School District Approves Budget with More Than 6% Decrease

January 14, 2010

The Manchester School Board approved the Manchester School District’s $10,758,370 budget — resulting in a 6.2 percent decrease from last year’s $11,367,202 budget and .4 percent decrease to the elementary budget.

Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union Superintendent Daniel French said he was pleased with the budget.

"I feel really good about the elementary budget being a decrease," he said. "I think it’s a responsible budget and at the same time sensitive to the economic conditions"

Manchester Elementary Middle School (MEMS) cut six positions — an elementary teacher, a special education teacher, three paraprofessional positions, and a member of the clerical staff — as a result of the decrease to t he budget. The elimination of six positions this year follows on the heels of a 13 position reduction just two years ago, according to MEMS Principal Jacquelyn Wilson.

Additionally, Wilson said that the school had previously hired some consultants to supplement their instrumental music program. The declining enrollment has allowed the school to eliminate that element because their in-house music teacher is able to accommodate all the needs of the students.

Though Wilson said she knew the budget would have to be reduced this year, making the decisions was difficult.

"I think over the past few years we’ve gotten very close to that bone and we left no stone unturned," Wilson said. "It’s never easy because [of] the human side of it. It’s never easy to eliminate positions because you impact people’s lives. But on the flip side of it we’re very sensitive to the burden on the taxpayers, so those are the decisions we have to make."

Special education costs have also decreased. French said that on the secondary level the expenditure has been reduced by 35 percent from last year.

Secondary school enrollment is also declining. French said that the district budgeted for about 273 students this year and they are projecting 244 in the coming year.

All told, there were slightly more than 650 students enrolled in the entire school district in the current year, with slightly more than 600 expected in the coming school year that starts next September, according to the BRSU central office.

An expenditure included in the Fiscal Year 2011 budget is the $307,247 earmarked for the Early Education Program that MEMS is offering. The program began at the beginning of this year and $158,290 was allocated for it in the current year’s budget.

Accord ing to French, the program has been widely utilized thus far.

"We basically have two full classrooms right now and it’s been very successful from what I hear from parents," he said. "They’re quite pleased with the program."

The district was also able to save money by restructuring the accounting services at MEMS. On July 1, 2009 French said they consolidated the work being done by a full time accounting manager and part time clerical worker at MEMS by eliminating the two positions and hiring a part time clerical worker at the BRSU to perform the functions not done by other individuals in the office. By consolidating the the services French said the district will be saving about $38,000.