Winchester School District Deliberative Session February 8, 2018, 7:00 P.M. School Gymnasium Winchester Deliberative Session Question/Answer Why do line items in the School Budget change after the budget has been approved by voters? The School Budget is a planning document that must be prepared for the Deliberative Session in February and included on the Ballot in March for voter approval. It is a work in progress using information available at the time. Any changes in programs and services to students, including enrollment projections, may require modifications to the budget. These adjustments are made within the bottom line approved. Why are two teaching positions being eliminated in the budget? At the present time, enrollment projections indicate these positions may be reduced by attrition. This is a prudent practice in the planning process and included the $373,000 reduction to the budget that garnered the support of the School Board and the Budget Committee. The objective is to meet the needs of students within the reach of taxpayers. Why don t we separate the SAU 94 budget from the Winchester School District budget and vote on each accordingly? SAU 94 and the Winchester School District are one-and-the same. In order for the SAU to have its own budget and be voted on separately, the SAU must be comprised of two or more School Districts, e.g., SAU 29 has its own School Board and budget, and it provides financial services to other School Districts and collects funds accordingly. Why are there so many people in SAU 94? This perception may be a result of how the district was previously structured. In SAUs that consists of multiple towns (Winchester was once part of Monadnock, SAU 38) the SAU provides more than just financial administrative services. To achieve greater efficiencies, guidance services, school psychologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, speech and language, reading specialists and other personnel are shared and financial expenses are distributed accordingly by an agreed upon formula. When Winchester formed its own School District, which the state designated as SAU 94, these positions were not shifted back to the School Budget. The positions cited above are actually in the School Budget.
Why are we adding so many new staff to Central Office? We are not. One, part time, partially grant funded position is being expanded to support the Director of Student Services (DSS) and retitled to Administrative Assistant to the DSS. One primary responsibility of this position is to assist in ensuring compliance with State and Federal regulations and support the processing of Medicaid reimbursements for Special Education and transportation services rendered. This change now makes the position eligible for grant funding. The Out-of-District Coordinator performed to the best of her abilities without a credentialed Special Education Director to be present at team meetings that she attended in other districts and other Special Educational settings. The Out of District Coordinator s position is being retitled Director of Student Services. It remains a part time position with expanded hours, additional responsibility and compensation. The Building and Grounds position has been expanded to full time and returned to a similar position that was reduced to part time with limited responsibilities. Consequently, this aging building requires more attention and over the year s the building is showing its age. An individual with multiple skills and knowledge will address many of its deficiencies (saving the district money) and will coordinate/overseeing larger projects. These two modified positions would have been recommended to the School Board as part of a reorganization plan at the conclusion of the school year. However, with the recent resignation and retirement and crucial services required for the remainder of the school year, the recommendations and implementation was accelerated. The Director of Facilities is not a Central Office position. With the resignation of the Business Manager, can the position be reduced to part-time? The present Business Manager accomplished much in helping the District get caught up in a number of areas, i.e., audits dating back to 2012, financial protocols and documentation, resolving audit issues with the Department of Labor and so on. Unfortunately, there are more issues to resolve before we are in a place to consider a reduction. One such issue will be to address the results of a recently conducted New Hampshire State Retirement audit that was last completed 15 years ago. The district will need to resolve outstanding issues identified. This will require extensive research. We have been put on notice that these need to be addressed and resolved. What is the difference in salaries between the Building and Grounds/Director of Facilities and Out of District Coordinator/Director of Student Services? The total difference in salary between Building and Grounds and Director of Facilities and the Out of District Coordinator and the Director of Student Services is $54,684. Of this amount, $28,716 is attributed to the Director of Facilities and $25,968 is attributed to the Director of Student Services.
Why do we need a School Adjustment Counselor when we already have a Social Worker, a Guidance Counselor, and a Student Intervention Team Specialist? Although there are some common responsibilities in these positions, each has a different primary focus. A Guidance Counselor is available to the entire student body (Winchester-435) to address academic, social and emotional needs. She also visits classrooms and teaches a guidance curriculum. A School Social Worker provides social/emotional support to students who require services through their IEP'S. This includes individual weekly or daily sessions. Additionally, she conducts group-counseling sessions. Generally, she serves anywhere from 20-40 students weekly or even daily. A Student Adjustment Counselor works with the most needy and challenging students. (S)he will provide support to families, both in school and in the home to identify and resolve issues that contribute to disruptive/inappropriate behavior. The primary focus of this counselor is to provide the families with outside support in the home and in the community. (S)he also works with outside agencies to help students to be successful in school. An Adjustment Counselor is usually a last effort to support the child before an expensive out-of-district placement is required. Another major contribution of this position is the benefit provided to other students who are having their education interrupted by inappropriate behavior of students that require this additional attention and support. The Student Intervention Team Specialist position would be eliminated. Why did you make reductions to the FY 19 Proposed Budget? Under the direction of the Superintendent, the Administrative Team was tasked with reducing the budget by $373,014.88. With School Articles totaling $ 126,833, including $85,000 for the Building Improvement Capital Reserve Fund and $41,833 for the Winchester Support Staff (tentative) Agreement, consideration given to the tax rate, and a school budget approaching 12 million, the Superintendent deemed it prudent to reduce the budget to garner the support of the School Board, the Budget Committee and taxpayers.
What areas were reduced/eliminated in the proposed FY 19 budget to reach the $373,014 target? Reductions were made in the areas of: Out of District Tuitions (Public & private), Repairs and Maintenance, Transportation, Telephone, Custodian Wages and Benefits, Alternative Education Program, Reallocating Support Systems expenditures to grants, Not Replacing (2) retiring teacher (savings salary and benefits), Eliminating the late bus run from Keene High School, Eliminating 1 of 2 Mid-Day Bus runs, and reducing Athletic Supplies. Can the School Budget be increased at the Deliberative Session and can the additional money be allocated to specific line items? The budget may be increased at Deliberative Session, no more than 10%. However, voters cannot determine where it will be assigned, including adding teachers. If the vote is successful in raising the appropriation, it will be enrollment and other student needs that will determine how this new appropriation will be utilized. Is there a risk at Deliberative Session if there is a motion to increase the School Budget? That is a difficult question. It depends on the will of voters. What can be increased can also be decreased as was the case in last year s Deliberative Session. Although this budget is not ideal, it is the hope of the School Board and the Administration that this budget will pass without further reductions, given the recommendations of both the School Board and the Budget Committee. If the budget is further reduced at Deliberative Session, what areas of the budget are likely to be impacted? The Administrative Team is presently pondering the impact of further reductions and will provide that information to the School Board for review. What is the impact of the School Budget on the Tax rate? That is another difficult question to answer because a number of factors influence the final tax rate, e.g., increased revenue, decreased expenses; decreased revenue, increased expenses; amount of money returned to the town at the end of the school year; and so on. Therefore, in order to provide a response to this question it will need some perimeters: Revenue and expenditures remain unchanged and the School District returns $200,000. This scenario yields a tax rate of $21.71 for the school, which is an increase of $1.09 from this year s school portion.
How much was returned to the town from last year s appropriation? The School District returned $605,499. What is the reason for this amount to be returned to the town? This is a frequently asked question and deserves some attention. The School Budget is a planning document that must be ready for consideration in February preceding the next school year. Using our best current information as a guide, an expenditure forecast is included in the budget. When school begins in late August, we compare our original analysis to actual and monitor this throughout the year. We have been extremely fortunate that changes to this forecast yielded a positive result these past few years. The District could have easily gone into a deficit situation. Some areas that contribute to this fluctuation in the budget planning process are: Tuition for Keene High Regular and Special Education students, private tuitions of Special Education students in alternative settings, Special Education transportation, and public tuition for Special Education, ESL Salary Bilingual, Special Education Summer Programs, Health benefits, and heating oil. In summary, there are a number of factors that contributed to underutilized expenditures in any given budget cycle. When this occurs, money is returned to the town to reduce the school tax in the following year. If this swings in the opposite direction, the School District may need to request additional funds at a special meeting. Do Title I and other grants inflate the budget unnecessarily? Each year the School District applies for State and Federal grants to fund programs and services that support student learning. If the District were unable to take advantage of grants, taxpayers would likely be asked to fund them. Unfortunately, state revenue is declining so these funds are critical to support the budget. The District budgets for these expenditures and then offsets the expenditure by revenue (reimbursements) that occur in the same budget year. These expenditure and reimbursements result in a wash. The reimbursements apply directly to the School District as we claim them on a month-to-month basis.
Are any changes being made to avoid large sums of money being returned to the town? As noted above, the budget is a planning document. Generally, one additional regular and one additional Special Education tuition is included in the budget. This budget is not planning for any additional high school students. We are using only enrollment figures for present 8 th grade students entering high school and existing high school students as our baseline, minus graduating seniors. We have hired a part time Director of Student Services. Her primary responsibility will be to work with staff to ensure students are getting the services required in the most cost effective manner. This may result in a more accurate budget planning for out of district students. Multi-year plans in technology, curriculum and professional development will help guide the budget process and will continue to support the District taking a measured plan in making improvements over time. More analysis and monitoring of expenditures will be routinely done to be sure the purpose for each has been properly implemented. However, changes in enrollment after the budget is established will always be a volatile area.