Dr. David Hopson
July 1 marks the beginning of the new fiscal year for both the school district and the state. This new fiscal year of 2013 also finds both the state and school district with an approved budget, meaning that everyone can move forward without the constant distraction of uncertainty and shift our focus more onto educational tasks. I know that the state legislators did well to provide local aid to schools and municipalities in light of the continued financial struggles everyone is facing.
Despite all of the discussion surrounding local aid, the district budget, and town assessments, the school district is really at a disadvantage compared to the towns. If the state provides significantly more new money to the district after the towns have approved the budget, that money goes to decrease town assessments; it cannot be used for student services, as this would increase the budget, requiring a new budget and related approval by the towns. However, if the state provides less money than anticipated, the school district must either reduce the approved budget or go back to the towns with new, higher assessments and try to get those voted. Needless to say, once the town budgets are set at annual town meetings, the idea of going back for more money is not generally well received. Now that the conference state budget is out, the net difference in state money that the district will receive has actually decreased $134,236 from what the district received last year. This is due to increased charges to the district against state aid, very similar to the various charges the state provides to towns on town cherry sheets.
Given all of the changes this late in the budget season, it appears that Gateway will once again absorb some of the differences in state revenue without having to further cut student services, or ask towns for additional revenue. This has been the pattern over the nearly two decades that I’ve been ‘officially’ part of the district in one role or another. In fact, in many of those years, the school committee has officially voted, early in the budget process, to give additional state aid back to the towns to reduce assessments rather than to develop a new, and larger, budget. Despite the budget difficulties of the last several years, on behalf of our students and staff I thank the towns for their support of the schools. While we have reduced the district budget significantly over the past 5 years, I believe we’ve done this in a fashion that has the minimum impact on student services. I hope that people can recognize a consistent approach to the budget process in this district, which has alleviated the last minute, dramatic changes we see in various other school districts as they finish one fiscal year in financial difficulty and start another with major changes in personnel and program offerings. As we move forward, I anticipate we’ll continue to struggle with finances that only a strongly recovering economy will help dispel.
