As I write this, the Gateway Regional School Committee is preparing to hold its required “public hearing” for the 2017-2018 school year budget (Fiscal Year 2018) on March 1. While this is the official public hearing, the truth is that the school committee has been reviewing the budget in public meetings since early January and all of the information reviewed by the school committee has also been shared on the district’s website (www.grsd.org) and in the superintendent’s blog (http://grsdsuperintendentblog.blogspot.com/). As in the past, the school committee is following a budget development calendar that allows input on the budget in time to have a proposed budget in place 45 days before the first annual town meeting, as required.
Information shared during the public hearing will also be posted to the district’s website and the superintendent’s blog so that anyone can review the complete budget. The details (the line item budget, information about how town assessments are determined, revenue information, historical information, and reference documents) of the budget and other relevant information related to budget development is also available.
Highlights of the FY’18 budget are relatively straightforward: it is a basic 1% increase in the budget ($159,396), despite increases in costs of $923,814 and unfilled needs to the tune of $450,000 to $500,000. The budget results in an increase in overall town assessments of 2.71% (but individual town assessments range from a negative 5.94% to a positive 9.51%, due to changes in state revenue and changes in the percentages of students from each of our sending towns). Overall, the FY’18 budget is $1,787,006 less than the FY’09 budget and total assessments are $1,068,347 less than they would be if assessments had grown at a constant 2.5% per year. In fact, from FY’09 to FY’18, Blandford, Chester, Middlefield, and Montgomery saw an overall decrease in their assessments, despite Worthington no longer contributing to the budget.
Despite the small increase, the district continues to do its best to meet student needs and provide additional opportunities. In fact, with this proposed budget, Gateway retains all of its current services and continues to expand programming for special needs students, expands programming in technology (computers, robotics, interactive classrooms, and online learning opportunities), supports the education of the whole child, expands hands-on, experiential learning and the use of 21st Century Skills such as collaboration, communication, problem solving, and creativity, and maintains safe, secure, and modern facilities. The budget also provides a 1.5% increase for most staff in an effort to maintain our ability to attract and retain highly qualified staff who remain the key to Gateway now having three Level 1 schools and moving up to a Level 2 district under the state’s metric for school success.
This budget also retains local control of the schools, continues our kindergarten to fifth grade elementary schools, our sixth through eighth grade middle school, and our high school while maintaining small class sizes. This budget does not completely address the additional administrative and curricular needs that were outlined in the MARS report but does provide for some potential alternative support mechanisms. While far from a perfect budget, and one that has significant financial impacts on Huntington and Russell due to their growing percentage of students, this is a well thought out and comprehensive budget that does its best to meet student needs while considering town fiscal constraints.
