Agenda - 04-25-2013 - 1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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School program by consolidating the program with the Communities in Schools program. This change is aimed to increase the academic focus within the program as well as provide greater consistency. We will be seeking to reallocate some of our utility budget to provide funding for a sustainability position. We fully expect this position to pay for itself through utility savings and through the solicitation of grant funds. This will generate continued savings for years to come while increasing our commitment to one of our community's core values. We are evaluating job descriptions and schedules to see if changes can be made to facilitate additional technology support at the schools. These efforts will continue as we move forward. State Budget At this time, we have received a planning allotment for the state budget which is similar to the budget approved by the General Assembly last year. The Governor's budget has proposed a reduction in teacher assistant positions which will impact the district by an estimated $1 million reduction or approximately 30 teacher assistant positions. The Board has not addressed this potential loss in this budget request, but may be in the position of having to make further budget reallocations or reductions if the teacher assistant funding is reduced by the state. The state budget proposes a small increase over the current year's budget. This is in large part due to the anticipated additional funds that would be provided with enrollment growth. After accounting for the additional teacher and teacher assistant positions required to meet our enrollment increases and class size maximums, as well as the discretionary reduction, we currently project a small net increase in our state budget of $63,000. Unless something changes, we would assume that the discretionary reduction will remain in place. It totaled $3,096,139 in 2012 -13. This equates to the continued loss of 50 additional teachers and approximately 25 additional teacher assistants. Other We also feel that it is imperative to remember that we have large capital funding needs. We have a significant number of facilities in excess of forty years old and a few that are over sixty years old. Over the next few months, we will have much more information and will develop more concrete recommendations as the results of our facility study become clearer. In addition, our technology funding is lacking the resources to be able to provide the needed infrastructure and support to deliver technology resources to all of our students and staff, let alone meet the anticipated online testing requirements. Both the state and the county have reallocated capital money to help fund operational budgets over the past few years. The County has been making great efforts to increase capital funding to the district and it is appreciated. Nevertheless, our unfunded facility and technology needs continue to grow. We 1 -4