At an April 15 special meeting via Zoom, the School Committee (SC) voted (6-1, Benson) to send a $43,101,605 FY21 budget to the Town Council (TC) for the July referendum.
If approved by the TC and voters, it will result in a 46 cent increase in the mil rate. This represents a $135.50 property tax increase on a $300,000 house.
“Other than FY18, this would be the lowest mil rate increase in four years,” Superintendent Heather Perry said. Last year’s budget raised the mil rate 66 cents. In an effort to keep costs down, the SC and the District Leadership Team spent months making hard decisions that they believed would still address the needs of Gorham students in a period of population growth and uncertainty.
In addition to increases related to personnel contracts, health insurance costs rose by 5.5%. There was no reduction in the number of teachers, but some ed tech positions were eliminated as a cost savings. The SC added personnel to meet requirements for special education. Because 80 more students are expected at Narragansett Elementary School, they also approved an assistant principal position.
There are savings this fiscal year due to the schools moving to distance learning, primarily for utilities and bus transportation. But there are new expenses for the Feed Gorham initiative and $130,000 added to the FY21 budget for summer and fall catch-up plans. The School Committee decided to use approximately $220,000 in FY20 funds to buy items such as library books, paper, and curriculum materials for use in FY21.
An additional $250,000 was added to the designated fund balance to reduce impacts to taxpayers for FY21. This move also allowed approximately $500,000 to be added to the undesignated balance which now stands at just under $2 million. These funds can be used to offset additional expenses in FY22 when implications from COVID-19 may be more fully realized.
The capital improvements budget (CIPS) was increased by $252,150 over FY20, although some projects were deferred in anticipation of a future bond referendum.
The SC approved the purchase of 860 new 11 inch iPads for Gorham High School, replacing the same number of five-year-old MacBooks. Technology Director Dennis Crowe recommended using 390 of the MacBooks for the sixth grade, librarians, and Gorham High School. The school will then sell the remaining 450 and use the funds to buy IPads for kindergarten and first-grade students. This reduced the increase in funding requested for technology by 50%, or $84,000.
The SC had hoped to increase offerings in World Languages districtwide, but did not. The administration had also wanted to add more clerical support and hours for school nurses.
Before the final vote on April 15, SC members spoke about the budget process. All commended the district staff for its year-long work developing the budget. Darryl Wright said that this has been a tough year due to the pandemic, and he would be looking for more efficiencies next year. Phil Gagnon agreed.
Kate Livingston believed the budget would support “the needs of students who will have been out of school for months.” For Stewart McCallister and Jeniffer Whitehead, not including World Languages expansion was one of their hardest decisions. Anne Schools said that the budget was “responsible and not frivolous.” Bill Benson, while agreeing it was not frivolous, voted against the budget. He said that with a 5.03% increase in the operating budget, this was the third year they did not meet their goal of 3.5%, and there should be a way for needs to not outstrip growth.
There will be a joint workshop with the Town Council on May 12. For more details on the proposed FY21 school budget, click here.