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Dr. David Hopson |
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April 7, 2008 As the State moves forward with passing a $3.5 billion bond issue for transportation infrastructure and continues to wrestle with funding its current obligations, it is very relevant that the towns have asked to take a long-term look at school funding for the Gateway District. Having some indication of future spending, especially based upon past historic patterns, always proves useful in planning for how individuals, towns, and school districts will meet their needs over time. As a result of this request, the district has scheduled an all-towns meeting for Wednesday April 30th. This meeting will be held in the Middle/High School Performing Arts Center beginning at 7 p.m. and is open to all. The tentative plan for this evening is to review district and member town expenditures from the past five fiscal years using information from the Department of Revenue. Using this data will ensure consistency in how information is reported and analyzed. With historic data as the starting place, we will project out for the next five years to establish potential expenditures. We all know that this will not be a perfect forecast, as it’s hard to predict where the price of fuel, electricity or health insurance will be in five years, but it will be a good place to begin looking at the future. While this type of forecasting is useful, the revenue side of the equation is what really drives town assessments for the schools and, consequently, the major concerns surrounding the budget. For discussion purposes, we’ll provide a five-year forecast for revenue based upon historic financial information. It is interesting at this point in time that the state is beginning to look at revising Chapter 70 (State Aid for Education) funding and that the outcome of these changes will have the single biggest impact on how much the towns pay for educating our children. To a smaller extent, the State’s reimbursement of regional transportation costs will also impact town assessments, as will recent Federal legislation decreasing the amount of Medicaid reimbursements schools and towns can seek for expenses incurred by certain programs. Just raising and reviewing these items may provide some useful information to be used in discussing these issues with state and federal legislators. As we are not holding information sessions on the budget in each town before the annual town meetings, we’ll also respond to any questions related to the proposed budget for next year. I encourage anyone with fiscal responsibilities within town governments, as well as anyone interested in budgetary issues surrounding the Gateway School District and educating children, to attend and participate in this meeting. As we struggle to provide an outstanding education within the confines of budgetary restrictions and an economy in trouble, an H.G. Wells quote from the Outline of History seems appropriate, “Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” Perhaps working together we can avoid the catastrophe of not providing an adequate education to our children. ### |
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