The
Superintendent’s preliminary budget is required by law and marks the beginning
of the budget season. This budget proposal represents the culmination of work
by all administrators and myself in response to one of the worst economic
seasons that I can remember. The challenge was how to reduce and contain costs
in a budget that was slated to grow by approximately 7% if we honored all
contractual obligations and projected increases in benefits, fuel and general
maintenance. Such an increase, we knew, would be irresponsible to the taxpayers
of the community.
The
school year began with a careful analysis of budget projections, which were
shared with the Board’s Finance Committee. Together, an approach was
recommended to bring down the costs in as many areas as possible. To this end,
administrators were asked to curb expenses by looking at their budgets
strategically, using data to drive decisions about deletions and shifting money
from low area needs to new program needs.
We asked them to sustain a strong educational program but to trim
expenditures as much as possible.
Their savings totaled $300,000.
An additional $348,000 was saved through a similar process in special
education.
Other
savings were realized through an unexpected decrease of 11% in premiums for
health benefits, a savings of $680,000. The creative use of federal ARRA
(American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funds, part of the government one-time
stimulus package, also allowed us to pay for some expenditures through federal
grants rather than the budget. In regular education, some efficiencies were
found through the reallocation of staff to areas where there were greater
needs.
All
of these efforts reduced the original projected increase of approximately
$4,200,000 by nearly $2,000,000 or 50%. At the same time, the budget does not propose any
program cuts nor does it include any reductions in staff that would not
otherwise have occurred due to attrition. Our student enrollment continues to
increase, although very low in comparison with previous years. Some additional
sections are required at the secondary level where we have a graduating class
of 178 students and incoming classes that are more than 200 students.
At
this time, I am proposing a budget-to-budget increase of 3.35% over last year’s
expenditures or a total budget of $61,999,571. This spending plan maintains
class size substantially the same as this current year throughout our K-12
program. Program adjustments were made in accordance with a thorough review by
the administration in attempting to construct an educational program that meets
the needs of all students. This increase takes into account a projected
Employee Retirement Rate of 14.0% and a projected Teacher Retirement Rate of
9.5%, and also all unionized contractual obligations including salaries. More...