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Date: 10/11/2022
SPRINGFIELD – The School Committee approved the fiscal year 2023 (FY23) budget for Springfield Public Schools (SPS) during their Sept. 29 meeting.
Superintendent Daniel Warwick explained that the school district’s passage of the budget before the City Council’s final approval is an annual tradition. After the council approved the city’s budget in June, Warwick said the school district made a few adjustments to the final budget.
SPS Chief Financial & Operations Officer Patrick Roach shared that the new budget added an additional $2.8 million to the previously approved figure.
“We just want to make some adjustments to a few accounts and put that money in,” said Roach.
The School Committee approved the FY23 budget in a unanimous vote.
Discussion then centered on the appropriation of $6.6 million in carryover funds. Roach shared that carryover funds are typically approved by the committee in March, but the school district wants to get “a portion” of the funds ahead of time to address facilities projects. The $6.6 million is a part of a carryover fund of roughly $19 million for the SPS, with the funds being sourced from the city’s unspent budget expenses for the school district.
“For a portion of [the carryover funds], we want to come to the School Committee a little earlier this year so we can get spending, especially with the facility items … We’ve had a lot work with the facilities of the building where we need to do some engineering,” said Roach.
School Committee Vice Chair Christopher Collins explained why carryover funds exist for the school district.
“Our budget is over half a billion dollars and we’re doing our budget in February through April predicting the next year, so we do our best to predict what each line item is going to be, but in a budget of half a billion dollars, you’re going to be off on some.”
Collins continued, “[The carryover fund] is like 3 percent of the total budget, so we take that and if we happen to put more in a particular line item than we need, we take it and expend it on things for students. It’s not money that’s sitting around in a slush fund,” said Collins.
The School Committee ultimately approved the appropriation of the first portion of carryover funds in a unanimous vote.