IMPORTANT UPDATES FOR
JANUARY
BUDGET PROCESS
Just prior
to the winter break, I presented the Superintendent’s FY18 Budget Request, (http://www.bedford.k12.ma.us/sites/bedfordps/files/uploads/superintendents_fy18_budget_request2.pdf)
to the School Committee. As you will
see, I have requested a 4.05% increase over the FY17 budget, which is .55%
higher than the 3.5% guideline that the Finance Committee set this year for the
schools. Building upon a 2.57%
Maintenance of Effort budget, the additional $561,358 in new requests corresponds
to four budget drivers:
·
Enrollment increases at Lane and JGMS
·
Cost-saving, in-house special education program
expansion
·
Modest instruction and maintenance related
salary additions
·
Modest contract service, technology and
maintenance additions
Examining
the budget line by line at our last School Committee meeting, the committee
asked clarifying questions about various line items, and engaged in a process
intended to ensure that one, any unrecognized needs will be addressed, and two,
that any areas that might yield savings will be identified.
|
FY18 NEW REQUESTS
|
FY18 MoE REQUEST
|
FY18 TOTAL REQUEST
|
FY17 APPROVED BUDGET
|
MoE BUDGET INCREASE
|
FY18 MoE % CHANGE
|
FY18 TOTAL REQUEST INCREASE
|
TOTAL FY18 % Change
|
|
$561,358
|
$38,709,283
|
$39,270,641
|
$37,740,703
|
$968,579
|
2.57%
|
$1,529,938
|
|
|
4.05%
|
In
preparation for the next School Committee meeting, the committee has tasked the
superintendent to present two additional budget scenarios: a 3.75% increase over FY17 and a 3.5% (FinCom
guideline) increase over FY17. These
will require reducing the projected FY18 budget of $39,740,703 by $114,662 or
$209,013 depending upon which of the two scenarios is acceptable to the
committee.
It is
important to note that the practicability of coming close to meeting, or
potentially meeting the Finance Committee guideline, as we did last year,
despite our enrollment-driven need for additional staff, is mostly attributable
to the school department’s successfully reducing our out-of-district special
education costs during the past ten years.
Impelled by a commitment to educate children with significant special
needs in the least restrictive environment (in-house as opposed to out-of-district
whenever possible) as well as by the budgetary imperative, the programs that we
have created have reduced our out-of-district placements from 116 in 2006 to 59
this year.
While these
programs themselves require adequate levels of staffing, the net savings and
cost avoidance are significant. In
future years, however, the direct savings from bringing children back
in-district will begin to diminish, although the cost-avoidance will continue
to be quite large. As this happens and
as our enrollment continues to grow, meeting guideline will present a much
greater challenge. JS
SPACE NEEDS TASK FORCE RECONVENES
Following
upon December’s news that the Massachusetts School Building Authority rejected
our statement of interest for a Davis School addition, this week we reconvened
the Space Needs Task Force to take up the work of re-examining our enrollment
trends and making a recommendation to the School Committee as to whether or not
to proceed with a town-funded Davis School project.
A year ago,
the task force produced a comprehensive report that verified the enrollment
trend that our commissioned study (NESDEC) had projected in 2009. The report, which can be viewed at
examined a
multiplicity of sources in order to yield an in-depth analysis of the drivers
behind our growing student population.
The support that followed for the Lane School project is now being
translated into brick and mortar and the space that our growing population
needs to learn at Lane.
This week
the committee toured Davis School as Principal Beth Benoit pointed out the building’s
deficiencies as increased enrollment and special education programming press up
against limited space.
The FY18
capital budget has a $98,000 placeholder for feasibility study and schematic
design should the research bear out the projected need for additional classroom
space at Davis, where we presently have two modular classrooms to temporarily
meet the need. The task force will
complete its enrollment data update by early March to give the School Committee
and other town boards time to make a decision about whether or not to bring
this request forward at this year’s Town Meeting.
A big thanks
to the following task force volunteers for stepping up once again: Rob Badzey,
Shaena Grossman, Diane Hughes, Mark Mullins, Brenda Catanzano, Jeff Cohen, Jim
O’Neil, School Committee members Ed Pierce and JoAnn Santiago, Facilities
Director Taissir Alani, and School Finance Director David Coelho. JS
