WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Finance Committee conducted its last departmental budget review last night, meeting with School Superintendent Suzanne Scallion, School Financial Officer John Kane, School Committee members and about 15 principals and program directors who gathered at the Westfield Vocational Technical High School to provide details of the $55,509,859 school budget.
The school administrators still have to bridge a budget gap of $535,000 to balance their budget which Scallion describes as a “needs-based” financial document. Had all of the requests for programs and staff requested by school principals been included that budget would have been $4 million higher, Scallion said.
One member of the Finance Committee quipped that they can only cut, not add to a departmental budget, as Scallion detailed the needs for a higher level of funding.
“We do not accept the level 3 status that the state has given us,” Scallion said in her opening comments. “We are presenting a budget of need, a budget we believe is a realistic request based on the numbers from the mayor, but the $4 million in building needs requested by the principals is not in this budget.”
The current 2013 fiscal year school budget is $54,430,442 and Scallion said the district identified a $1.6 million fixed increase, with about $1.34 million of that increase in contractual obligations for staff salary, longevity and step increases. Other major cost centers include $457,000 for special education tuition and services, and $513,000 in additional transportation costs.
Scallion said that the department is exercising a contract clause which allows it to spread severance payment to retiring staff members out over three years to reduce the amount of those payments. Traditionally that cost has been spread across two years.
That option will be significant this year because the number of teachers opting to retire is higher than an average year.
“We have a mature faculty at the higher end of the pay scale and will see a lot of retirements over the next few years,” Scallion said.
Scallion, Kane and At-large City Councilor David A. Flaherty, a Finance Committee Member, discussed the percentage of the department’s budget committed to payroll. The department commits about 83 percent of its budget to salary.
Flaherty argued that anything over 80 percent limits the options available to the department to deal with funding hurdles and that greater flexibility is needed in light of the fact that about $37 million of the school budget comes from the state and federal governments.
Kane responded that the district’s salary is higher than surrounding communities, but that its expenses are lower. The higher salaries a related to the fact that the district has specialized staff and programs which allow it to keep students here in the city with their friends and peers, whereas surrounding districts have to send those pupils to out-of-district programs, increasing their expenses for transportation and out-of-district placements.
Scallion said that the approach being taken by the school administration to bridge the $535,000 budget gap is to consolidate and reorganize positions, especially at the higher levels, taking advantage of retirements.
Another approach is instituting new programs, especially in special education, to further reduce out-of-district placements and the associated transportation.
Scallion said the district is sending out layoff notices today because contracts require notification of possible layoff by June 15, but will continue to refine the budget to eliminate the need to balance the budget by cutting jobs.
“I am reluctant to lose a single person,” Scallion said. “We are moving to address the deficit.”
“We are making up for past deficits and it is incumbent that we keep moving (the district) forward,” Scallion said.
Scallion said the department is using school choice and special education circuit-breaker funds to balance the budget, something that the School Committee is reluctant to do because those funds are intended to be used to enhance educational programs and deal with emergency funding needs, not bolster the department’s operational budget.
The Finance Committee will meet tomorrow night to review the budget after having met with most of the city’s departments to prepare their recommendation to the full City Council at its June 20 meeting. The committee has also slated a budget workshop for all other council members for June 19.
