The budget planning process for fiscal 2017 is in full swing, although everyone acknowledges that predicting expenses more than a year in advance is a challenge. Based on preliminary figures, the schools, which are the largest single item in the town budget, will ask for about $12.7 million next year. This is an increase of roughly 3.5 percent over the current year’s budget.
At an off-cycle meeting Monday, Nov. 16, the School Committee went over the six major divisions, or cost centers, in the district’s budget: Hildreth Elementary School, the Bromfield School, pupil services (including special education), maintenance, technology, and central office.
School Committee Chairwoman SusanMary Redinger encouraged committee members to look closely at the budget and raise questions with the heads of the cost centers, who were all present at the meeting. “This is our budget,” Redinger said. “We need to own it. We need to be able to stand for it.”
Bromfield is largest cost center; pupil services most unpredictable
The Bromfield School is the most expensive of the six cost centers. Principal Jim O’Shea pointed to curriculum development as the biggest increase in his budget from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2017. This category includes a wide range of materials, from the traditional (such as textbooks), to the technological (database subscriptions that allow students to do college-level research), and even fitness equipment for use with the wellness classes.
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Hildreth Elementary School was the one cost center that showed a drop in expenses for fiscal 2017. The main reason was a dozen newly hired teachers and staff members, whose salaries are lower than those of the more senior people they replaced. However, Principal Sue Frederick foresees rising costs down the road when the school needs new supplies for the math program and may also need an additional section in first grade.
Indicating the kind of scrutiny that the administrators give to their expenses, Frederick pointed out that the school nurse’s budget for next year was up $3. “I’ll speak to her about that,” Frederick deadpanned.
Most difficult to predict is the budget for pupil services, which includes special education. Director of Pupil Services Marie Harrington projected somewhat lower costs for fiscal 2017, but she noted she has “no crystal ball.” No one knows what services a new student next year might need. Moreover, factors outside the Harvard district’s control can affect Harrington’s budget substantially. For example, the state Department of Mental Health may cover some expenses for special education students with serious mental health problems. But if that department runs out of funds, the expense falls on the school district, which is mandated to provide services whether or not the state can assist.
Maintenance, central office, and tech have smallest costs
Maintenance accounts for less than 10 percent of the overall school budget. Mark Force, school facilities manager, explained in his budget presentation that cost increases were driven largely by aging buildings and equipment. “Normal wear and tear,” he said, added up to higher maintenance costs. One way he hoped to do some preventive maintenance, Force said, was by installing a low-voltage ice-melting system to combat the ice dams that formed at Hildreth Elementary School last year, producing some serious leaks. The system comes highly recommended by Westford, where it is in use on the town hall.
The two smallest cost centers are the central office and technology. Costs for central office expenses are expected to rise by only 1 percent next year. Technology shows the biggest anticipated increase (about 42 percent), but it is still only a little more than 3 percent of the total budget. Most of that increase comes from a bookkeeping change, in which the salary of the education technology coordinator was moved from Hildreth Elementary into the technology section of the budget. While the schools have introduced much new technology in recent years, such as upgrading to fiber-optic wireless Internet and leasing iPads for fifth- and sixth-graders, money for those projects has come from Harvard’s contract with MassDevelopment to educate students who live in Devens, not from the town coffers.
The School Committee will return to the budget at its next regularly scheduled meeting, on Monday, Nov. 23. At that meeting, members expect to consider the thorny question of user fees, both for athletics and bus transportation. Once the School Committee approves the budget in final form, the document moves on to the Finance Committee for consideration.
