Saturday, December 27, 2008

Board of Education Budget

The Superintendent of Schools, Michael Frechette, presented his recommended budget for the Board of Education for 2009/10 at the last School Board meeting (the budget is available on-line: BUDGET and COVER MEMO). He recommended a budget of about $73M, which is $3.9M more than in 2008/09 (a 5.6% increase). Most of this increase is due to the following:
  • Teaching salaries: $845,000 more, due to a 2.9% contracted increase in the salaries of 411 teaching positions (total teacher's salaries: $31M).
  • Support salaries: $383,000 more, due to a 3% contracted increase in 112 clerical, custodial, maintenance, and nurses salaries (total support and paraprofessional salaries: $8M)
  • Administrator salaries: $265,000 more, due to a 3% contracted increase (total admin salaries: $3M)
  • Benefits: $1.3M more, due almost entirely to a 9.5% increase in health and dental insurance costs (total benefits: $13M).
  • Pupil Transportation: $392,000 more, due to a 2.5% contracted increase (total transportation: $5M).
This year, the superintendent is recommending a smaller increase than last year, when he recommended a 10.3% increase (the full budgets for 2006/07 and 2007/08 are available on the Budget page of the Board of Education Website).

On January 13th, the Board will meet to discuss the Superintendent's recommendations (in last year's cycle, on January 17th they reduced the increase from 10.3% to 9.7%). The Mayor and the Common Council will then appropriate funds for Education from the City's budget (in last year's cycle, on June 3rd the BOE adopted a budget with a 4.9% increase).

It's expected that the meeting will offer a decision on how much (if any) of an increase the Board wants to support. This year, the word "increase" has a nuanced meaning -- it will take an increase of $6 million (8.5%) to continue the programs and staffing that our schools currently enjoy. Anything less than $6 mil, and it might still be an increase in taxes, but it will mean a decrease in service. That $6 million gap is due to the expected drop in state funding (about $2 million) and raises and cost increases that are already contracted (about $4 million).

In an ideal world, all of our citizens would be familiar with the workings of our schools. This is an important issue even if you don't have kids in the system.  Education is the biggest single item (by far) in our city's budget, and you know that the quality of the schools -- and the tax rates -- affect both your property values and your quality of life.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps there are other places in the City budget where cuts could be made. I will suggest one. Repaint the curbs black on Long Hill Road (give us back our parking on the west side of the road), instead of spending an estimated $60,000 to create new "cut-outs" for a limited number of parking spaces. Then put up a sign at either end of the "narrow" area saying "Pass at your own risk". A little paint and a couple of signs are much less expensive than the proposed cut-outs would be, and the money saved could go into other items.

Anonymous said...

Maybe these savings could be earmarked for education. Or, more accurately, for remedial education of the persons responsible for this irresponsible solution to a minor problem.

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed that economic times have changed for every working stiff in this country, except for those who are state, municipal, or federal employees? They get annual colas; we hope to stay employed.

I wish I could count on a 3% COLA every year, regardless of merit. Most of the rest of us just hope to keep a job.