2013-03-ATM-AC-rpt - Laserfiche WebLink

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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE REPORT TO THE MARCH 2013 ATM funds. In FY2014, the School Department will continue the program, and, for budgeting purposes, pro- jects that $205,000 will be received through the State kindergarten grant. As in FY2013, the cost of the elementary instrumental music program is fully supported by this operating budget. School Bus Transportation Subsidy The budget request includes $320,000 to continue the subsidy approved for FY2013 under Article 18 of the 2012 Town Meeting that allows bus transportation to be offered for $300/student for the school year to students who do not qualify for free bus transportation services. The budget request also includes a subsidy of total value approximately $150,000 intended to reduce the cost for students willing to sign up to regularly travel to Estabrook School via school bus transportation. This would be the second and final year of that specific subsidy intended to reduce traffic during the construction of the new building. Staffing The total number of full-time equivalent staff will increase from 916.64 to 963.56 under the requested budget. This is a 5.1% increase. There are multiple factors underlying the increase. They include among other factors (1) the general increase in enrollment, (2) the continuing shift in special education services from out-of- to in-district, and (3) changes in rules/regulations/laws that increase the teacher assessment workload and the level of effort for other tasks. A table on page 16 of the Budget Overview section of the FY2014 School Committee Budget presents staffing levels by unit and fiscal year. FundsFunding RequestedSource Program 1200: RegionalSchools $1,474,266GF The Minuteman Regional High School (MRHS) Committee has accepted a budget for FY2014 of $18,547,098, a $1,295,385 or 7.51% budget increase over FY2013. This increase consists of a 4.8% in- crease in the costs of operations and a 60.6% increase in capital costs. The operations budget is a level- service budget, designed to accommodate a greater number of students, while continuing to reevaluate staffing needs. The school continues to see a reversal of declining in-district enrollment. The freshman class for Fall 2013 is expected to increase again. Due to lack of consensus among the District member towns, the school still remains unable to initiate a MSBA approved renovations program to address unmet needs in Career and Technical Education facili- ties and equipment. This project process is in its fifth year and the delays have prompted the New Eng- land Association of Schools and Colleges to put Minuteman on Warning Status for having failed to make progress under the Facilities Standard. A major consequence of this delay is that the district towns have to address urgent maintenance problems that would be better handled as planned renovations, and that would be less costly if they could be done with MSBA support. To build consensus for a capital program and to ensure future district operations are sustainable, the District School Committee is undertaking a feasibility study. The study’s goals include: defining enrollment trends, potential program changes, and regional agreement revisions. One of the sticking points is that the State sets the tuition charged to out-of-district students based on op- erational costs, yet it does not allow the district to charge a capital fee to these students. These students comprise almost 45% of the school population. The district is working hard to convince the State to either change the tuition formula to account for capital or to create another mechanism to allow districts to share capital costs with these non-district pupils. This budget assumes level out-of-district enrollment and a 10% growth of in-district students, with an anticipation that the incoming freshman class will increase by 70 students. Eighty percent of the operating budget increase occurs in salaries, health benefits and contracts in place. Salaries, which make up 61% of 9