The Edgecomb School Committee submitted a budget of approximately $2.15 million to the budget committee Monday, March 9. Despite the previously stated hopes for a decrease in the school budget, Eddy School’s budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is a 2.4 percent increase from the previous year.
Regular instruction costs are the lion’s share of the school budget with the majority of regular instruction funds earmarked for tuition payments. Regular instruction, which includes teacher’s salaries, insurance, and elementary and secondary tuition payments, composes $1,375,889 of Edgecomb’s projected $2,151,393 obligation to the Eddy School.
Eddy School currently has 82 students enrolled in grades K-6. The estimated instructional cost for those students in the 2015-2016 fiscal year is $639,358 – a $3,552 increase from the previous year.
The increase in regular instruction costs for K-6 includes a mandated 3.3 percent raise in Eddy School teachers’ salaries, negotiated in their union contract.
The combined tuition cost for elementary and secondary school students is $736,531. Tuition payments jumped by $193,457 from the previous year’s tuition cost of $543,074, an increase caused, in part, by new reporting requirements for special education tuition costs.
Tuition for special education students can no longer be reported under the special education budget.
The change in reporting requirements is visible in the special education line item of the Eddy School budget, which reflects a decrease of $134,240.
Edgecomb is projected to be responsible for the tuition payments of 79 students, Eddy School Principal Lisa Clark said, adding that list is constantly under review to ensure students are legal residents of Edgecomb.
Tuition rates are determined by the state, AOS 98 superintendent Eileen King said.
The system administration cost, Edgecomb’s portion of AOS 98’s budget, is $93,095 – a modest increase from the previous year’s cost of $92,775. Edgecomb is responsible for 18 percent of AOS 98’s budget, King said, due to a cost sharing formula determined by the state.
The line item has remained low due to an agreed salary freeze for the superintendent, curriculum and technology director, and special education director, school committee members said.
The maintenance line item of the school budget reflected a $6,760 decrease due, in part, to a projected decrease in fuel costs.
Debt services for Eddy School, however, increased by $3,476, due to the loan payment for Eddy School’s new tractor.
The new tractor is projected to cost $4,414 for the 2015-2016 fiscal year. Edgecomb will vote in May whether to sell Eddy School’s old tractor, currently in use at the fire station, to offset the loan for the new one. The sale of the old tractor, school committee member said, could reduce the 2015-2016 budget by an estimated $6,000 to $7,000.
Eddy School’s budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal year also includes a new expenditure for instructional technology. The school hopes to purchase 15 new iPads to replace laptops for grades 4 to 6 at a cost of $10,185. The purchase is being made, in part, to help prepare students for a new round of standardized testing to begin the next school year, AOS 98 superintendent Eileen King said.
Eddy School is also facing a repair to the cistern supplying water to the school. The water currently held in the cistern has high iron levels causing discoloration, Clarke said. The school committee is currently reviewing proposals to fix it before the problem spreads to the school’s sprinkler system.
A high estimate for the needed work is around $20,000, King said, noting that it was a soft number and too early in the project’s development to provide an accurate estimate. The funds for the project were not included in the Eddy School budget.
The budget committee and school committee determined that funds from the town’s reserve account for the school could be used to fund the repair of the cistern. The school committee stated they would be in touch with selectmen as the project developed.
“I think you’ve worked hard on this budget,” budget committee chair Northrup Fowler said to King, Clark, and members of the school committee. “I’m sorry to see it go up, but it’s realistic.”
