Gill-Montague Regional School District��FY25 Proposed Budget��January 30, 2024
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Agenda
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FY25 Budget Schedule
January 9, 2024 School Committee Meeting
January 23, 2024 School Committee Special working Meeting
• Review of line item budget
• Budget Discussions
January 30, 2024 School Committee Meeting
• Budget Discussions
• Vote Preliminary FY24 Budget (Must be prior to February 1st)
Minimum Contribution and State Aid numbers are necessary to accurately estimate Assessments. Assessments will be estimated after the State Budget is released in Mid-January
February 7, 2024 Budget meeting with Town Officials – 6 pm Montague Town Hall meeting Room
Town of Montague & Town of Gill Select Board/Finance Committee’s meet with GMRSD School Committee representatives, Superintendent and Director of Business & Operations regarding FY25 Budget.
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FY25 Budget Schedule, continued
February 13, 2024 School Committee Meeting
• Budget Discussions
• Public Hearing
February 27, 2024 School Committee Meeting
March 12, 2024 School Committee Meeting
May, 2024 Town meetings – projected dates:
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Enrollment
FY25 Budget Increase
Student Opportunity Act
Stimulus Funds
Staffing & Resource Needs
Enrollment in district stable.
Decline in Choice out/Charter enrollment
Foundation Enrollment declined by just 9 students.
Budget increase of 0.7% with increased dependence on School Choice Revolving & E&D
Based on Montague’s Affordable Assessment
Continuation of SOA in Foundation Budget calculation did NOT lead to higher state aid for GMRSD
ESSER III
FY25 allocation of $210K for summer programing and purchases.
Continuation of Pandemic related Academic and Social Emotional Staffing needs
FY25 Major Budget Themes
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Citizen Participation
What can you do?
District Administration:
Brian Beck, Superintendent
Joanne Blier, Director of Business & Operations
Dianne Ellis, Director of Pupil Services
Jeanne Powers, Director of Curriculum
Tina Mahaney, Director of Technology
School Administration:
Christopher Barnes, Middle/High School Principal
Kerry Heathwaite, Sheffield Elementary Principal
Sarah Burstein, Hillcrest Elementary Principal
Walter Huston, Gill Elementary Principal
School Committee:
Gill Members:
Jane Oakes, Chair – Term Ends: 2025
William Tomb, Vice Chair -- Term Ends: 2026
Cristina Marcalow -- Term Ends: 2024 (1 yr)
Montague Members:
Wendy Thompson -- Term Ends: 2025 (2 yr)
VACANCY -- Term Ends: 2024
Heather Katsoulis, Treasurer -- Term Ends: 2025
Lori-Lee Adams -- Term Ends: 2024 (1 yr)
Clifford Spatcher -- Term Ends: 2024 (1 yr)
John Irminger, Secretary – Term Ends: 2026
How We Create Our Budget
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Research
Each department looks at its budget and determines its needs by using expense trends and current student data as well as recommendations from the School Improvement Councils.
Analysis
We use data provided by the state and historical data to make student centered, efficiency focused and data informed decisions when thinking about our future needs.
Action
The Admin Team reviews budget requests and determines actual needs as well as potential cuts. We strive to build a budget that will provide students with the best learning experience possible, given the resources at our disposal.
Manage
Budget is presented to School Committee for approval (School Committee may make additional recommendations ) and then pass the approved budget onto Member Town Officials.
Budget
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DISTRICT VISION – The Gill-Montague Regional School District is a community that empowers every student for continuous learning, active citizenship, and personal fulfillment. |
THEORY OF ACTION - The pandemic resulted in substantial disruptions to student learning for more than a year. In order for our students to recover from lost learning�opportunities, we committed to the following priorities in the development and implementation of the district and school-based annual strategic plans: � ∙ Foster a sense of belonging and partnership among students and families� ∙ Continuously monitor students’ understanding � ∙ Ensure strong grade-appropriate instruction, with scaffolding to provide access to new content and skills |
GILL-MONTAGUE REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT ANNUAL DISTRICT STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
District Long Term Goals (2021 – 2024)
#1 ENGAGEMENT FAMILY:
Our schools will welcome and engage families as active partners to support the academic and social-emotional development of students
#2 ENGAGEMENT STUDENTS:
Staff will welcome and engage students as active partners in their learning, who take pride in their efforts, and make positive contributions to the school
#3 GROWTH & ACHIEVEMENT:
Educators will regularly monitor the impact of instruction on student learning and will make adjustments to maximize student growth and achievement
#4 GRADE-APPROPRIATE INSTRUCTION:
Educators will deliver grade-appropriate instruction with high expectations for all students and provide scaffolding to ensure access to learning
#5 INCLUSION & EQUITY:
Educators commit to creating an inclusive and equitable school environment that provides relevant and accessible educational opportunities, embodies social justice practices, and affirms all students’ cultures and identities
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NEW DISTRICT LONG-TERM GOALS �FALL 2024-SPRING 2027
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Districtwide
Initiatives and Grants:
We are in the third and final year of this grant. This year, we are focusing on all of the goals provided by our consultant. The goals include reviewing and adopting an elementary social-emotional curriculum, training on screening for mental health concerns and threat assessments, and refining school-based behavioral supports and systems.
The team is in year two of this academy and is receiving professional development regarding responsive practices and anti-bias/anti-racist pedagogy. The group will establish a definition of Culturally Responsive Practices in GMRSD by which we will evaluate curriculum, systems, and procedures.
Our elementary Math Interventionists are taking part in this three year academy. Benefits of this academy include taking the Math Specialist and Champion courses. Once the Champion courses are completed, the Math Interventionists will be able to instruct district educators in Math Recovery, as opposed to educators having to go through the Math Recovery company.
Technical support and webinar access from DESE to support positive school attendance.
New IEP form which was established by DESE. The new form and process includes more inclusive instruction and collaboration between classroom teachers and parents/caregivers.
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Secondary Schools
Turners Falls High School
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Great Falls Middle School
Elementary Schools
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Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment
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Curriculum
Instruction
Assessment
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Student Enrollment and how it impacts our Revenue
District Enrollment Trends
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Enrollment variations
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FY25 Foundation Budget & Chapter 70
How does the Chapter 70 formula work
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Balancing the Budget
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FY25 Budget Reconciliation Revenues
After the release of Chapter 70, we were able to adjust some revenue lines as well as some expense lines to balance the budget. While we lost $702,755 from our State aid revenue line, we were able to revise some of the other revenue lines to minimize the need for expenditure reductions to just $509,131.
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FY25 Expenditure Reconciliation
Reconciling the expenditure side of the budget was much more challenging. However, we were able to minimize the impact of staffing by revisiting other expense lines such as Tuition, insurance and supplies.
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REVISED FY25 Budget
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Revenue
Where Does Our Funding Come From
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Town Assessments
Local funds collected primarily through property taxes from our member districts.
50.3%
Erving Tuition
The Town of Erving pays tuition to the District for their 7 – 12 students to attend Great Falls Middle & Turners Falls High School through a tuition agreement established in the 1980’s that uses prior year expenses and enrollment to determine a cost per pupil.
3.6%
Transportation Reimbursement
1.6%
Chapter 70
28.4%
Other Revenue: E&D, Medicaid, Interest, Charter Reimbursement
3%
Grant & Revolving Accounts
13.1%
School Choice and Circuit Breaker Revolving accounts, Grants (including ESSER Grants, and other smaller revolving accounts the District uses to support the Budget.
MGL Chapter 71 provides transportation reimbursement to regional school districts projected at approximately 75% of the total cost of eligible riders from the previous year.
Chapter 70 is the MGL that establishes funding requirements for school districts in Massachusetts and provides state aid to support school operations.
Montague’s Affordable Assessment
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Historical Town Assessments & FY25 Preliminary Town Assessments
FY25 Town Assessment Calculation
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School Choice Revolving Account
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Circuit Breaker Revolving Account
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Food Service Program �Historical Revenue & Expense
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FY23 Beginning Balance $264K
Excess and Deficiency Activity (a.k.a. savings account)
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FY25 Projected Revenue
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Student Opportunities Act
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Just ⅓ of all districts received more than the minimum $30/PP increase in FY25. Of the districts receiving above minimum Chapter 70 increase, 53 of them had 2,000 or more students. Those 53 districts shared 87.5% or $230M of the $263M in additional aid. We are one of the remaining ⅔ of the districts to receive just the minimum of $30 per pupil n FY25.
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Expenses
Expense Drivers
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Technology
And
Information
Inflation
Student Learning Options
Aging Buildings
Special Education
Student Learning Options
Provide all students with rigorous and culturally relevant curriculum, resources and programs that support individual goals.
Inflation
Expenses that the district incurs continue to rise annually and outpace increases in revenue. Foundation budget inflation factor is just 1.35%, lower than in the past couple of years.
Technology and Information
The rapid increase in technology and information has accelerated the need to more frequently replace educational materials and equipment. The pandemic forced us to get in front of our technology needs and we continue to update our technology in this budget.
Students in Poverty and Low Income Families
46.5% of Massachusetts school aged children live in families that are low income. These students often require added services from public education.
**Gill-Montague RSD’s low income percentage is 61.94% compounding this issue.
Special Education
There are a variety of factors that drive the increase in Special Ed including:
Aging Buildings
Because of budgetary constraints, deferred maintenance activities and outdated facilities, spending on building improvements will continue to increase. Our recent building application to MSBA was not successful in getting us into the program this year.
Students in Poverty and Low Income Families
Pandemic Learning Loss
The learning loss resulting from remote learning for the two years have been addressed with ESSER funds through FY24. In spite of the loss of those funds, we are absorbing those added positions into this preliminary budget as much as possible.
Pandemic Learning Loss
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FY25 Categories of expenses
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