The proposed ConVal School District budget for the 2019-20 school year is up 1.87 percent over last year’s approved budget, Superintendent Kimberly Saunders said Monday.
The $45,906,471.67 proposed budget – which is $840,608.94 higher than last year’s budget – will be discussed tonight during a budget hearing at the SAU office starting at 7 p.m.
“The increases don’t represent changes, they represent our obligations,” Saunders said. “We make some assumptions when we prepare the budget, the assumption here was maintenance of effort… to continue to fund the things we have funded in the past to meet obligations of students and staff.”
Saunders said the major drivers of the budget increase come in two budget areas: employee benefits and student services.
There are just over $500,000 in employee benefit increases in the budget, Saunders said, which accounts for up to a 2.2 percent increase in health insurance and a 2.1 percent increase in dental coverage. There is also about a $230,000 increase in retirement benefits.
Saunders said the school district has received a not-to-exceed rate of 4.2 percent for health insurance, meaning that if the increase is between 2.2 and 4.2 percent, the district will have to dip into a trust fund account designed for such a purpose.
“We try to manage [the increases] to the best of our ability,” Saunders said.
The student services portion of the budget rose about $504,000, Saunders said, which is driven by more students with needs coming into the district and students within the district having more needs that have to be addressed.
“That number is based on students’ needs that we already know,” Saunders said. “That’s not an estimate, these are the needs of the students.”
Saunders said there is a net decrease of one position throughout the district in this year’s budget, though there is a lot of moving around of positions within the budget. Most notably, the dean of faculty position at the high school will be eliminated to make was for an assistant principal position at Great Brook School.
The operating budget is still subject to change, Saunders said.
There are also a few key warrant articles set to go on the ballot this year.
The school board has proposed a funding formula change to the district’s article of agreement.
The current formula is a 50-50 split of each town’s average daily membership and equalized property values. If changed through the proposed warrant article, the formula would be 40 percent average daily membership and 60 percent equalized property values.
Another article will ask for $800,000 to move to a single-tiered busing system, which is a precursor to having a universal start time throughout the district.
If passed, Saunders said middle and high school students would start their day around 8:30 a.m., about an hour later than they currently are.
There was prior discussion about flipping the start time of elementary schools with the middle and high school, Saunders said, but elementary school parents pushed back on the idea.
“I think because it is a significant increase and change, we wanted to make sure the legislative body had a chance to weigh in,” Saunders said, of the potential start time change.
An article to pass the collective bargaining agreement for the ConVal Education Association will also be on the warrant. If passed, there will be an increase of $909,187 in the 2019-20 school year and $619,950 in the 2020-21 school year.
Nicholas Handy can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com.