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

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Chapel Hill — Carrboro City Schools 2013 -2014 Budget Message The local budget that has been developed and recommended specifically addresses the needs of our school system and focuses on the priorities identified by the Board for 2013 -14 at our recent Board planning meeting. The local budget requires an increase in the local per pupil expenditure. The majority of this increase is directly attributed to mandated cost increases, anticipated loss of grant funds, and the opening of Northside Elementary School. We are recommending additional funding to lower class sizes at the elementary and high school level. We are also recommending a small increase in expenditures to support professional development and curriculum development to improve instruction and continue our focus on Common Core implementation. Finally, we have included some initial recommendations to address ongoing safety and security needs and a small amount of funding to support general administrative operating needs. All along we have looked for opportunities to restructure or reallocate our existing budgets to minimize our total budget request. Background Information Since the 2009 -10 budget year, school districts across the country have been dealing with the impacts of the Great Recession. Our district is no exception. Over the past several years we have eliminated nearly $8 million dollars in expenditures and absorbed an average of nearly $1 million dollars per year ($4.5 million over 5 years) in mandated cost increases. Each year the district has addressed the discretionary reduction from the state by reducing teacher and teacher assistant positions and we have avoided more significant reductions through the increased use of fund balance as part of a multiple year strategy. This is anticipated to be the final year that the district is able to utilize fund balance at an increased level to fund recurring expenditures. In developing the budget, we were faced with a variety of budget drivers that impacted our work. These budget drivers included continued student enrollment growth, continued mandated cost increases (health insurance and retirement match), the potential loss of federal funds as a result of sequestration and expiring grants, concerns about class sizes, ongoing safety and security needs, unknowns at the state level, and the need to fund the operational expenses associated with the opening of Northside Elementary school. We also received and considered millions of dollars of identified needs from our schools and program leaders. Finally, the budget was developed using the same initial appropriation of fund balance as was used this year. 1 -1