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2008-2009 REVISED School Budget
Proposal (340K)
(includes revised budget message, summary of changes from original
2008-09 budget draft, budget summary and projected tax rates, budget
detail)
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03/08/08
School Board to consider revised $19.9 million budget
draft
School Superintendent Alan Hawkins has submitted a revised, $19.9 million
school budget to the School Board, in answer to the board's consensus to
keep this year's increase in school spending to 6 percent.
The board will consider the budget at their regular meeting March 11.
After a series of workshops, the board directed Hawkins on March 4 to revise
his initial budget proposal, a needs-based budget of $21.3 million. "Since
that meeting, (Business Manager) Pauline Aportria and I have spent all day
Wednesday, Thursday, and today reviewing the original document to find the
$1,367,411 to reduce that budget," Hawkins says in a revised budget message
dated March 7.
"Some of the leadership team met with me on Wednesday and the full leadership
team joined me on Thursday to discuss, reflect, and brainstorm these issues
of reductions," he said.
With a budget increase of 6 percent, Hawkins said, the added $1,127,497 will
go largely toward salaries and benefits, ($821,984); energy costs ($132,200);
and, gasoline ($15,250). These items account for $969,434 of the increase.
"Realizing this left us $158,063 to manage increasing costs of supplies,
equipment, and other possible budget changes, we began to revise our original
specific needs budget document," Hawkins said.
Included with the revised budget are three pages summarizing differences
between Hawkins' first proposal and the revision. They consist largely of
staffing requests that will not be sought.
The budget revision also includes an estimated 2.15 percent anticipated increase
in state subsidy. The initial budget included no increase because state funding
estimates were not available until late February.
The projected tax rate increase for the revised budget is 78 cents per $1,000
of assessed valuation, up 6.65 percent over this year's rate of $11.79 for
education. This estimate is down from the $1.86 increase (15.8 percent) projected
with the first budget presented to the School Board last month.
In his revised budget message, Hawkins thanked the School Board for the
opportunity to present his initial, $21.2 million budget "that reflects,
as noted, the actual needs of the students in the Cape Elizabeth school system."
"That document will be a very important component of our planning now and
in the near future," he said.
At a workshop March 3, the majority of members of the Town Council Finance
Committee agreed to an overall budget increase target of 4.3 percent, and
tax-increase target of less than 10 percent.
The School Board is expected to approve their school budget on March 11,
for presentation to the Finance Committee April 1. All budget meetings and
workshops are open to the public. Click
here for full budget schedules.
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