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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE-ATM 2017
<br /> tinues to underfund the District. The FY2017 out-of-district tuition was $16,646 per student, and is estimated
<br /> to increase to $17,000 in FY2018. Out-of-district towns are also assessed for SPED tuition at $4,500 per stu-
<br /> dent and are responsible for providing transportation to their students.
<br /> Member towns are assessed for operating costs for the upcoming year based on their most recent 4-year aver-
<br /> age student enrollment. These assessments are used to fund the portion of the MRHS operating budget that is
<br /> not funded by the combination of: (1) all other projected revenues, and (2) member towns' State Required
<br /> Minimum (SRM) per-student payments. Debt and capital costs are assessed based on (1) the most recent 4
<br /> year rolling average; (2) a "combined effort" factor as determined by the Chapter 70 formula; and (3) 1% of
<br /> the annual debt that is assessed equally to all member towns.
<br /> This year's assessments are based on an MRHS budget funded with a projected decrease in non-assessment
<br /> revenue of$1,575,216, the drivers of which are identified in the following table:
<br /> Non-Assessment Revenue Sources FY2017 FY2018 Difference
<br /> ($) ($) ($)
<br /> Chapter 70 $2,184,747 $2,034,403 -5150,344
<br /> Prior Year Tuition $4,445,668 $3,928,468 -$517,200
<br /> Transportation Reimbursement $928,943 $935,112 $6,169
<br /> Current Year Tuition $400,000 $400,000 0
<br /> E&D Funds $825,000 $600,000 -$225,000
<br /> Sub-total $8,784,358 $7,897,983 -$886,375
<br /> Withdrawing student tuitions -$688,841
<br /> Total Revenue Loss $1,575,216
<br /> Chapter 70 funds and transportation aid are estimates based on the Governor's H-1 budget, which proposes
<br /> modest increases in Chapter 70 aid and transportation aid statewide compared with FY2017. MRHS's share of
<br /> Chapter 70 aid, however, is projected to drop because of the withdrawal of the 6 towns. The Chapter 70 aid
<br /> allocatable to students from those towns will now go to their towns instead of directly to MRHS. Transporta-
<br /> tion Aid increases slightly because it is a reimbursement for expenses incurred in the prior year, but will drop
<br /> next year due to the loss of students from the withdrawing towns.
<br /> The withdrawal of 6 member towns from the District also affects the timing of the recognition of revenue at-
<br /> tributable to their students. Assessments from member towns are recognized in the fiscal year collected. How-
<br /> ever, tuition revenue received from non-member towns is handled in a more conservative manner. MRHS's
<br /> budgeting practice is to not use tuition collected from out-of-district students until the following fiscal year.
<br /> The change in the status of students from the withdrawing towns thus results in a one-time reduction in reve-
<br /> nue of$688,119, which results in an increase in the assessments to member towns of about $2,000 per stu-
<br /> dent. This issue will not reoccur next year.
<br /> The MRHS administration has recommended continuing this conservative budgeting approach for the tuition
<br /> attributable to students from withdrawing towns because it anticipates that the percentage of out-of-district
<br /> students will continue to decline. Recruitment efforts have led to higher in-district enrollments, and it is antic-
<br /> ipated that this trend, boosted by the new building, will continue over the next 3 to 5 years. Conversely, cur-
<br /> rent projections show non-member enrollment decreasing from the 198 students in FY2017 to 132 students in
<br /> FY2020, with a corresponding decrease in tuition revenue of about $1,300,000. Use of the withdrawing stu-
<br /> dents' tuition in FY2018, combined with lower future enrollments, would lower available non-assessment
<br /> revenues in future years.
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