Superintendent Freeman Burr will outline his proposed 2010-11 budget at the Board of Education’s Finance Committee at 5 p.m. tonight.
The meeting will be held at the Shelton Intermediate School.
The district is already facing a $700,000 budget deficit for the current year, a problem that prompted the board to approve up to 70 layoffs at a meeting last week.
Board members at that meeting said next year’s budget is looking tough as well.
After the meeting, Burr posted a note on the Shelton schools’ homepage, explaining in greater detail the cause of this year’s budget deficit.
The memo is posted below.
December 10, 2009
Dear Staff, Parents and Community Members,
Much has been written in the media and presented in TV news clips regarding the financial plight of the Shelton Public Schools. I believe the journalists have presented an accurate account of our current finances. However, I do believe there needs to be some clarity provided so everyone understands what specific factors contributed to our current deficit.
First and foremost, the development of this year’s budget began in November of last year and carried into the 2009 new year. The approved budget from the city was $63 million – the same as in fiscal year 2007 – 2008. Yet, the cost to run our Shelton Public Schools went up by approximately $ 2.3 million. Shelton Public Schools requested an increase of $738 thousand dollars to cover the increased health costs and received zero “new” dollars in the approved budget.
Secondly, the Excess Cost Reimbursement (ECR) which helps subsidize cost increases of Special Education services was reduced by approximately 25% in this year’s state budget. The ECR is a capped revenue funding pool, which districts apply for to assist with their Special Education costs. For example, last year Shelton submitted Special Education expenses incurred for a total 5.1 million dollars. We received about 1.3 million dollars or 25% of the request. No district receives the full amount requested. This year that fund has been reduced to approximately 75 cents on the dollar, thus meaning we will receive about $900 thousand to help cover costs. Thus, we have a $ 400 thousand dollar reduction in the reimbursement of this account.
Third, our Special Education costs continued to rise. We have had overages of $ 800,000, $ 1.8 million, $ 2.1 million, and $ 2.9 million over the last four years that our district has covered within our existing budget. The number of students in the district requiring Special Education services has risen dramatically over this time. We use monies from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ECR and related cost savings found within the annual budget to meet these obligations. These mandates from the Federal and State are not fully funded. Also, out-of-district student placements and Individual Education Plan (IEP) requirements make it nearly impossible to quantify or predict our costs from year to year.
Finally, in an effort to save teaching positions for this school year, the administration and Board of Education decided to apply eleven teaching positions to the IDEA grant. Normally, all teaching positions are funded under the General Fund allocation and Special Education positions are shifted over to IDEA when we receive the grant from the state, usually in October. Thus, monies are freed up to cover unanticipated Special Education costs and any overages in the budget. As a result of this change, a minimal amount of funds are available to address our Special Education cost overruns this year.
All of these factors have contributed to the deficit we find ourselves in.
As a result, we have instituted a hiring and spending freeze and identified cost savings amounting to $ 1.3 million dollars in non-personnel areas, like transportation, health insurance, equipment, and building projects. These actions have helped us to this point. However, with 85% of our budget dedicated to salaries, we will need relief in our salary accounts to effectively address the remaining gap to avoid position eliminations and layoffs. The budget development for the next year will require us to continue to reduce our costs at both central office and school sites. Given this challenge, our primary goal will be to continue to maintain our current class size, especially in our elementary schools. We will also have to address the ability to minimize cost overages in all departments as well. I encourage everyone to attend our budget development meetings and more importantly show support where it will really count, at our City meetings which ultimately determine what our appropriation will be in the 2010 – 2011 school year.
Thank you and I encourage you to contact me with any questions or concerns that you might have.
Sincerely,
Freeman Burr
