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Date: 4/17/2023
GRANBY — During its April 11 meeting the Granby School Committee voted to approve their fiscal year 2024 budget of $9,528,874.
The latest budget proposal that will be approved through Town Meeting is a 4% increase in overall school budget from last year. Superintendent Stephen Sullivan said a lot of working together across town boards and community feedback helped get the process to where it is now.
“I think it’s important to reiterate that while this is a 4% increase from year to year, there are fairly significant cuts made in this budget. It’s not a level service budget so I think it’s just important to remember that,” Sullivan said. Sullivan added the budget requested additional town allocation of $600,000, the same amount the town provided last year.
According to Sullivan work between the district, Town Manager Chris Martin, the Selectboard and Finance Committee has helped bring everyone together and making the process as smooth as possible.
“My hope is that we can be on the same page for Town Meeting. I think we showed last year that was a productive approach [working together] and I think we were able to take out some of the challenges in previous iterations of school budgets last year,” Sullivan said. “It’s been a challenging process but I’m hopeful we can manage this budget in a responsible way and not have any additional asks for the town.”
Sullivan added it was important for the public to know that this budget was subject to change at Town Meeting as citizens can make amendments on town meeting floor, so the work isn’t really complete until the town approves a budget for the school.
To lower the deficit within the budget, Sullivan explained they identified chunks within the technology budget that the district felt they had flexibility around. He noted there is the potential for some reimbursement in that area, so putting off for example the replacement of laptops or tablets could wait a year.
“I keep saying it’s a living and breathing thing because so much changes from the time we plan it or improve and start implementing it. We’re continuing to look at grants and other things that could help offset anything reduced from the budget,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan reiterated this budget was not a level service budget and that there were about $700,000 worth of cuts and reductions from the 2023 budget to this new proposal. Inflation and out of district tuition were two examples mentioned by Sullivan that led to their current budgeting situation.
The committee unanimously approved the proposed $9,528,874 to submit to the town in preparation for the annual Town Meeting.