BUDGET
DETAIL FOR SELECTED WARRANT ARTICLES
Articles II through X are the spending articles in the
budget warrant. The following pages provide
the Board of Directors’ plan for expending dollars for Fiscal Year 2006-2007
under each article.
Budget Adjustments During the Fiscal Year. As circumstances
change over the course of the fiscal year (July 1st through June 30th), some
lines in the budget may not have enough funds while others have more dollars
than are needed. By law, the Board
cannot transfer dollars between budget articles (except for the contingency
article). Adjustments can be made only
between lines within a single budget article.
In executing the budget, the Board may not exceed the total budget for
any article or for the budget as a whole.
Program Budget Focus. The details of the warrant articles for the
District budget are presented by the Board Finance Committee from a program perspective. For Articles III, IV, and V, a brief description
is provided for each program within the article. The programs in Article II are
self-explanatory. For all the articles,
where applicable, a chart is presented depicting the budget total for each
program with comparative data for the current budget year. A separate chart depicts the budget for the
entire article segregated by category of cost and indicating the percentage of
the total article budget that each category represents.
SPECIAL WARRANT ARTICLE FOR FY 2006-2007
Article XV: Bond Issue for Minor
Capital Costs
Periodically, the District has sought to fund a portion of
the costs for maintaining and upgrading facilities through the use of bond
issues or notes. This is appropriate
when the benefits and useful life of the facilities maintenance or upgrades
will extend for a substantial number of years and the funding of such costs in
a single year would cause a disproportionate rise in the annual budget. The Board proposes to fund the following
items through a five-year bond issue with the first principal payment of $90,000
and interest payment of approximately $24,750 due in FY 2006-2007:
|
Site |
Item Description |
Est. Cost |
||
|
|
Replace Exterior Window Walls (Phase 2 of 2) |
$66,000.00 |
||
|
Woodside |
Replace Second Floor Carpeting |
$48,000.00 |
||
|
Williams-Cone |
Replace Countertops in |
$9,900.00 |
||
|
Mt Ararat Middle |
Install Tile on Restroom Floors & Walls |
$23,300.00 |
||
|
Mt Ararat High |
Renovate Elevator |
|
$45,000.00 |
|
|
Transportation Garage |
Replace Underground Fuel Tanks |
$67,800.00 |
||
|
District Office |
Replace Roof (Phase 2 of 2) |
$135,000.00 |
||
|
Mt Ararat Campus |
Resurface Republic Avenue ( |
$55,000.00 |
||
|
Total
Bond Issue Principal |
|
|
$450,000.00 |
|
FACTORS IMPACTING THE EXPENDITURE
ARTICLES
The
budget proposed by the Board reflects the agreements in place or presently
being negotiated with the District’s major employee groups. The individual budget items in each
expenditure article have been calculated to include the impact of these
agreements. The most significant impact areas are:
1)
Teacher salaries – 3.6% increase in the average salary
on the teacher salary scale under the second year of a three-year contract.
Budget savings achieved through teacher retirements and resignations offset a
portion of the teacher salary increases.
2)
Support
Staff Wages – 3.0% increase in the wage scale as a placeholder pending
completion of contract negotiations.
3)
School
Principal Salaries– 3.5% increase in the salary scale under the second year of
a three-year contract.
4)
Other
Administrator Salaries – 3.5% average increase in individual contract salaries
to align with the Principals’ Agreement.
5)
District
Office Staff Wages– 3.0% increase in the wage scale to align with the Support
Staff Agreement.
6)
Health
Insurance Rates – 5.0% increase in the insurance rates negotiated with Anthem
by the Maine Education Association Health Benefits Trust. This increase is
offset in part by changes that took effect in FY 2006-2007 in the teacher,
principal and other administrator contracts that lowered the District share of
the health insurance costs in certain circumstances.
7)
Dental
Insurance Rates – 5.0% increase in insurance rates from Delta Dental and the
Maine School Management Association Dental Trust, the two providers of dental
insurance for the District.
ARTICLE II - ACADEMICS ACCOUNT: To see if the District will authorize the Board of School Directors to expend $13,178,739 for the Academics Account.
(Board of School Directors
recommends a YES vote)
This account includes the District’s academic programs and funds all costs of instruction in grades K-12. However, Special Education and Gifted and Talented Programs are not included in this article, but are part of the Academic Services Account. Significant program changes that impact the budget for the Academics Account for 2006-2007 are:
1)
Two elementary teacher positions at
2) An Educational Technician is proposed to be added to the middle school Alternative Education program to meet student educational needs.
3) Literacy Teachers (4.5 positions) at a cost of about $200,000, formerly funded with federal Title I funds, have been added to the General Fund budget to comply with federal regulations relating to staff ratio comparability and to address a substantial decline in available federal funds. Maintaining staff ratio comparability is necessary to ensure the District remains eligible to receive Title I funding of $440,000.
4) The Read 180 Literacy program is proposed for implementation at the middle school at an initial cost of $37,000.
Academics - Summary by Program
|
Program |
2006-2007 |
2005-2006 |
% Change* |
Notes |
|
General Instruction |
6,099,917 |
6,095,477 |
0.1% |
Classroom teacher
reductions as described above |
|
English Language
Arts/Literacy |
1,647,801 |
1,329,727 |
23.9% |
Additional
staff and Read 180 program as described above; funds for literacy supplies
moved from Mathematics as part of the District curriculum funding cycle |
|
Foreign Language |
481,944 |
476,670 |
1.1% |
--- |
|
Mathematics |
971,824 |
936,625 |
3.8% |
--- |
|
Science |
943,017 |
864,399 |
9.1% |
--- |
|
Social Studies |
857,796 |
811,388 |
5.7% |
--- |
|
Art |
501,364 |
465,600 |
7.7% |
--- |
|
Music |
447,873 |
416,042 |
7.7% |
--- |
|
Physical Education |
479,414 |
439,321 |
9.1% |
--- |
|
Health |
211,611 |
196,799 |
7.5% |
--- |
|
Applied Technology |
115,485 |
108,718 |
6.2% |
--- |
|
Curriculum/Assessment |
89,954 |
96,726 |
-7.0% |
Reduction
in Comprehensive Assessment Plan funding |
|
Staff Development |
185,424 |
178,718 |
3.8% |
Increase
in Teacher Certification Council costs |
|
Shared Costs |
145,315 |
149,515 |
-2.8% |
Decrease
in Social Security & Medicare eligible salaries |
|
Academics Total |
13,178,739 |
12,565,725 |
4.9% |
|
* Unless indicated
otherwise, % changes in program budgets are the result of increases in wage and
salary scales and insurance rates, and increases or decreases associated with
changes in personnel
Academics
- Summary by Major Budget Category
|
Category |
FY07 Summary |
% of Article Budget |
|
Salaries, Wages &
Stipends |
10,277,134 |
78.0% |
|
Employees Benefits |
2,373,819 |
18.0% |
|
Books, Supplies &
Other Materials |
426,239 |
3.2% |
|
Equipment |
49,480 |
0.4% |
|
Contracted Services |
46,097 |
0.3% |
|
Dues & Fees |
5,970 |
0.1% |
|
|
13,178,739 |
100.0% |
Motor Breaks Fuel Academic Success!
Middle School Students Walk for Daily Physical
Activity
ARTICLE III - ACADEMIC SERVICES
ACCOUNT: To see if the District will authorize the Board of School Directors to
expend $9,089,564 for the Academic Services Account.
(Board
of School Directors recommends a YES vote)
This account funds academic services, including Guidance,
Health, Library Services, Computer Technology, Special Education and Gifted
& Talented Programs. The proposed 2006-2007
budget for these services is detailed below.
GUIDANCE
This account funds the District’s guidance counselors, school-year guidance secretarial support, and substance abuse services. One elementary Guidance Counselor was deleted in this proposed budget to reflect several years of decline in student population throughout the District. A part-time (0.6 FTE) Guidance Counselor position is proposed to be moved from the middle school to the high school based on student population declines at the middle school and the identification that additional counseling support at the high school was necessary to support Board goals.
STUDENT HEALTH
This account funds the District’s four nurses and a part-time
health aide at each elementary school. A
portion of the cost for the School Health Coordinator that is no longer able to
be covered by a State grant has been included in this account for 2006-2007.
The Board also has included additional hours for school health aides to
facilitate health screening at the start of each school year.
LIBRARY
SERVICES
This account funds library and media services in all
schools including the cost of staff, books and other materials, subscriptions,
audiovisual equipment, library operations software, and associated service
contracts.
INSTRUCTIONAL
TECHNOLOGY
This account funds hardware, software, service and
management support for all academic-related computer systems in the District
except those associated directly with library operations. The proposed budget retains the funding level
established in 2005-2006 to address technology infrastructure requirements in
order to keep current systems fully operational. The budget includes the third (and
final) year payment on equipment lease-purchased in 2004-2005 as called for in
the District Technology Plan. Funds from
the middle school allocation ($10,000) plus additional funds included by the
Board for a three-year lease purchase of equipment have been budgeted in this
account to provide additional computer equipment and support for the sixth
grade.
SPECIAL
EDUCATION SERVICES
This
account funds special education for District students. It includes funding for an Educational Technician
added in 2005-2006 to meet specific student needs. Also included are two
additional Educational Technicians for an elementary program at
GIFTED &
TALENTED PROGRAMS
This
account funds Gifted & Talented Programs throughout the District. The budget leaves in place the program expansion
accomplished in 2005-2006 that added a full-time teacher and a full-time
educational technician in order to comply with a state requirement for a K-12
program beginning with the 2006-2007 school year.
Academic
Services - Summary by Program
|
Program |
2006-2007 |
2005-2006 |
% Change* |
Notes |
|
Guidance |
891,780 |
878,570 |
1.5% |
Reduction
in staff as described above |
|
Student Health |
310,956 |
317,181 |
-2.0% |
Decrease
in health insurance subscribers, budget additions as described above |
|
Library |
634,395 |
613,086 |
3.5% |
--- |
|
Instructional Technology |
719,773 |
676,855 |
6.3% |
Computer equipment &
support for sixth grade |
|
Special Education |
6,273,267 |
5,843,835 |
7.3% |
Additional positions as
previously cited, out of District placement tuition increases |
|
Gifted & Talented |
196,304 |
183,769 |
6.8% |
Increase in contracted
services for outside programs |
|
Assessment/Staff
Development |
13,885 |
16,858 |
-17.6% |
Reduction in the cost of
Educational Technician training for special education |
|
Shared Costs |
49,204 |
24,251 |
102.9% |
Increase in health
insurance costs for non-special education social workers |
|
Academic Services Total |
9,089,564 |
8,554,405 |
6.3% |
|
* Unless indicated
otherwise, % changes in program budgets are the result of increases in wage and
salary scales and insurance rates, and increases or decreases associated with
changes in personnel
Academic
Services - Summary by Major Budget Category
|
Category |
FY07 Summary |
% of Article Budget |
|
Salaries, Wages &
Stipends |
6,535,345 |
71.9% |
|
Employees Benefits |
1,843,384 |
20.3% |