The School Committee has been developing two budgets: a level service budget and a level funding budget. A level service budget would maintain the existing level of services, accounting for increases in salaries, etc. The level service budget reviewed by the school Committee last week ($34,957,391) was $201,130 less than the one they discussed at their session on November 8th ($35,158,521). Superintendent Gormley and Administrator Gilles spoke to the difference.

The administration was able to scrub an additional ~$200 from non-salary budget items due to lower costs in several Dept of Education functions. The two most significant were legal services ($72,000) and Regular and Spec Ed transportation ($125,773).

The level service budget number submitted to the Warrant Committee is $35,358,854. The Warrant Committee also asked for an assessment of cuts that would be required if the schools were required to operate at a level funding budget (i.e. the same amount FY12 as they had in FY11). This amount is $34,496,443. The administration identified non-salary and salary cuts to keep costs at this level (Please see:  Mtg Notes: School Committee 11.18.10 – Level budget requirement = $1.7 million in cuts and School administration identifies level budget cuts).

Mr. Gilles as part of his presentation reviewed budgets going back to 2008 and the changes year over year. The table below illustrates, among other things, that if the schools had received 2.5% increase year over year, their budget they would be higher than what they are asking for today. The full spreadsheet presented to the School Committee can be found here.