Balancing the FY23 Budget - A Challenging Task!

Balancing the FY23 budget is proving to be a challenging task!   

Please join us tomorrow night February1st for a virtual School Committee Budget Workshop. The main agenda item will be options and impacts of budget reductions and reserve use for next year's school budget.  

MERSD’s operational budget is managed to deliver a stable and predictable spending and assessment growth rate from which the towns’ apportionment is factored.  Apportionment is the split of assessment between Essex & Manchester based on the formula defined in the Regional Agreement. Annually, the District manages key cost drivers and unexpected increases to not exceed the target of 3.5% spending/assessment growth.  This 3.5% target is based on years of collaboration between the district and both towns.   

Assessment Prior to Apportionment is Stable

The mechanics of apportionment (a formula defined in the regional agreement) can inflate or deflate each individual town’s apportionment growth rate as their enrollments fluctuate. 

Apportionment Volatility Has Impacted Both Towns at Different Times

Over the past few years increased health insurance and mandated special education costs have made it difficult to meet our goal and required the use of reserves to help maintain the 3.5% assessment rate.  

  Level Services Cuts and Reserve Use

To date, we have reduced our initial budget request by $722,000 from the FY23 December Tentative Budget proposal, and we have been asked to further reduce expenditures or increase the use of reserves to help offset the enrollment shift that has impacted the Town of Essex’ apportionment rate.  This cannot be achieved without program cuts and/or additional use of reserves. 

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Virtual SC Meeting & Budget Workshop

February 1st @ 6:00pm

Join from the meeting link

https://mersd.my.webex.com/mersd.my/j.php?MTID=ma451151a8da3cae3f9a0f97159f492af

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For more information and to view MERSD budget documents and presentations please visit the MERSD Budget page.