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Dr. David Hopson |
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October 1 , 2007 Autumn brings many things to those of us living in the hilltowns—colorful foliage, cooler weather, bountiful harvests and time to reflect on how quickly the summer flew by. Amazingly, it also brings discussions about next year’s budget for schools and our towns, as we all finish out and audit the past year’s financial books in the midst of the current year’s budget operations. As imperfect as this process may seem, we somehow manage to put together budgets that are reflective of needs and accurate in cost projections. Budget increases in the past several years have helped offset the huge loss of state financial aid and the resulting reductions in staff and services. We have been fortunate to have town support for meeting our children’s educational needs. I also know how financially difficult this has been for the towns. Given these and many additional factors, I am advocating this year for the budget that our towns have been requesting—one that increases approximately 2-½ % over our current budget. I have shared this financial goal with the administrative staff and the school committee and expect that we will put together a budget within these parameters for the school committee to consider adopting this spring. The situation in the district is very different from past years in that we anticipate (and hope) revenue sources will be fairly stable, we can reflect declining enrollments by adjusting staffing levels without incurring unemployment costs through retirements, and we’ve met some additional needs through the application of the so called ‘pothole’ funds received from the state this year. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be impacts on the district or that this is an easy budgeting year; students are impacted anytime you reduce staff for any reason. What it does mean is that we should be able to develop an affordable budget for the towns without having to consider consolidating elementary schools next year. The school committee continues to work on developing a five-year plan for the schools. One of the most difficult realizations is that it is not easy to fulfill our desires for adding new subjects, restoring programs, and meeting student needs given the fixed cost increases in the budget, the financial constraints of our towns, and the lack of state financial aid for education. While we have an opportunity to keep the budget increase at a manageable level this year, there is no guarantee that this will continue beyond fiscal year 2009 without additional state aid. Thus, we need to continue advocating for the R.E.D. Circuit breaker language in Chapter 70 funding (see the specifics at http://www.grsd.org/administration/FY08Information.htm ) if we desire to continue having excellent schools without bankrupting our towns. I urge you to monitor what is happening within the district, share your thoughts with district personnel and school committee members, and find time to share your talents and expertise by volunteering in our schools. As always, we will continue to share information with the public as budget development proceeds. ### |
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