Published on March 01, 2021
The Cape Elizabeth School Department budget process for Fiscal Year 2022 has begun. At the January 12, 2021 School Board Business Meeting the School Board updated and adopted the School Board Budget Goals for FY22 that to:
- Move Cape Elizabeth School Department forward with the strategic plan goals.
- Empower students with the academic, personal, and social knowledge and skills to build balanced and purposeful lives.
- Ensure equity and access to opportunities for all Cape students.
- Reflect a careful examination of line items and consideration of the success and effectiveness of the expenditures in order to provide a fiscally responsible budget.
The first budget workshop, held on January 26, provided the School Board with their first view of the administrators’ Original Request Budgets. The Original Request Budgets represents what the administrators’ consider to be essential needs for their respective departments and includes staffing, programing, and supplies. The School Board will evaluate these requests and prioritize line items that are either new requests or pilot programs from the previous year over a series of multiple workshops [see schedule]. As is the case every year, the bulk of the budget is dedicated to salaries and benefits [see chart]. In a Budget Update from January 27, Superintendent Donna Wolfrom reminded the community that “if we just increased the salaries and benefits that have been agreed on in the various collective bargaining agreements, and if we made no other changes to the budget from last year, the increase would be 4.36 percent.” Currently, the Original Request Budget represents an increase of 7.1 percent over last year’s Fiscal Year 2021 budget. Last year the Original Request Budget started with an 8.3 percent increase from the previous year and eventually came down to 5.95 percent [article].
Included in the Original Request Budget is the cost of $300,000 for a design schematic of the elementary and middle school buildings project. On December 15, 2020 the School Board voted to approve the Building Committee’s recommendation to concurrently replace the elementary and middle school building with a single bond [article]. The design concept currently included in the Fiscal Year 2022 proposed budget, is necessary in order to properly gauge the size of a future bond. Options for securing this funding will be reviewed in future budget workshops.
The preliminary state ED279 Report for Cape Elizabeth School Department is currently listed as $1,740,104.15, which is an increase of $6,000 from last year. The various impacts on state subsidy are enrollment, special education costs, teacher-student ratios, transportation, and Gifted and Talented. Wolfrom expressed surprise and relief that there was an increase given the onset of COVID-19 and the impact it has had on staffing and enrollment. School districts across the state have experienced a temporary decline in enrollment as a result of many parents opting to homeschool their children or sending them to private schools during the pandemic. Furthermore, despite the decline in enrollment, current staffing levels have increased as a result of schools having to support two models of instruction: hybrid and 100 percent remote.
The current placeholder for a health insurance increase is set at ten percent. The exact number is not expected until early April, but the expectation is that it will come in lower. Technology funding in the form of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative from the state is also not yet known.
At the February 23 School Board Budget Workshop administrators began responding to previously submitted questions from the board. Many of the questions pertained to class size and the rationale behind any increase in staffing. The elementary school has requested a new math interventionist position as well as to retain the second guidance counselor included in last year’s budget. The middle school is requesting a one-year interventionist position to provide additional instruction support for math to students. This position will focus on providing support to students who have unfinished learning stemming from the pandemic’s negative impact on learning. Similarly, the high school has requested a one-year math/science support position. Match scores this year are slightly lower than normal as result of nearly one year of remote learning. The School Board Questions and the administrator’s written answers can be found here.
The next School Board Budget Workshop will be held on March 2 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. This workshop will address any additional questions from the board, review the ED279 report, and discuss the use of the school’s fund balance. All documents relating to the School Budget for Fiscal Year 2022 can be found on the school’s website. For information on how to participate in this or future workshops or to access video recordings of prior meetings, use the town’s meeting calendar for relevant links.