Schools

Stoughton School Committee Approves Reallocation of Funds for FY12 Budget

Slightly more than $800,000 is shifted to other School Department needs, but the bottom line budget total approved at Town Meeting remains unchanged.

The Stoughton School Committee voted to reallocate slightly more than $800,000 in their FY 2012 budget to help offset the recently with the Stoughton Teachers Association and other needs that have arisen.

The five-member committee acted unanimously on Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marguerite Rizzi’s proposal to shift $800,771 in funds at Tuesday evening’s School Committee meeting.

The overall bottom line budget total for the School Department of , approved at the Annual Town Meeting on May 9, was not altered.

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The largest item the School Department had to address was the projected funding for all bargaining units, as a result of settling contracts with the custodians, paraprofessionals, secretaries, and most recently, .

An additional $491,924 was needed to fund this line.

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Other additions to the budget included $25,000 in projected salary increases for non-union administrators. Dr. Rizzi said she and Assistant Superintendent Jonathan Ford would not be receiving any raises, however.

Almost $100,000 was allocated to fund a shortfall in the Education Jobs Funding Grant; and $130,000 was allocated to look into and potentially purchase a new math program for the school system.

And, an additional $45,000 was needed for additional math support at the .

To balance the approximately $800,000 in new additions to the budget, $240,000 will be subtracted from the salary line, as a result of teacher retirements. The other large chunk in savings comes from reducing the Circuit Breaker contingency line by $350,771.

As explained in a worksheet presented to School Committee members, “we are able to reduce this because we did not have to use any of this year’s Circuit Breaker allocation ($381,796). This allocation will be available for FY12.”

Circuit Breaker allocation is reimbursement from the state for paying tuition to send students out of district, who cannot be served in the Stoughton Public Schools.

In years where there is no Circuit Breaker allocation funding remaining, it would be necessary to fund the contingency line, Dr. Rizzi said.  That is not the case this year.

An additional $120,000 will be saved in gas ($90,000) and electricity costs ($30,000), because of receiving a lower projected bid for those services.

And, the maintenance plan will be reduced from 10% to 5%, which represents a reduction of $90,000 in that line item.

Cost savings from a lower bid to cut the grass at the schools could potentially be added back into the maintenance line item, if the lower bid comes to fruition. This new bid is roughly half the cost the next lowest bid.

Overall both the School Committee members and Dr. Rizzi thanked the town and Town Meeting members for funding their budget, as presented at Town Meeting, and for approving the School Department’s six borrowing articles.

Vice Chairman Allan Mills said the approved budget “maintained the levels we were hoping for.”

“It says a lot about the town of Stoughton,” he said.

The complete list of changes to the FY12 budget is posted in the media gallery above.


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