budget, the “Budget Presentation by the Administrative Team” is posted. Over the course of two school committee meetings, this presentation provided many details on the district’s programs, needs, and challenges. For a brief overview of Version 2.0 of the budget, please review the “Budget Presentation” that was shown to the school committee on February 13. This highlights changes from this year to next in terms of the budget, shows the relationship of student population to assessments, and provides questions for the communities to ponder.
The prioritized reduction/cut list, developed collaboratively by the administrative team over two long days of discussions, is also provided. While I hope that the district does not have to further reduce the budget (currently at a 2.5% increase for next year, which is still over a million dollars less than the 2008-2009 school year), that decision is in the hands of the school committee and the towns. We felt that the public should be well aware of what further cuts would mean to the schools and our children and developed this list to show exactly what would be lost if the budget is further reduced.
I’ve also posted a summary, and the overall results, of the community survey on student learning goals for the district on the front page of our website. Within the next few weeks, I’ll be able to post the results from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education final report on the review they did of the district nearly a year ago. Taken together, these form a framework for moving the district forward in a positive direction.
I hope that everyone takes the opportunity to review this information, which is the result of much time and effort by the school committee and administration. I believe we do an excellent job of making a complex process understandable and are very transparent in sharing the process with the public.
