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Date: 2/16/2022
AMHERST – The Amherst School Committee met on Feb. 8 and went over a range of topics from school budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year as well as an update on the new elementary school building project.
FY23 Budget Presentation
Presenting the upcoming fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget, Finance Director of Schools Doug Slaughter spoke and explained what was being proposed was a level service budget. At this point it is the middle of the yearly budget process. A budget hearing and subsequent School Committee budget vote will take place in March at Amherst School Committee meetings.
The School Committee must submit the proposed budgets they adopt to the town manager by April 1, who then has to submit an overall proposed budget for the town for the Town Council by May 1. The Town Council will have until June 30 to take action on proposed budgets.
Slaughter said key factors being focused on for the budget are revenue and expenses including use of school choice revenue, as well as salaries and health insurance rates for staff. The Amherst schools comprise a distinct department of the town of Amherst and as such, funding for the operating budget for the Amherst elementary schools comes from the resources available to the town, including state aid and local funding.
When looking at the details of the expense budget, Slaughter noted that the budget sees typical increases including in special education and transportation. For the FY23 proposed school budget it currently sits at $25.45 million. Using the level service for budgeting, the proposal for FY23 delivers exactly the same services that were delivered the previous year.
“Our overall budget increase is about 4.3 percent, and that’s just shy of $400,000 more than the resources available so we’re going to be looking for some economies and efficiencies that we’re in the process of reviewing,” Slaughter said. “There’s still a lot of work to do and a lot of evaluating and review of programs and offerings and services, but this gives you a frame of where we sit right now relative to what we think our resources are and what we think our expenses are looking like in the coming year.”
When opened for questions on the presentation, committee member Peter Demling said he was hopeful they will find efficiencies but was not 100 percent optimistic the town would reach the level services budget within the guidance from the town.
“That’s a crossroads the School Committee is going to have to decide how to deal with collectively once we have the final numbers of this budget,” Demling said. Demling also asked about any information for expenses that will be added for future projects, such as the new elementary school building.
Superintendent Mike Morris spoke on how the schools can bridge forward for once the school building project begins in the future as he anticipates significant operational costs for that time period. He said there will be operational efficiencies that create savings.
“I think if we’re going to bridge to get there given the fiscal situation, we’re in, given just standard increases that come year to year, I think we’re going to be challenged to not use in the next two years,” Morris said. “We are using funds that aren’t long term, but we do have two events coming in the future that we do believe will make our system more sustainable and reduce some operational load.”
Morris added more information would be provided by the next meeting on budget as they are still in an early point of the budgeting process.
Building Project Update
DiNisco Design, the Boston-based consultant hired by the town for the project, was in attendance for the meeting and told the school board during the meeting that they would prefer to refine data a bit more and disclose the cost next month when providing a ballpark figure for the new school building project.
Through a financial model created last year by the town manager’s financial team and Finance Committee it was estimated that the cost of the new elementary school would be $80 million with the town’s share being $40 million.
School Committee member Jennifer Shiao asked Donna DiNisco, principal of DiNisco Design, for an estimated low range and high range based on a building size between 90,000 and 114,000 square feet from their side. Shiao added it was important for the community to have an idea of the costs since there have only been general estimates and that gathering public support for the project would be easier with solid financial information available to share.
When asked to give a number, DiNisco said she preferred not to at the moment and could have more information available for their March 8 meeting.
The DiNisco design team hosted a community forum on Feb. 3 and gave an overview of the project schedule. They also allowed for break out sessions where the public was invited to give input and ask questions regarding sustainability and what they want to see out of the new school building.
The goal of the new school building is to bring together students of Fort River and Wildwood elementary schools into a single K-5 building that could be ready to attend in 2026. While still in the early stages of the project, early presentations from DiNisco have suggested one of the two current elementary schools will be renovated and expanded on for the project.