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2024 ATM APPROPRIATION CoXMTTEE 13 MARCH 2024
<br /> to year. Detailed information on grant revenue may be found on pages 165-184 in the LPS Recommended Budget.
<br /> The following is a brief summary of FY2025 grants.
<br /> • Federal Grants — In previous budget years (FY2023 and FY2024), the Town and schools benefited from
<br /> Covid-19 related aid through the federal CARES and ARPA acts. For FY2025,the School Department does
<br /> not expect to receive such funding again; however, a balance of $102,445 that is expected to remain
<br /> available from the ESSER III (part of ARPA) grant will expire on September 30, 2024 and must be fully
<br /> expended by the end of FY2025. The School Department also expects to receive $2,403,366 in other
<br /> federal grants.
<br /> • .State Grants—The School Department projects that it will receive $1,748,947 in FY2025 from the METCO
<br /> program, which represents no change from FY2024. The METCO enrollment is not quite at the target of
<br /> 240 students. The projected METCO grant represents $7,287 per METCO student, based on 240 students.
<br /> Cherry-sheet local aid for education, i.e., Chapter 70 aid, is treated as General Fund revenue and is not
<br /> included in state grants. The School Department also expects to receive $100,000 from the "Comprehensive
<br /> School Health Services"grant.
<br /> • "Circuit Breaker"Reimbursements—We list Circuit Breaker funds here even though they are considered to
<br /> be reimbursements rather than grants. Circuit Breaker reimbursements are received from the state when the
<br /> costs of special education services for an individual student, whether in-district or out-of-district, exceed a
<br /> multiple of four times the statewide foundation budget. In the past, reimbursement rates have varied
<br /> between 35% and 75% of the tuition cost. Circuit Breaker reimbursement funds are paid to the district
<br /> quarterly based on the prior year's approved claims. Funds received go into the Circuit Breaker Revolving
<br /> Account, do not require further appropriation, and must be expended by June 30 of the following fiscal
<br /> year. The Lexington Public Schools' current practice is to apply a large fraction of the funds received in a
<br /> given fiscal year (based on SPED expenses in the prior fiscal year) as a revenue offset in the following
<br /> fiscal year. A detailed exposition of the LPS Circuit Breaker funding may be found in the LPS
<br /> Recommended Budget on pages 33-35 and 79-80.
<br /> • Other Grants — The School Department also receives a number of modest-size grants from the Lexington
<br /> Education Foundation and one from the Boston University Consortium.
<br /> Fee Programs
<br /> Fees for participation in certain programs, such as preschool, athletics, and transportation, support those programs
<br /> in whole or in part. Detailed information about the fees and proposed fee changes may be found on pages 32-33, 36,
<br /> and 194-195 of the LPS Recommended Budget.
<br /> Commentary
<br /> We note that this proposed budget may be significantly tighter than the school budgets in recent fiscal years. This
<br /> budget tightness is partly justified because the Special Education Stabilization Fund, with a balance of about $1
<br /> million, and the Special Education Reserve Fund, with a balance of about$750,000, provide backup in the event of
<br /> an unexpected large increase in special education costs. Even if no supplementary appropriation will be needed
<br /> during the course of the school year, the apparent reduction in budgetary margin suggests that any turn back from
<br /> unexpended funds at the end of the year may be smaller than in recent years. A smaller turn back would, in turn,
<br /> contribute less to the free cash that flows from the net results of the fiscal year.
<br /> Regional High School (1200)
<br /> Lexington's FY2025 projected assessment for the Minuteman Regional High School (MRHS) of $3,406,394
<br /> represents a decrease of $95,584 (-2.7%) from FY2024. It follows on the prior year's increase of 8.6% and an
<br /> increase of 3.0% from FY2022 to FY2023. Lexington's four year rolling average enrollment, the enrollment
<br /> number that our assessment is based on, grew from 69.5 to 74.75 students, and our assessment increase is lower
<br /> than the increase in the District budget because Lexington's four year rolling average enrollment has grown slower
<br /> than that of other in-district towns.
<br /> The District's Budget Overview
<br /> This budget is submitted by the new Interim Superintendent-Director Kevin Mahoney. The Minuteman Regional
<br /> High School (MRHS) Committee has approved a FY2025 budget of$31,517,219, a $1,200,894 increase (3.96%)
<br /> over FY2024. The increase is the net effect of a 4.7% increase in the cost of operations and a $76,375 increase in
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