BOF Gets a Preliminary Look at BOE Budget
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After multiple budget workshops, Stafford’s Superintendent of Schools, Scott Sugarman, presented a budget proposal to the Board of Finance (BOF) on February 19, but the Board of Education (BOE) has not yet voted to officially send this budget to the BOF for consideration. So, changes could still arise. Keep that in mind as you read on.
Rolling this year’s budget over to next year would cost roughly $33.6 million, according to Sugarman. However, after several BOE budget workshops, the school district settled on a total of $31,888,786 to present at Thursday’s BOF meeting. That is $1,325,925 (4.34%) more than last year’s appropriation. Sugarman said it required reductions in everything from instructional supplies to not replacing staff to reducing the number of bus routes to slowing down the technology refresh for students and teachers. (Watch the video above to get the much longer, fuller version of this story.)
By the time the budget reached the BOF, it represented $700,000 in reductions to the roll-over budgets. This is where things get interesting because Sugarman presented the budget numbers in a way Stafford has not seen before; he made it clear what portion of the total number is actually raised through local property taxes and what portion is offset by other sources (i.e., grants, state and federal funding, and other revenue). Sugarman’s budget estimates that Stafford will receive more than $1 million in offsets, which are accounted for in the $31,888,786, and another $10.6 million in revenue from the state and federal governments.
That means the local taxpayers would be on the hook for about $21,732,115, significantly less than the total appropriation. Unfortunately, the number that ends up on the ballot at referendum time is much higher and slightly misleading.
