BUDGET DEVELOPMENT (Most Recent at Top - Scroll for Prior)
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March 13, 2024 - FY25 Final Budget Approved
At their meeting on March 13, 2024, the School Committee approved the FY25 Final Budget as presented.
This budget is in line with the discussions in past weeks, the information presented at the public hearing on March 6th, and further guidance by the Committee. For those interested in reviewing those meetings, they can be viewed on demand on the School Committee YouTube channel.
The spending plan includes no new positions for next year, but does include several reductions as we have been discussing over the past couple months. As you will see in the detail in the budget document, the collective increase in the cost of providing the same level of services in FY25 is substantially higher than the increases we have seen in the past. For that reason, this final budget includes a number of reductions to mitigate those higher than normal increases. The reductions were identified with an eye toward having the least impact. Some of the changes are right-sizing for staffing and services that are warranted in response to reduced student enrollments and overall caseloads, while others are more impactful changes. The right-sizing would have been done in a typical budget year in response to enrollments, and this has been routine in recent years with a slowly declining student population. Some, however, will have an impact and are only being made due to the circumstances.
While the reductions do have some impact, this spending plan approved by the Committee last night continues our focus and commitment to small class sizes, relevant programming for our students, and maintaining a highly skilled and dedicated faculty and staff.
The next step in the budget approval process is the Annual Town Meeting in each of our member towns in April and May. We always strive to have the support of all 3 of our member towns, but we officially have an approved budget once 2 of the 3 town meetings approve the budget as finalized by the School Committee.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to Superintendent Brian Forget, or Director of Finance & Operations, Bryan Perry.
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February 28, 2024 - Additional Reductions Identified
At their meeting on February 28th, the School Committee identified additional reductions totaling $286,754 that are in addition to the $962,192 in reductions included the Tentative Budget that was approved on February 13th. These additional cuts that were identified and anticipated bring the total likely reductions to $1,248,946 from our current level services operation. These reductions are a mix of 'right-sizing' due to decreased enrollments (i.e. one less Kindergarten section with lower registration numbers), but it does also include more impactful cuts such as the reduction of some classroom teachers at the high school level and the loss of our SEL and STEM elementary educators. You can find a list of cumulative cuts that we anticipate needing to make from a level services budget by clicking here.
Reductions in this amount (roughly) will be needed to align with the guidance that has been provided by our member towns as to what they can support in their town budgets. These reductions are not confirmed, but the Committee anticipates having to approve reductions in the final budget that reduce spending by this roughly $1.249M amount when they take that vote on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. I encourage everyone to follow the links to review the information as it contains important details about each of the reductions and the resulting impact.
We will have our Public Hearing on the FY25 budget next Wednesday, March 6th in the High School Library starting at 7:00 PM. This is everyone's opportunity to share their formal input about the Tentative Budget and additional reductions with the School Committee prior to their final vote on the budget on Wednesday, March 13th. I encourage everyone to review the anticipated cuts in the two documents linked above and attend the public hearing to share your thoughts if you would like to have input into the process.
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out if there are any questions about the budget this year or the process overall. You can reach Superintendent Brian Forget at [email protected].
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February 13, 2024 - Tentative Budget Approval
The School Committee approved an FY25 (2024/2025 school year) spending plan at their meeting last night, the first of 2 approvals needed in our budgeting process. This annual tentative spending plan sets the 'high water' mark for spending the following year, and we then continue to adjust the plan through a final approval on March 13th. This year, the Tentative Budget already includes over $962,000 in reductions, and we have received word from our member towns that more reductions may be necessary in order to be supported in the town budgets. Those discussions and decisions will be happening in the weeks ahead.
Download PDF of the FY25 Tentative Budget
We will be meeting several times over the coming weeks with the School Committee and with our town officials to reconcile district-wide needs with town capacity to fund them. I wanted to make you aware of the changes already confirmed in the tentative budget as approved, and the dates and times of the upcoming meetings, including the Public Hearing on the budget which is everyone's formal opportunity to provide feedback to the School Committee before they approve the final plan. You can find all meeting agendas and documents on the BoardDocs website at https://go.boarddocs.com/ma/triton/Board.nsf/Public, which is also linked off our main website. Agendas are posted at least 48 hours (2 business days) prior to the date/time of the meeting, and all relevant documents and connection details for Zoom meetings are include
Upcoming Meetings**:**
- Tuesday, February 20th at 6:30 PM via Zoom. - - District Communications Committee meeting (Town officials and School Committee)
- Thursday, February 22nd at 6:00 PM via Zoom - - School Committee budget discussion
- Wednesday, February 28th at 7:00 PM in the High School Library - - School Committee budget discussion
- Wednesday, March 6th at 7:00 PM in the High School Library - - Public Hearing and School Committee budget discussion
- Wednesday, March 13th at 7:00 PM in the High School Library - - School Committee vote on FY25 Final Budget
The financial realities will likely mean some difficult decisions are ahead of us. If you have any questions about the meetings coming up in the next few weeks, or about the budget as a whole, please don't hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected].
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January 24, 2024 - Budget Discussion/Deliberation
On January 24th the School Committee continued the discussion about the impact of the budget proposal from January 17th along with newly published information from the State Budget. The Governor released her budget on January 24th, which fills in missing enrollment, required town contribution, and state aid figures that allow us to present accurate projections of the assessments for our member towns. The documents included in the Drive folder on this page with the January 24th date outline those changes and the resulting impact of a disproportionately larger increase and impact on the Town of Newbury for this year.
No further decisions around any changes from the January 17th proposal were made at this meeting.
A District Communications Committee (DCC) meeting is being held on January 25th with town officials from Newbury, Rowley, and Salisbury to discuss the impact of the increases and determine the next steps in the development process.
The School Committee will then continue their discussions on January 31st to determine the next steps, with the information shared with them by member towns through the DCC.
A Tentative Budget will be set on February 13, 2024, setting the 'high water' mark, and will continue to be further refined through a final vote on March 13th.
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January 17, 2024 - Budget Presentation
As we look to next year and plan for the needs of our students, we find ourselves in a challenging budget cycle. We continue to emerge from the pandemic years, a period during which state and local revenues, spending, and needs of the population we serve have varied wildly. Fiscal 2025 marks the first planning year for us since 2021 where we have no additional offsetting state or federal revenues associated with those increased needs, and we are back to routine expectations for supporting revenues, largely on the backs of our member towns. At the same time, we continue to deal with the increased costs of almost all goods and services due to historic inflationary levels, including salaries and other personnel-related costs, while still working to educate all students equitably and effectively.
For that reason, we are shifting away from our traditional budget presentation and proposal process this year, and instead have streamlined the budget proposal into a single document as attached here to the agenda. Unlike in past years when all principals and administrators presented individual requests for updated and increased spending for their school or department directly to the School Committee over the course of 3 nights, this year's single combined proposal will focus on the costs associated with level services.
No new positions, services, or programs are proposed in this year's request, and it even includes savings and reductions due to the higher than normal projected increases for level services.
If a particular line item is not included in the attached proposal, then it is proposed to be level-funded at the 2023/2024 (FY24) budget levels. While that information is not being presented this year, you can find the full detailed line-by-line budget documents, including the final budget and all school-by-school and department initial requests for FY24 (and prior years) using the links to the left of this page. Click the FY2024 link (or another year) on the left, and the documents are available on the right side as PDFs.