Present: Roche, Quinn, Messere, Feldman, Goldsmith, Dufour
Absent: Dewsnap, Smith, Huempfner
Budget Hearing
Education – Franklin Public Schools C-1
Miriam Goodman, Maureen Sabolinski, Paula Mullen, Sue Rohrbach, Sally Winslow
presentation may be available later
review of expectations on revenue for the School Budget
coming in at 52,170,000 which was the Town Administrator recommended number
$1,650,000 increase over prior year
health care costs and contractual obligations for employees are two key drivers
$850K loss of revenue due to expiration of Federal Funds
$916K due to contract increase
Franklin versus state average $10,693 vs $13,371 lower in every category
Q&A
The Schools are drawing down some of their revolving funds to meet this budget total
No increase in fees for buses or athletics
$3.3 million in revolving accounts as a balance (from fees and transportation items)
Money from this year transportation fees, circuit breaker, etc is used for next years budget
Circuit breaker increase helps to offset the special education out of district placements
differences among the individual school budgets due to population and teacher placement
principals get an allocation per pupil for their discretionary use
Teachers at the middle and high school cost more than a new elementary teacher
Reallocation of instructional materials some of which are covered by capital budget items, to use the budget funds for classroom teachers
Parents are partners in this, either individually or through the PCC's, the support is essential to the success of our program
Keller parents were doing mulching and flowers today, the community value of that is priceless
Administration 51% below state average, we can be having too many administrators if that is the case
Secretarial agreement came in with an increase of days worked during the school year to bring them over three years to the full school year. This year coming is when the agreement and days increase finishes
Fees generally come in about as forecast, we shouldn't see too much of a change there
Only curriculum changes are due to the state changes, aligning the grade level frameworks to meet standards. No program level reductions or eliminations this year.
We do need a principal at each school, especially with all the paperwork and other things they do
ECDC runs a tuition based program, this is used to offset the educational assistance
The change noted is more due to accounting for the funds than a significant change
Pay-to-ride using some of the reserves not that they are getting additional riders
