Agenda - 09-29-2015 - Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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w 5 Date: September 23, 2015 To: Bonnie Hammersley, Orange County Manager From: Todd Wirt, Superintendent Re: Fiscal -year 2015 -16 Operating Budget 4b 19 On Friday, September 18f, Governor McCrory approved the state budget for the next biennium. We can now move forward with finalizing our local budget for Board approval. We will present a budget recommendation to the Board of Education on November 9, 2015 and seek approval on November 23, 2015. A brief summary of the individual changes to the state budget and the total impact on education funding are described below. Administration will be prepared to answer questions that Commissioners may have. Benefit Rates: The state budget increased both state retirement rates and state health plan rates. These rate increases were not included in the original budget request and will impact the local budget by $36K. Teacher Assistants: The state budget preserved teacher assistant funding for the 2015 -2016 school year. We will see a small decrease of $15K in funding for Orange County Schools due to a slight change in the funding formula. Teacher assistant funding can no longer be transferred. This is not an issue for Orange County Schools. We do not transfer teacher assistant funding. Salary Increases: The state budget increased teacher pay for beginning teachers from $33K to $35K. It also included funding for teacher step increases. There are only 5 tiers in the teacher pay schedule. Therefore, only those teachers moving from one tier to the next will receive a step increase. Approximately 59% of our teachers will not receive a pay increase in this fiscal year. We estimate that it will cost $227K in local dollars to provide salary increases for locally paid employees. This was not budgeted in our original budget request. No other school employees will receive a salary increase. • Bonuses: A one -time bonus of $750 will be given to all school employees. We estimate that it will cost $226K in local dollars to provide bonuses for locally paid employees. This was not budgeted in our original budget request. • Ist Grade Class Size Reduction: The FY 2016 -2017 budget will reflect impacts, yet to be determined, for the state - approved class size reduction of 1 student per class in grade 1. • Transportation: The state budget reduced by approximately 5% the total budget for the transportation allotment which supports the salaries of transportation personnel, diesel fuel, replacement parts and the maintenance of yellow school buses. This negatively impacts the local budget by $154K. • Driver Education: The state budget provides funding for driver education for two years. We currently charge a $40 fee to students and do not anticipate a change in this fee. This week legislation (House Bill 539) was reintroduced that may require the sharing of funds with charter schools that are not currently shared. If passed as currently written, this would cost the district approximately $75K. We are monitoring this legislation closely.