2007-04-28-ATM-AC-rpt4 - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE 4th REPORT, Apri128, 2007, TO 2007 ATM The FY2008 budget will be used to educate over 6,200 children, in kindergarten through 12th grade, and from 3 years to age 22 for students who qualify for special education services. The majority of students attend one of Lexington's nine public schools. However, over 110 students attend programs out-of district. (See separate section on Special Education [SPED] below.) This budget seeks primarily to maintain the same programs and to provide the same levels of service that are being provided to children in FY2007, in the aftermath of the failure of the two school funding questions on the June 2006 override referendum. A few positions that were cut in FY2007 after the failed override are now back in the budget. These include one high school social studies teacher to restore freshman "teaming" with English where these two course are linked together to ease the transition from middle school to high school, a 0.5 full- time equivalent (FTE) teacher at the high school to restore honors physics to 6 rather than 5 periods a week, 2.0 FTEs to restore support for use of educational technology across the 9 schools and 2.0 FTE teachers to reduce large class sizes in grades K-5. Even without these few restorations, just maintaining services at the FY2007 level will require the passage of a Proposition 21/~ operating override in June 2007. F,NR(1T,T,MFNT Total enrollment for FY2008 is projected at 6,243, a 1% increase over the FY2007 projected enrollment of 6,176. Budgets are prepared based on a projected number of students, however, that number usually changes during the year. Furthermore, some programs expand disproportionately with enrollment, such as the three new "in-house" programs described in the SPED section. Comparing the FY2008 projected number of students to the FY2007 actual number of students, enrollment at the high school is expected to increase by 2.2%, at the middle schools it is expected to drop by 1 %, and a 0.6% increase is projected for the elementary schools. For a more detailed discussion of school enrollment, please refer to the "Budget Overview" and "Elementary Schools" sections in the FY2008 Superintendent's Recommended Budget Book, dated January 16, 2007. (That document can be found on the Internet at http://fps.lexin~tonma.orb/LPS08Bud~etFinalJan2207.pdf .) This information is also summarized in the Town of Lexington Fiscal Year 2008 Recommended Budget & Financing Plan, dated March 23, 2007 ("Brown Book"). STAFFING Personnel costs represent 78% of total school operating costs with the remaining 22% allocated to expenses. This split between Salaries & Wages and Expenses has been relatively consistent over the past few years. The staff is at the end of a three-year contract cycle, due to expire June 30, 2007. New contracts are currently being negotiated. FY2008 FY2008 Category FY2005 FY2006 FY2007 without an with an Actual Actual Budget Override Override Salaries & Wages $46,108,223 $47,466,921 $49,041,978 $50,558,499 $53,516,037 Expenses $10,580,563 $13,183,768 $14,377,522 $14,550,439 $14,779,946 Total $56,688,786 $60,650,688 $63,419,500 $65,108,938 $68,295,983 Includes the supplement voted in the fall 2006 Special Town Meeting The FY2008 budget includes 929.35 FTE positions. 25.63 of these positions will be added independent of the override vote. Most of these positions are for SPED services (for details see SPED section below.) The "at-risk" list includes 56.49 FTE positions. This breaks down into 41.79 current FTEs and 14.70 proposed FTE positions. If the override fails, elementary school library services, custodial services, and support staff positions will be reduced and restructured, and K-5 subject specialist FTEs will be cut along with middle and high school teachers. A list of the items included in the override can be found in Appendix C. Page 6 of 13