Enrollment and budgets at BOE
With the new school year underway, Stafford’s Superintendent of Schools, Scott Sugarman, reported to the Board of Education (BOE) on current enrollment numbers and how the schools continue to dive deep into the budget.
Sugarman reported the district has 1,235 enrolled students, a small decrease from last year. He warned that those numbers are changing as the district continues to enroll students. He noted that among this student population, there are 221 Individual Education Programs (IEPs), 11 English-language learners, 509 students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, and 611 high-needs students. There are 135 out-of-district students; the majority of those (75) are at technical schools.
Changing student populations and budget constraints have meant greater scrutiny on many issues. For instance, as part of the budget process, the school district eliminated two bus routes. In years past, the schools have been able to be more lenient with their own policies, but as the transportation budget has been revised to accommodate other increases, they must stick more closely to the policy. In real terms, that means some bus stops have moved, often to a central pickup at the end of a street. Sugarman says that these changes were communicated, but now that school is actually in session, they are getting calls.
He says they continue to meet with M&J transportation, as well as with the Department of Public Works, to discuss updated traffic counts to gain a better understanding of what streets are truly considered hazardous.
But even as the district deals with the questions raised by a new school year, they are looking back at last year’s budget. As numbers are finalized to be sent to the Town auditors, Director of Finance Sheri Davis said she expects there to be a roughly $650,000 surplus. A more in-depth look at where that money was saved can be found in the BOE meeting packet, but a big chunk of that money came from savings in the Special Education budget, specifically in the transportation and tuition lines. The efforts to bring students back to—or keep them in—the district have paid off to the tune of about $590,000. SEED Grant money and savings in the salaries and benefits lines—due to largely to staffing changes that worked out to the benefit of the budget, such as unfilled positions and the like—also helped lead to unexpected savings.
Davis said that while $650,000 sounds like a lot of money, it represents only about 2% of the district budget. While that number may still change as the Town goes through its audit, Davis suggested putting at least $500,000 into the Self-Insurance Fund. The self-funded plan has been a source of many problems over the years, but getting out of the plan was tricky because the district would need to have enough funds in its account to cover any outstanding claims. That’s been a problem for the chronically underfunded account. Now, though, Davis says that the influx of surplus cash plus the increased budget for next year should allow the district to at least truly consider leaving the self-funded plan.
