I hope your family enjoyed some time together during the April break. With just over 7 weeks left in the 2024-25 school year, this is always the busiest (and most exciting) stretch of the school year.
One of the hallmarks of the spring season is the public approval process for the upcoming school year's budget. On April 17, the Board of Directors approved the Proposed FY 26 Budget. This is the first in a six-part series about the district budget to help communicate the budgeting process; how priorities are determined; unpacking how the budget is organized; how the budget impacts the classroom; implications for taxpayers; and historical and regional comparisons.
The budgeting process is straightforward in the sense that it follows prescribed steps in building a budget for the community to consider. There are (as expected) many competing interests, priorities, and viewpoints about how we allocate financial resources in order to support and maintain the high-performing school district that people have come to expect. This process helps us balance these varied interests in order to produce a final proposal that has undergone multiple layers of dissection and consideration.
The budgeting process starts in early November with the Leadership Team (school and district administrators) building school and department budgets with their respective staff groups. In January, the Finance Director and I confer with each administrator individually to review their budget requests, followed by several meetings with the Board's Finance Committee to help determine priorities moving forward. From there, the proposed new budget is prepared based on a number of factors, including state subsidy and other anticipated revenues, staff health insurance changes, contractual salaries and benefits, estimated operational costs, and previously vetted priorities.
In early March I publicly submit and present the superintendent's draft budget to the Board, to which the Board deliberates for about six weeks before approving the budget in mid-April, either as proposed or with adjustments and modifications. As we are a school administrative district (independent school unit separate from the towns), state law requires that a public meeting be held for voters to approve the budget (vote #1), after which it is sent to the ballot box for final voter approval (vote #2) in early June. This year's district budget meeting will be held on Thursday, May 8 @ 7:00 PM in the Greely Center for the Arts. All voters in both towns of the SAD are invited to attend and vote.
Next week I'll focus on how budget priorities are determined. FMI: www.msad51.org/apps/pages/budget.