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APPROPRIATION COMMITTEE 2 " REPORT, April 21, 2007, TO 2007 ATM Member towns' assessments are used to fund the portion of the budget that is not funded by the combination of: 1) all other projected revenues and 2) member towns' State Required Minimum (SRM) per - student payments. Member towns are assessed for the upcoming year based on their student enrolhnent in the current year. This year's assessments are based on a MRHS budget funded with a projected $2,258,053 of Chapter 70 money and $983,837 in transportation aid. This is a slightly increased level of funding of Chapter 70 aid and a significantly increased level ( +29.4 %) of funding of transportation aid from FY2007. Out -of- district enrolhnent and its associated tuition revenue are anticipated to continue to decline over the long term and, although the FY2008 enrolhnent increased slightly, it remains 23 students below its October 2004 level of 270. This is mainly due to the State's current Chapter 74 rules which restrict the number of non - resident students eligible to enroll. Although the State caps the non - resident student tuition rate, that rate is now set using the actual in- district average cost as a factor. The non - resident tuition rate for FY2007 was set at $15,547 per student. Minuteman officials have lobbied both the Legislature and the State's Commissioner of Education on this issue for years and FY2007 rates were increased 7 %. The FY2008 non - resident rates have yet to be set by the State, but they are anticipated to increase 3 %-5 %. Minuteman's budget assumes level per -pupil funding with a decreased out -of- district enrolhnent. This year, as last year, MRHS has made clear that its assessments to its member towns are just an estimate. MRHS cannot produce final assessments until Chapter 70 State aid has been set by the State Legislature, and as of press time that has yet to occur. The preliminary assessments are based on the aid in the Governor's proposed budget, known as House -1, which should serve as a minimum figure. The preliminary assessment for Lexington for FY2008 is $175,621 ( +17.1 %) higher than the FY2007 actual assessment. The main portion is based on Lexington's FY2007 Base Enrolhnent (as of October 1, 2006) of 51.7 full -time regular students in grades 9 -12, 1.6 ( -3 %) less than last year. However, while Lexington's enrollment has slightly dropped, the overall MRHS in- district enrollment has significantly declined, raising our Town's share of in- district enrolhnent by 17.5 %. This has increased our total full - time student operating -share assessment $103,197 ( +63.4 %) to $265,869, a per -pupil increase of 68.5 %. In addition, Lexington's total SRM payment increased $54,438 ( +9 %) with our per- student SRM payment increasing 7 %, the fifth highest per -pupil percentage increase among the in- district towns. The escalation of our SRM payment is due to growth in two of the three community factors used to calculate it: total value of assessed property increasing 11 %, total value of household income increasing 13 %, and the municipal revenue growth factor decreasing 6 %. Page 11 of 24