The City Council received a presentation tonight from
Assistant Superintendent Deirdre Farrell on the development process for the
Amesbury Public Schools FY15 budget.
First, some important dates.
The School Committee is finalizing its own FY15 budget recommendation
for presentation to Mayor Gray by April 1st.
The School Committee’s Finance Committee is
meeting every Monday through the rest of the month: 3/10, 3/17, 3/24 and 3/31.
The Finance Committee’s Public
Hearing for this first draft of the APS budget is on Tuesday, March 18th, 7:00 p.m.
at the Amesbury High School Library.
The Mayor will then take that budget and include as part of
the overall City budget for presentation to the City Council in May. The Mayor’s draft may or may not be the same
as the School Committee’s draft presented at the end of March.
Ms. Farrell’s presentation to the Council can be found HERE.
The focus was on explaining how the APS administrations
derives a baseline ‘level services’ budget from year to year, as a
starting point for the budget. ‘Level
services’ was defined as providing the same level of programs and offerings for
students as the prior year. As we know
from our experience last year, even maintaining this baseline level can be a
financial and planning challenge.
And ‘leveling’ APS services does not mean ‘level funding’,
primarily because the student body in our schools year to year is a very
dynamic and changing population. Each
year, an entire cohort matriculates out and during the school year itself,
students move in and out of the community, as families relocate and make
educational choices for their children. You
have shifting populations across 12+ grades, at 4+ sites, with shifting
needs. You have tens of types of SPED
needs – all requiring unique and heterogeneous interventions – for students
spread across all grades and locations, in an ever-shifting configuration.
To construct a picture of the system’s needs
the school goes through a series of steps, as outlined in the presentation:
- Reviewing enrollment projections (including SPED and other needs
- Reviewing structural requirements (state and federal mandates, contracts, educational standards and guidelines)
- Align staffing needs with enrollment and requirements (who/where/why)
- Evaluate administrative and support staff needs
- Assess facility and operational expenses, and, finally,
- Review Elective Opportunities
That process would yield a baseline expense picture.
Looking at revenues, there are several variables, all but
the local contribution out of the City’s control. You can read more about the APS revenue
sources in THIS
document.
- State Chapter 70 aid
- Choice-in tuitions
- South Hampton tuitions (High School)
- Special Ed Circuit Breaker contribution from Commonwealth
- Fees (sports, transportation)
- Grants
Budget drivers:
- Health insurance (good news, we’ve kept costs very low in recent years)
- Contracts
- SPED costs
- Transportation
Finally, in terms of our local appropriation, we once again
face a year where Proposition 2 ½ will limit our budget growth to about
$800,000. You might recall that we were
unable to meet the ‘level services’ budget proposed by the School Committee
last year, because of still-low tax base value growth.
BOTTOM LINE:
this year’s school budget will likely be as challenging, if not more so, than
last year’s. Same budget drivers, same
revenue limitations, same Prop 2 ½ cap. Everyone
should stay informed and involved through this process. Let me know if you have any questions.
Other materials provided to us:
- Summary Recommendations from MA Assoc. of School Superintendents on Chapter 70 Reform (Ms. Farrell was on the Task Force that recently released this report)
- MA Assoc. of School Superintendents Chapter 70 Report (full)
- APS Tech Infrastructure presentation
- APS Aspen/XS presentation
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