FY 2017 Budget

March 30, 2016 Update: Final Budget Approved

At its meeting on March 30th, the School Committee reviewed a Final Budget that reflects the culmination of the past 6 weeks of discussions since the Tentative Budget was approved mid February. At the conclusion the committee adopted a budget that includes an increase in Operating Expenditures of $647,924, or a 1.71% increase over the current fiscal year. This results in a net assessment to the towns of 2.25% after offsetting the costs with changes in revenue.

The final budget does assume a slight increase in both Chapter 70 and Regional Transportation reimbursement from the state. These are not final figures, but reflect the latest actions of the Legislature, as well as general intelligence on where the process will take the figures by June 30th.

As was outlined below in the Tentative Budget, the state funding formula, combined with disproportionate rates of decreasing student population, has again this year provided a very unbalanced assessment to member towns. While providing an increase of only 2.25% in the total assessment, that resulted in a final assessment to Rowley and Salisbury of 5.57% and 4.08% respectively, while Newbury’s assessment will decrease by 3.03% from this current FY16 year.

The Final Budget contains the following reductions from this current year:

• A REDUCTION in the total cost of health insurance of approximately $238,000, or 3.98%, over current year spending. This is a result of plan design changes and competitive quotes from other providers.

• A REDUCTION of Elementary Math Specialists from a full time at each school, to a half time at each school for the 2016/2017 School Year.

• A REDUCTION of Elementary Instructional Technology Specialists at each Elementary School. Starting in 2016/2017, there will be a single Library Media Specialist at each school, incorporating the use of the Library and Computer Labs at each school.

• A REDUCTION of four (4) elementary teachers, including 3 classroom and 1 Special Educator.

• A REDUCTION of one (1) Middle School Foreign Language Teacher. Due to lower enrollments, Foreign Language will remain a core subject for all students, taught by the remaining three (3) teachers.

• A REDUCTION of one (1) Middle School Special Education Teacher due to reconfiguration of case loads and programming for students.

To download a copy of the FY17 Final Budget in PDF format, click HERE or use the links for this and other supporting documents at the right.

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February 11, 2016 Update: Tentative Budget Approved

At its meeting yesterday evening the School Committee reviewed a proposed Tentative Budget that reflects the culmination of the past 5 weeks of discussions. At the conclusion the committee adopted a budget that includes an increase in Operating Expenditures of $846,678, or a 2.24% increase over the current fiscal year. This results in a net assessment to the towns of 3.18% after offsetting the costs with changes in revenue.

The state funding formula, combined with disproportionate rates of decreasing student population, has again this year provided a very unbalanced assessment to member towns. That same 3.18% aggregate increase to towns mentioned above calculates out to a 2.16% reduction to Newbury, along with a 6.54% and 5.02% increase to Rowley and Salisbury respectively. We again find ourselves needing to make cuts to level services in order to provide an assessment that can be supported by member towns.

The table below shows the reductions in services/staff that are assumed in this Tentative Budget.

The next step in the budget process will be a public hearing, scheduled for Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. in the High School Library. All are welcome and encouraged to attend to provide feedback on the budget as proposed.

To download a copy of the FY17 Tentative Budget in PDF format, click HERE or use the links for this and other supporting documents at the right.

Change	Type	$ Change	Notes:
Elementary Math Specialists	Cut	(143,880)	Reduce current staffing of 1.0 FTE at each Elementary to 1.0 FTE district wide, shared amongst all 3 elementary schools. Reduction of 2.0 FTE from 3.0 to 1.0.
Addition of PD Funding	Add	20,000	Addition of $20,000 in Professional Development Funding  for Math in Focus (MiF) training not able to be provided in house b/c of Math Specialist Reduction
Elementary Library/Technology	Cut	(145,459)	Reduce current staffing of 1.0 Librarian and 1.0 Instructional Technology Specialist at each elementary school to 1.0 shared position per school. Resulting role would utilize both the Library and Computer labs for instructional programming.
Elementary Classroom Teachers	Cut	(212,696)	Reduce 4 elementary classroom teachers. Assumes reductions of 2 teachers from NES and 2 teachers from PGS. Resulting class sizes would be in the mid to upper 20’s, Exact grade locations are TBD based on enrollment.
Middle School Foreign Language	Cut	(149,544)	Reduce from current staffing level of 4.0 FTE, providing World Languages to all as a core subject, down to 2.0 FTE. Would require that World Languages become an elective class, not required of all students.
Total Reductions:	(631,579)

The first step in the formal budget process is to have the 5 district schools present their School Improvement Plans to the school committee. These state mandated plans are generated by the School Council at each location and articulate the goals for the upcoming year. The school improvement plans were presented on Monday, January 11th and Tuesday, January 12th.

These Improvement Plans can be found on the next tab.

Following the presentation of the School Improvement Plans, the principals then present a budget proposal that they feel will allow them to achieve the goals outlined in the School Improvement Plans. The proposals generally include new spending in areas specified in the SIP. The administration is very well aware of the financial constraints on the towns. With that in mind the goal was to present a proposal that represented adequate funding, whether or not the spending will be feasible. These budget proposals were also presented along with the School Improvement Plans on January 11th and 12th.

In addition to the principals’ budget proposals, there were also program proposals from the Chief Academic Officer, the Special Education Administrator, and Technology Coordinator, Assistant Superintendent, and Superintendent. These were presented to the School Committee on Wednesday, January 14th. In additional, an update to the 2015 – 2020 Capital Improvement Plan was provided to the committee.

All budget documents can be found under ‘Related Documents’ on the lower right hand portion of this page. All documents download in PDF Format.

Click on the link below to view the corresponding School Improvement Plan in PDF format. They can be viewed online, or downloaded/printed via the buttons in the viewer.

Newbury Elementary School

Pine Grove School

Salisbury Elementary School

Triton Middle School

Triton High School