2023–2024 School Budget Process Getting Underway

By Adam Swift

The 2023-24 school budget process is underway, although it is still in the early stages, according to Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard.

At Monday night’s School Committee meeting, Howard laid out the general outline for the new school budget over the coming months.

The process this year will include informal meetings where staff and families can ask questions about the budget and budget process, Howard said. In addition, there will be surveys sent out to staff and families asking them to weigh in on their priorities for the district.

“The principals’ budgets are due to me today,” Howard told the committee on Monday. “They have had the last several weeks where they are working with department heads and teachers and gathering information about needed materials and supplies, looking at enrollment, looking at student needs, and anything else you can think of that a school would need in terms of building their budget. The next step in their process is to gather all that information from their individual school buildings and put into the budget document that you have all seen in the past.”

That document is fairly comprehensive and allows the principals and staff to look at what their needs are and tie them into the school district’s strategic plan and goals.

Once those documents are completed, Howard said the administration meets with principals, assistant principals, and department heads, special education, athletic, and facilities departments to drill down into what the needs are for the schools. That results in a pretty comprehensive budget request which outlines the entire needs of the district which is then brought to the School Committee for its consideration and approval.

Howard noted that this year, there will also be the surveys sent out to parents and staff to gather their input for the budget. In addition, she said she would like to see informal meetings with staff, as well as one with families about the budget process.

“Then the rubber starts to hit the road when we start working with the town to determine from the town side what the town’s allocation may be,” said Howard.

Over the past four to five years, Howard said the school department has presented a needs-based budget to the town, and ended up with a level-service or below level-service budget from the town.

“A level-service budget is taking a look at everything you did in the current school year and having that same level of service, the amount of people and programming for the following school year,” said Howard.

She said a level-service budget is different from a level-funded budget, where a district would receive the same budget figure as the current year, even as costs go up.

“We present what our students need in order to be provided with an equitable education to the surrounding communities,” said Howard. “We will continue to fight for that and advocate for that.”

Howard said she expects there will be several School Committee budget subcommittee meetings over the coming months to get to the point where the committee will get to an actual budget number it will vote on and present to the town.