The FY16 budget cycle began on Monday, January 12th with presentations from the principals and program managers that allowed for the School Committee to hear requests directly from district administrators. For each school, these requests were presented alongside the School Improvement Plans which outline the goals and objectives for the upcoming year. In addition, all district administrators presented their budget requests to the committee. Meetings were held on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings, January 12th – 14th from 6:00 to 8/8:30 PM each night.
The remaining budget schedule is as follows: (All meetings are at 7:00 PM in the High School Library unless otherwise noted.)
- Saturday, January 24th — 8:00 AM in CO Conference Room — School Committee Budget Workshop
- Wednesday, February 4th — Intial Budget Presentation to Committee
- Wednesday, February 11th — Continued Deliberation and Forma Vote on a Tentative Budget
- Wednesday, February 25th — Public Hearing on the FY15 Proposed Budget
- Wednesday, March 11th — Final Budget Approval
October 14, 2015 Update: Fall Adjusted Budget
Each fall, an adjusted budget is produced to align projected line items expenditures with actuals. When planning begins 9 months before the start of the school year, assumptions are made on staffing, including retirements, resignations, and new hires. However, personnel changes that we aren’t able to predict occur routinely, and costs associated with these changes vary. As such, the fall adjusted budget aligns the actual changes in personnel with line item detail. Of note this year were significant cuts in staffing that were budgeted as aggregate decreases at the end of each school based budget detail. In this FY16 Adjusted Budget, you can see the reductions are not longer generalized there, and are detailed in the correct line item detail.
It’s important to reiterate that there is NO change in the overall operating expenditures of $37,824,311 that was approved on March 11, 2015. This adjusted budget merely re-categorizes spending for accuracy, and there is no overall net change in spending, and therefore any change to Town assessments, as outlined on page 2 of the FY16 Adjusted Budget document.
March 12, 2015 Update: FinalBudget Approved
At its meeting yesterday evening the School Committee approved an FY16 Final Budge that increases total spending over the current year by $895,577, or 2.43%. This final figure includes the reductions outlined in the Tentative Budget, and an additional $445,534 in cuts since that budget was approved on February 11th. These further reductions were necessary because of changes in state aid and calculation formulas that put additional burden on the member towns. This is a growing trend, and continues to create significant challenges for Triton member towns, especially when the formula provides for a $50,000 reduction for one Town, while the other two pick up the entire assessment as is the case this year.
The FY16 Final Budget. These are changes from a Level Services budget, and can be found by version in the entire budget document linked above. This includes reductions of $168,600 included in the Level Services, $1,157,990 in the Tentative Budget, and $445,534 in the Final Budget, bringing the total reductions to $1,772,124 below a Level Services budget.
February 12, 2015 Update:Tentative Budget Approved
At its meeting yesterday evening the School Committee reviewed a proposed Tentative Budget. At the conclusion the committee adopted a budget that is currently $35,200 more than the budget proposed, and $59,000 more than the figure required to meet the 4% target it set. If approved as the Final Budget, the average increase to the towns would be 4.21%, and town by town calculations are not able to be made until the Governor releases his budget (House 2) on March 4th.
The committee will hold a public hearing on February 25, 2015. As stated, the Governor is not expected to release his budget proposals before March 4. The committee must approve the Final Budget on March 12, 2015. The full Tentative Budget posted to the links at the right under Related Documents, or by clicking HERE.
February 5, 2015 Update:
At its meeting yesterday evening the School Committee considered a variety of approaches in order to develop a budget that would restrict the cost increase to the towns to about 4%. Details will not be confirmed until their meeting on February 11, 2015.