by Alex Brooks
Dr. Stephen Young, Superintendent of the Berlin Central School District presented his “Superintendent’s Budget” at a “Round Table” meeting of the Berlin School Board. The projected spending in his budget is $19,403,315, which is an increase over last year’s budget of 1.59%, or $303,324.
[private]The modest increase in expense was achieved despite adding 4.5 positions to the District’s staff. These are a full-time position in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment to develop the academic program at the District, two Instructional Technology Specialists, one at the Elementary School and one at the High School, one additional third grade teacher and a half-time Special Education teacher (Young plans to use Title 1 money to fund the other half of this position). Other enhancements to the program include additional money for a discipline position, for a short summer program in the Elementary School, for Professional Development to reorganize the Grade 5 curriculum, and for summer maintenance.
Concerning the Instructional Technology Specialists, Young noted that there is significant funding available to the Berlin District through the Smart Schools initiative, but in order to take advantage of it, the District must have staff who can implement the technology.
Total employee benefits and salaries are projected to rise next year by $209,477, an increase of 1.4%. This is a very modest increase compared to years past. Dr. Young called the overall increase in the budget of 1.59% “one of the lowest in years.” He said the biggest thing enabling the District to keep its costs down was that there will be six retirements this year. These senior teachers will be replaced by younger teachers who are paid less. Other factors include a decrease in State retirement assessments for teachers and staff, which saved the District about $150,000, and lower utility costs resulting from the mild winter and lower fuel prices.
On the revenue side, the news was even better. Because the Gap Elimination Adjustment has been removed, State aid revenue will be up considerably this year. Total State aid revenue for 2016-17 is budgeted at $9,781,331. This is an increase of $581,458 over last year, an increase of 6.32%.
Young told the Board that the combination of favorable factors on both the spending side and the revenue side has produced a surplus of $281,365, and asked them to choose how it should be reconciled. The options are to use it for additional expenditures, such as science lab renovations or buying new lockers; to reduce the tax levy from 0.59% increase to 0% increase; to allocate to various reserve funds; to reduce the assigned fund balance, or to create a debt service fund.
Board President Frank Zwack didn’t like the idea of spending it for building improvements, because those get better aid from the state if they are done as a capital project. The District is planning to do a capital project soon to build a transportation facility, and other projects like modernizing science labs could be included in such a project. Zwack suggested they might budget for architectural services to prepare a capital project.
Dr. Young did not recommend reducing the tax levy increase to 0, because he wants to keep the tax levy stable, and if the Board sticks with a small increase, they may be able to keep future increases small also.
Reducing the assigned fund balance is a good way to carry the District’s good fortune this year into future years, but it would risk making the unallocated fund balance exceed the limits set by the State Comptroller’s office.
Business Manager Karen Capozzi said she believes the best option is to allocate some of the surplus to various reserve funds, and to create a debt service fund, which could help pay for a capital project in years to come. The Board seemed to like this idea, and will probably implement Capozzi’s suggestion, but no specific action was taken at this meeting.[/private}