Date: Fri 17-Jan-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

school-budget-Reed

Full Text:

Superintendent Unveils $29.9 Million Budget

B Y D OROTHY E VANS

Let the deliberations begin.

The annual school budget review process was set to begin Thursday evening with

Superintendent John Reed introducing the administration's 1997-98 budget

proposal to school board members at the first of several scheduled budget

workshop meetings.

The inch-thick, 160-page financial document features a proposed bottom line of

$29,954,880 million, which represented a 5.9 percent increase over this year's

operating budget of $28,286,212.

Dr Reed's introductory summary states that although he had hoped to be able to

present the board with a proposed budget increase closer to four percent, the

demands created by the schools' current construction and expansion projects

made this impossible.

"The impact of supporting 109,000 new square feet of building area coupled

with the necessary first-time costs required by the sewer project's impact on

the Hawley, Middle, and High Schools, made this goal unrealistic," Dr Reed

writes.

Those new requirements have a combined fiscal impact of $374,741 and include,

among other things, sewer hook ups at $52,000, the addition of four custodial

positions at $78,884 and additional electric and oil costs at $62,000 and

$49,500, respectively.

Another significant but one-time addition to expenses is a line item for

providing hardware and software replacements for the current town-shared

computer system at $96,275 - an expense he says was associated with the

"established goal of phasing out the present system by January 1, 1998."

Other additions include upgrading the school system's technology staffing at a

total cost of $37,437, and the addition of approximately six classroom and

special area teaching positions at $208,950. This increase is needed in part

to service the projected increase in total enrollment of 105 more students,

according to the superintendent.

Summarizing, Dr Reed says "When the above costs are viewed in relation to the

fixed salary increases of $475,459, $144,164 special education tuition, and

the reduced expenditures in insurance, it becomes more apparent that there are

very limited areas of this budget that would have to accommodate any

reductions."