School Committee members are expected to vote tonight on a budget for the 2013 fiscal year, a budget that will reflect a nearly $2 million cut in federal funding for the district.
Mayor Daniel M. Knapik said this morning that he plans to increase the city’s contribution to the district by $1 million, but that the committee will still have to find a means to have to close the gap between funding and spending.
The district’s original “level service” budget totaled to $56,790,456, which included contractual salary increases as well as projected increases in insurance, utilities, legal services and transportation
Knapik is proposing a budget of $54,243,057.
The district administration has identified offsets within the district that total $1.7, which in addition to the $1 million increase in municipal funding, close that gap to $1.1 million.
“We lost $2 million in federal aid,” Knapik said. “We just can’t make up that entire amount and still do other things in the city.”
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which provided the district with $1.5 million in funding through a jobs program, terminates with the current fiscal year.
The district was also notified that it will see a $500,000 cut in its federal Title 1 funding, also used to fund jobs in the district.
“There is a trend to cut federal entitlement programs,” Knapik said. “If we didn’t have the Title 1 cuts, we’d still be in pretty good shape.”
The school administration is expected to present options to the School Finance Subcommittee, which meets at 6:30 p.m. tonight. The subcommittee will discuss those options and propose a priority list of potential budget cuts at the School Committee’s special meeting slated for 7 p.m.
The special School Committee meeting is being conducted to finalize the district’s budget, part of the total municipal budget proposal Knapik will present to the City Council Thursday.
Knapik said that he generated his numbers late Friday, May 11, and that he anticipates refining his School District funding proposal today, after the district administration and City Hall financial officers have had time to study the funding package in greater detail.
Finance Subcommittee Chairwoman Cindy Sullivan said this morning that district administration is still working to identify options for her subcommittee and the School Committee.
“We have some work to do tonight,” Sullivan said. “Superintendent (Suzanne) Scallion said she has some different ideas, but we didn’t talk in detail about those options, so I’ll hear them tonight.”
“We will have to work collaboratively with the superintendent to do what’s best for the kids,” Sullivan said. “The class size numbers look to be good and I want to get them that way.”
