NEWPORT — The Newport School Board will present its proposed 2018-19 budget at the annual Deliberative Session starting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 6 in the high school gymnasium.
The proposed operating budget for 2018-19 is $18,641,564. This is an increase of $930,326 from the current budget of $17,711,238.
According to Superintendent, Cindy Gallagher, most of the $930,326 increase is due to increases in special education funding.
The budget includes funding for students who changed to out-of-district placements after the 2017-18 budget was adopted and for two special education teachers who were funded through the special education grant last year and were moved into the operating budget for 2018-19.
The proposed budget also includes funds for autism services in the middle high school.
The budget also provides for an additional elementary teacher, and a technology integrator to support instruction and it includes funds for social emotional services in the elementary school.
“We worked very hard to level out the special education budgets last year. We reviewed all the out-of-district placements and contracted services and made the appropriate reductions,” Gallagher said.
“The problem is that we never know who will change placements. This year alone, we’ve added more than eight students to out-of-district placements who were not budgeted for in 2017-18.”
The default budget is $18,076,338. The default budget includes adjustments for the changes in the obligations for the Newport Teachers Association, the Newport Support Staff, changes in the cleaning contract and adjustment for special education.
The Newport School Board presented estimated revenues of $11,219,320. This is $748,840 lower than last year. This includes an estimated $46,200 for the new Kindergarten Aid. There is a $122,539 reduction in State Revenue and a $125,682 reduction in local revenues. The result is that that Newport community will need to raise an estimated $7,422,244 this year to fund the operating budget.
Preliminary estimates have the local tax rate increasing $3.89 per $1,000 to support the operating budget increase for the next fiscal year that starts on July 1. The projected tax impact of the default is estimated to increase the local tax rate by $2.58 per $1,000.
The warrant has 11 additional articles, five of which have tax impact.
Article 4 is a one-year agreement with the Newport Teachers Association. It includes a $140,382 increase. Article 6 is a one-year agreement with the Newport Support Staff. It includes a $92,311 request. The teacher contract will have an estimated tax impact of 33 cents per $1,000 and the Support Staff will have an estimated tax impact of 21 cents/
Article 8 requests that the district raise and appropriate $233,000 for an Autism Program in the Middle High School. This has an estimated 54 tax impact.
The Autism Program in Richards Elementary School is new in 2017-18. It is a successful partnership with the New England Center for Children. “While we have budgeted for additional services for those students promoting to the middle school, this warrant will allow us to guarantee that those students receive consistent services,” Gallagher stated.
“It will also allow us to provide additional services for the middle high school students who are already in the building. By comparison, the cost of one student to go out of district is approximately $170,000.”
Article 13 requests up to $50,000 to deposit to the Unanticipated Educational Service Expendable Trust fund and Article 14 requests up to $50,000 to deposit to the Transportation Capital Reserve Fund to provide for the future purchases of buses.
These articles rely upon fund balances at the end of the year. Each article has an estimated 12 cent tax impact by reducing the fund balance that would be returned to the taxpayers.
If all articles pass, the final estimated tax impact is approximately, $5.21.
Gallagher asked the community to be cautious about raising the alarm about a high tax rate.
“Every year we face the same problem in February. People raise the red flag and say that the district costs too much. I’m not sure how you could say anything else when you are looking that the simple math. It is unfortunate. However, the proposed tax impact is merely an estimate based on a math calculation,” Gallagher said.
“Historically, the School District announces the tax impact in the warrant; only to reduce this with excess revenues in the Fall.,” Gallagher stated,
“The district is working very hard to balance both the expense and revenue sides of our accounting. We only control local revenues and have made some conservative estimates including the tuition estimates we made based on the numbers we received from Goshen and Croydon.
“We budgeted according to the guaranteed numbers. If this year is an example, Goshen guaranteed 42 students but we have more than 50. All that excess revenue reduces the tax rate and is returned to the taxpayers in the Fall.”
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