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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE-2018 ATM
<br /> 2018 Annual Town Meeting
<br /> Analysis and Recommendations
<br /> The warrant for the 2018 Annual Town Meeting contains a full complement of operating budget, enter-
<br /> prise fund and capital appropriations, along with financial adjustments to various programs. The Commit-
<br /> tee has provided its analysis of these requests below.
<br /> Article 4: Appropriate FY2019 Operating Budget
<br /> Funds Requested Funding Source Committee Recommendation
<br /> $208,077,678 see motion Approve (9-0)
<br /> The four major components of the operating budget are: Education (Program 1000, broken into line item
<br /> 1100, Lexington Public Schools, and line item 1200, Regional Schools); Shared Expenses (Program
<br /> 2000); and Municipal(Programs 3000-8000). Each of these components is discussed separately below.
<br /> Line Item 1100: Lexington Public Schools Funds Requested Funding Source
<br /> $108,111,445 see motion
<br /> Overview
<br /> The School Committee has voted to recommend an appropriation of$108,111,445 for the school operat-
<br /> ing budget for fiscal year 2019. This amount does not include:
<br /> • The school portion of shared expenses including public facilities, employee/retiree benefits,pen-
<br /> sion, debt service, liability insurance, and reserve funds.
<br /> • Federal, State, local, and private grants; Revolving and donation fund activity.
<br /> The request represents an increase of $6,456,263, a 6.35% increase over the FY2018 appropriation of
<br /> $101,655,182.
<br /> Rising school enrollment continues to pose a challenge for the school district. The K-12 enrollment is
<br /> projected to be 7,327 for FY2019, an increase of 152 students (from 7,175). During the past five years,K-
<br /> 12 enrollment at Lexington Public Schools has increased by 697 students (+10.7%), or an average of 139
<br /> students per year (2.1% per year). These past increases have had a direct impact on the School Depart-
<br /> ment operating budget each year in order to accommodate these new students and maintain the level of
<br /> programming offered by Lexington Public Schools. Note that the above numbers are for in-district en-
<br /> rollment only, and this budget also covers the cost of out-of-district students,totaling 103 as of October 1,
<br /> 2017.
<br /> At a high level, the LPS operating budget can be broken down into two categories: salaries and wages,
<br /> and expenses, as shown in the accompanying table.
<br /> Appropriation Summary FY2018 Budget FY2019 Dollar Percent
<br /> (adj) Recommended Increase Increase
<br /> Salary and Wages $86,001,326 $90,743,277 $4,741,951 5.51%
<br /> Expenses $15,653,856 $17,368,168 $1,714,312 10.95%
<br /> Total 1100 Lexington Public Schools $101,655,182 $108,111,445 $6,456,263 6.35%
<br /> (Source: Brown book,Page III-10)
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