Schools to reconsider budget surplus next week

Posted 9/11/14

School Department funding in the areas of professional development substitutes, textbooks and athletics and extracurricular activities is dwindling, as those areas sustained budget cuts, and although …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Schools to reconsider budget surplus next week

Posted

School Department funding in the areas of professional development substitutes, textbooks and athletics and extracurricular activities is dwindling, as those areas sustained budget cuts, and although approximately $600,000 of uncommitted budget surplus funds remain available, those funds have yet to be allocated anywhere in the fiscal year 2015 budget.

Schools Chief Budget Officer Anthony Ferrucci highlighted the three areas of concern during his monthly fiscal report to the School Committee at its meeting Tuesday night.

“With the start of school, our budget managers have been making plans for the upcoming school year,” Ferrucci said. “These plans include reviewing their budget allocations and organizing their purchases to meet their plans.”

During this process, Ferrucci said budget managers became aware of issues in the areas of athletics, textbooks and professional development.

With regard to athletics, Ferrucci explained that typically, $300,000 goes to each high school, for a total of a $900,000 budget, which covers everything from field and ice rentals, to supply purchases and payment for coaches and referees.

“That budget was cut by $250,000, so that leaves $650,000 for all three schools,” he said.

Dennis Mullen, director of secondary education, said while there is currently enough funds in the budget to keep fall sports and extracurricular activities in tact, it could become an issue as the school department moves into winter and spring sports. He said, while the programs themselves would remain available, there would be no funding for coaches and refs, therefore the programs would be unable to operate.

In the area of textbooks, Anne Siesel, assistant director of curriculum, said she has run out of funding in her budget to purchase additional textbooks. If funding is not restored, no more books will be purchased going forward this year.

Finally, Ferrucci said the budget for professional development (PD) substitutes is half of what has been deemed needed to meet the upcoming PD schedules.

“Based on the current PD schedule and the current budget allocation, there are funds available to support PD through early October 2014,” he said. “Failure to increase funding in this category will result in the suspension of all planned PD after October 15, 2014.”

Ferrucci told the committee he was raising the issues to make sure everyone is aware the department is ready to carry out the budget cuts and what the potential impact will be to the district once the cuts are instituted.

“As an alternative, we could prepare another Recommended Revised Budget in time for the October School Committee meeting to address these three issues,” he said. “We are seeking guidance as to the School Committee’s wishes.”

During the committee’s meeting last month, $2.7 million of the $3.4 million FY 2014 projected surplus, as reported by Ferrucci on July 15, was reallocated to the FY 2015 budget.

Ferrucci explained that $2 million of that allocation was reallocated as committed funds for projects that were started during the 2013-14 school year but because they weren’t completed by June 30, funds had to be carried over from the FY 2014 budget to FY 2015. The remaining $700,000 went to reinstating a portion of curriculum professional development ($30,000), a portion of district wide professional development ($250,000) and technology hardware ($437,000).

Following those reinstatements, the department was left with $670,808 of uncommitted surplus funds. Attempts were made to designate $195,000 for math and science consultants as well as to restore the $250,000 cut to athletics, however the motions were tabled in favor of gathering more information and revisiting the matter during the September meeting, as the committee could not agree on where to allocate surplus funds.

Although those matters didn’t make it onto the agenda for the September meeting as planned, meaning they couldn’t be discussed without violating the Open Meetings Law, School Committee member Jennifer Ahearn, who initially requested the $195,000 for math and science consultants, wished to revisit her motion.

Rosemary Healey, director of human resources and compliance, said when the agenda was initially created for the September meeting, the budget item was included but before the agenda was finalized, it was removed without her knowledge.

Healey apologized and informed Ahearn that if she were to go forward with violating the Open Meetings Law, she would risk being fined, which could include paying her own attorney fees as well as the opposition’s if brought to court.

“I’m willing to take the risk and roll the dice because we’re talking about the education of our children here,” Ahearn said. “This is important.”

Although Ahearn was persistent, she ultimately agreed, along with the rest of the committee, to add the budget item to an agenda for a special committee meeting to be held next week, rather than wait for the October meeting.

Comments

1 comment on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • markyc

    1) If prior year budgeted expenses of $2 million were listed as surplus for projects that were started in one year but not completed until/likely to be completed until/during the following year, these funds are not surplus amounts but expenses not completed.

    2) It appears that something in the budget has to give; there doesn't appear to be enough funding for all items listed in the article-math/science consultants, spring sports coaches/refs/a one third share for each high school, & additional books. Couldn't each/all of these items/topics be included on ONE agenda?

    We are talking about $ 445,000($250, 000 + $195,000); couldn't the remaining amount of $225,808($670,808-$445,000) be allocated for additional textbooks, at least in the short term. Hopefully, during the remainder of the school budget year there are savings incurred to free up funds within other budget areas(similar to how families manage their households).

    Additionally, the School Committee has to consider a new contract with the teachers' union(& the related funding sources of this) as well as possibly consolidating several schools to hopefully achieve some cost savings to allow for more funding to be allocated to EDUCATION areas rather than physical plant buildings & maintenance.

    Thursday, September 11, 2014 Report this