Published April 16, 2020
By JILLIAN STRING
NORTH READING — Assistant Superintendent of Finance and Operations Michael Connelly presented numerous challenges to School Committee members during the public budget hearing for Fiscal Year 2021 (FY21) on Monday evening.
The recommended FY21 budget of $33,199,530 represents a 4.5 percent increase over the FY20 budget.
The budget gap for Connelly’s recommended budget was $585,381 at the time he created his presentation, however after a meeting of the Financial Planning Team on April 9, Connelly stated that the district will need to find an additional $153,000 in order to balance a budget gap totaling $738,381.
“We’re in a very unprecedented situation, as everyone can certainly appreciate what the nation, the state, and then the local districts on the micro level may face in the coming weeks,” Connelly said. “I think it’s fair to say there’s some additional work to be done.”
Level funding local receipts, state aid
School Committee Chairman Scott Buckley, who is part of the Financial Planning Team, added that the recommendation was to keep local receipts, as well as state income, level from FY20 to FY21, which accounted for the additional $153,000.
“I will tell you right now that it might be worse than that because frankly, there were concerns that even keeping state budget numbers level, with what’s been going on in the economy, it might not be enough,” Buckley said. “There were numbers being thrown around about seeing a budget decrease of three to eight percent from FY20 to 21.”
Budget drivers
According to Connelly, there are five budget drivers for FY21.
“Over 83 percent of our budget is personnel services and salary obligations, so it’s not unusual that that’s going to be probably the largest budget driver,” Connelly said.
Other drivers include enrollment needs at the elementary schools, year five of the district’s strategic plan known as NRPS 2021, operational costs (building maintenance, busing, utilities), and special education out-of-district expenses.
“Even though our enrollment is staying relatively stable, there are some increases at the elementary level…mainly due to a very large full day kindergarten class moving up to grade one,” Connelly explained.
In order to keep the district moving forward according to NRPS 2021, several staff positions were added to the recommended budget, including an Elementary Teaching and Learning Coordinator, two academic teachers at the Middle School, 1.5 full time equivalent (FTE) academic teachers at the elementary level, a 1.0 FTE reading specialist, and a 1.0 FTE floater custodian.
In order to close the budget gap, only 2.0 FTE Middle School teachers and a 0.5 FTE elementary teacher will be added to the FY21 budget.
According to Connelly, these new positions will replace positions left vacant by retiring staff in the digital learning department.
“Our commitment overall as a district is the expansion of the Middle School program,” Superintendent Dr. Patrick Daly said. “It’s a difficult decision if we have to make it, but that’s what we would do…Those are absolutely positions that we need to bring back. It cannot be a long-term solution.”
For operational costs, Connelly noted that fixed cost increases are always a major driver of the budget.
According to Connelly, out-of-district costs for special education students were expected to decrease for FY21, but with the recent school closures these numbers may change.
“There’s always the potential for outside placements,” Connelly said. “It’s an area of risk, but I’m not super alarmed at the moment.”
Deferring expenses suggested
Other budget gap closing measures noted by Connelly included deferring $60,000 originally budgeted for technology until FY22, deferring $65,000 budgeted to fill a vacant central office position, and realizing an additional $53,800 from staff turnover and other expense reductions (supplies, legal, etc.).
School Committee members thanked Connelly for all of his work thus far, and had many questions about the path forward.
Committee member Rich McGowan asked whether or not the custodial staff would be able to keep up with all of the maintenance needs without the additional floater custodian position.
“We have a very capable custodial staff. They do an exceptional job,” Connelly said. “This certainly presents some challenges, and should there be additional touch point type cleaning, certainly more than what had been standard practice, I think we could be in a position to address those (needs). There could be a need for some additional overtime costs.”
School Committee Vice Chairman Janene Imbriano wondered if there would be any insurance savings from open staff positions that was not reflected in the budget.
“My understanding is that it very well could come out (of the budget),” Connelly said. “I do think there would be potentially a fixed cost reduction…the range is probably between $75,000 and $153,000.”
Should vacancy be filled or put on hold?
Although no members of the public spoke during this hearing, which was held remotely, Buckley stated that several people had reached out to him suggesting that the committee defer filling the vacant assistant superintendent position.
“If we’re talking about another $150,000, I would not propose starting with the assistant superintendent position. To me, I think it’s a leadership position. I think you need leaders at the top,” Buckley said. “This position has been called different things over the last 20 years or so. It’s basically been the Director of Curriculum for a number of years and it really is the leadership position in that role, so I’d be concerned about cutting a director type role…I think we’re already taxing our administrators.”
Committee members were in agreement that the assistant superintendent position should be filled as scheduled, however it was noted that all positions would be examined if the state budget changed drastically.
“I appreciate your support in recognizing how important this is,” Daly said. “A lot of folks don’t understand what the position is. Curriculum is one piece…The human resource part alone is huge – everything from the hiring of new staff to getting people up and running in the mentor program.”
Two more meetings
The committee will meet for a second budget workshop on Wednesday, April 29 at 3 p.m., with the final budget vote scheduled for Monday, May 4 at 6:30 p.m.