Preliminary School Budget Exactly Matches Town's 'Placeholder' Estimate

‘Tis the season of budgets in Groton and while the town’s budget is all but finalized, the school district’s proposed budget is still weeks away. In his first few hours of assuming office, interim superintendent Dr. Bill Ryan reported that the budget process was, “in good shape” and that he had been meeting with interim business director Frank Antonelli ahead of his official start-date so that he was up to speed on what will probably be his most important contribution to the district in the months ahead.

Although detailed budget numbers will not be possible until they get information from the state on items like transportation subsidies and teacher benefits costs, they said their current estimate is that Groton will need to come up with an additional $750,000 and Dunstable, $220,000 to fund the district. 

This exactly matches Groton’s “placeholder” budget for the schools which was announced in a packed meeting in town hall by Town Manager Mark Haddad as a great gift to the schools from the town “for our kids education,” since it represents a four percent growth rate rather than the 3.6 percent the district was expecting.

What is still a bit unclear is why this number is significantly below the average growth number of $1.4M that has been typically needed to cover salary and benefits cost growth in the past. When asked about this discrepancy, the superintendent, business manager or district budget and finance subcommittee members present had satisfactory answers.  

At the suggestion of the town manager, $55,000 to fund the FY’18 portion of the technology plan will be placed on the Groton warrant as a separate article.  The mechanics of this are a little unclear since school capital costs are usually divided by the student population of the building(s) where the improvement is made and IT investments are usually not building specific.

The superintendent hinted that the budget would include a handful of new positions recommended in meetings with the district principals, but details were not provided. Dr. Ryan also mentioned that there were some ongoing reorganizations underway to improve efficiency (SPED was specifically mentioned).  Dr. Ryan and Mr. Antonelli are anticipating presenting a final budget to the school committee by the end of January, depending on the availability of information from the state.