School Committee reviews FY 2016 budget

The Franklin (MA) School Committee reviewed the budget for next year at its meeting on Tuesday, Apr 28. The Fiscal Year 2016  (FY 2016) budget covers expenses from July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016.

Increasing class size at the middle and high school is driving the request for additional teachers at those levels. Declining enrollment in the elementary levels is allowing for a reduction in teachers there so there is a net increase of four positions being asked when all is said and done.

While it was not mentioned during the meeting, given the churn in the school personnel on a year to year basis, I expect that the number of positions being reduced can be handled in a 'normal' manner; that is through retirements, attrition, or transfers rather than layoffs.

Franklin Public Schools - FY2016 - Proposed Budget from Franklin Matters

The budget hearing was conducted and no line items were put 'on hold' for further question and discussion. This speaks to the level of detail in the presentation of information by the School Administration to the School Committee as well as the level of understanding of the school operations by the Committee.

The budget is scheduled for a vote at the May 12th School Committee meeting. Franklin's budget hearings begin with the Finance Committee on Thursday, Apr 30th at 7:00 PM. Additional budget hearing meetings are scheduled for May 4, May 7 and May 11. The Town Council will also hold their budget hearings on two nights in June before voting on the budget. By law, the budget for FY 2016 needs to be in place before June 30th 2015.

the total amount spent on Franklin education is $113 million

The budget is  2.43% increase over the last budget. The budget does use funds from some of the revolving accounts the School Dept has. There are no fee increases called for by the budget.

The budget presentation is supposed to be posted to the Schools website on Wednesday. As soon as it is available it will be shared. In the mean time, you can follow my notes taken during the meeting here

To review the 'Budget Book' (Note - to open this requires a current version of Adobe Reader)
http://franklindistrict.vt-s.net/Pages/FranklinDistrict_budget/FY16%20Budget%20Book.pdf

Live reporting: resuming with Discussion only item...
Live reporting: School Committee - Apr 28, 2015