Budget Development (Scroll Down for Updates)

January 17 - 19, 2023 - Budget Presentations

The FY24 budget development process kicked off on the evenings of Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, January 17th through 19th, when district administrators and building principals presented their budget requests directly to the School Committee. The schedule was:

  • Tuesday, Jan 17th - Newbury Elementary, Pine Grove Elementary, Salisbury Elementary

  • Wednesday, Jan 18th - Middle School, High School, 7-12 Athletics

  • Thursday, Jan 19th - Student Services, Curriculum/Instruction, Technology, General District

You can see all requests from all 5 schools and 5 district wide departments in the folder titled "School/Dept Budget Requests" to the right (or below on mobile).

Further, you can watch the presentations that were hosted virtually on Zoom on the School Committee YouTube Channel by ****clicking here.

Prior to the presentations beginning on January 17th, the Superintendent provided a brief introduction to the process this year, setting the scene on the realities and challenges we continue to face as we emerge from the pandemic. These include the continuing academic, social, and emotional needs of our students, as well as historically high inflation, ongoing bargaining unit negotiations, some extraordinarily large increases in some programs, and the ending of pandemic era federal grants. This will result in a return to a more normal and challenging budget process that relies on our member towns shouldering increases in spending without state assistance.

The Superintendent provided an updated chart that outlines the continued 'shift' of expenses that were previously funded by state aid (Chapter 70) over to our member towns. This chart provides detail on how over the last 21 years, the state has shifted from providing funding for 34% of our total operating expenditures down to just a touch under 19% in the current year, a 44% reduction in their share in only 21 years. This will continue to be a discussion as we progress through the budget development process.

January 28, 2023 - Budget Workshop

On Saturday, January 28th the Committee met for several hours in a workshop format to review the requests made on January 17 - 19 and set the priority spending for the FY24 budget development. There are several significant new costs driving abnormally large increases this year, including inflationary charges for routine supplies and materials, as well as assumptions made for ongoing contract negotiations and new Out of District Special Education costs. These combined new costs reflect an increase of almost $3.5M, just to continue to provide the same level of services for students in 2023/2024 that we do this year.

You can view a summary of those total requests here.

The Committee also reviewed the impact of the increased costs of member assessments and ended up setting a target for an aggregate increase in assessments to our towns of $2.5M. This is the high water mark, as we've committed to setting the 'worst case' scenario for increased costs in the Tentative Budget each year. The Committee will discuss the budget again on February 1st and 8th before taking a Tentative Budget vote on Thursday, February 16th at a virtual meeting set for 4:00 PM.

An aggregate assessment of $2.5M is significantly larger than we've ever seen previously, and the Administration has committed to continue winnowing down the figures. The Director of Finance and Operations presented an assessment scenario for towns that include a wide range rather than the typical accurate figures. The Governor's budget sets key factors that set our assessment calculation for our towns, so with the newly seated Governor, she has an extra 6 weeks to file that information. We hope to have it by February 16th when the Committee votes on a Tentative Budget, but will definitely have it for the final budget by March 15th.

February 1, 2023 - Budget Discussion

On Friday, February 1st the Committee met to review the Administration's prioritized list of new costs included in the target increase of $2.5M.

You can see that prioritized listing here.

This list will continue to be reviewed and adjusted as we move towards a Tentative Budget vote that will be held virtually on Thursday, February 16th at 4:00 PM.

February 8, 2023 - Budget Discussion

The Committee will continue budget discussion during their normal monthly business meeting at 7:00 PM on February 8th.

February 16, 2023 - Tentative Budget Vote

The Committee met virtually at 4:00 PM on Thursday, February 16th to review the latest figures and projections. Unfortunately, we still did not have updated state figures that would allow the Administration to calculate town assessments. As linked below, you can see that the FY24 Tentative Budget includes all the normal detail and assessments in the aggregate to our member towns, but no town by town detail.

Once the Governor files the budget (by March 1st), we will repost the budget with those detailed factored in, but with no other changes made to assumed revenues or expenditures.

FY24 Tentative Operating & Capital Budget

The approved FY24 Tentative Budget will be submitted to member towns and set the 'high water mark' for spending for next school year.

March 1, 2023 - Budget Hearing and Discussion

The Committee met on March 1st to hold their annual hearing on the FY24 Tentative Budget, as well as have a follow up discussion on the budget information.

The Administration reviewed an updated assessment sheet for the Tentative Budget that details assessments for the member communities, since we didn't have the state information to make those calculations when it was approved on February 16th. You can see that docment HERE.

The Committee also reviewed the updated scenarios provided by the Administration that reflect the continued refinement of assumed costs and revenues from the state. You can see that document HERE.

Ultimately, the Committee reviewed the sheet and felt most comfortable guiding the Administration to a target increase in aggregate assessments to the member towns shown in Scenario 2 of that document, or increase of $2,000,000.

March 8, 2023 - Budget Hearing and Discussion

The Committee continued the budget discussion during their regular monthly business meeting, and reviewed an updated proposal for changes to the operating budget that kept the overall increase in aggregate assessments under $2,000,000.

You can see that proposal HERE.

The Committee agreed that this increase in total spending of roughly $2.2M, with an increase in overall assessments to member towns of $1,949,103 was an agreeable plan for the FY24 Final Budget, and directed the Administration to develop the Final FY24 Operating Budget using those assumptions. That will be brought to the School Committee for approval on Wednesday, March 15th at 7:00 PM in the high school library.

March 15, 2023 - Final Budget Approved

The Committee approved the FY24 final spending plan on the evening of Wednesday, March 15th. The budget for next school year is largely a level services budget, keeping in place what we currently offer during the 2022/2023 school year. .

You can review the final budget HERE, and of note pages 10 and 11 contain a summary of all assumed cost changes from the current year to the new year.

Note: While that page details some new staffing positions, these are either restorations from positions that were repurposed during COVID (i.e. MS Library Assistant) or the hiring of folks like the Speech and Language Therapist, RBT, or Special Education Teacher at PGS that were paid out of conracted services during the current year. So while it looks like the positions are added, they are being brought in as full time employees rather than the more costly avenue of using outside contracted services. This is a routine approach we've taken, particularly with Special Education services, where we first add services through an outside contractor on a short term basis until we determine that the need will be long term, which then makes a full time benefited employee more cost effective.