Thursday, August 25, 2011

Whatever Happened With The Budget?

Many of you may be asking yourselves, whatever happened last year with the budget?  If you recall we ended the school year with our budget still in the process of being finalized.  At its June 28, 2011 meeting the School Committee voted to amend its original operational spending budget to $20,238,446. The budget spending amount was adjusted down by half of the projected Chapter 70 funding (approximately $250,000).  This results in a total budget of $20,238,446, an increase of only 1% over FY 11 spending.  This allowed us to put $250,000 into reserves and allowed for the investment in approximately 2.6 additional teachers to help address district-wide enrollment concerns; however, this budget does not allow us to move forward with the many other necessary curricular, instructional and faculty improvements that a high performing district such as ours requires for continuous improvement.  We will, however, continue to strive for excellence!