Understanding the Budget

Greetings,

While some economists point to signs that the nation’s economy is improving, others say the U.S. faces a much slower climb out of the recession – a scenario that will have a huge effect on public education in the coming years.

In December, the School Board was given an overview of the district’s proposed 2010 budget. Board members learned that real estate transfers in our eight municipalities were at an all time low and property tax appeals were at an all time high. The preliminary budget presented showed a significant gap between anticipated revenue and expenses, with the potential need of a tax increase to meet that gap.

There is no question that today’s economic realities will require us to cut back on district expenditures. All district schools and departments are being asked to make some very hard decisions regarding their budgets. Although we will continue to put the needs of our students first; we must streamline and cut where we can.

In the face of these intended budget cuts, our guiding principles are simple:

* identify reductions in order to close a significant gap between revenue and expenses
* look at all programs and district expenditures
* limit cuts in the classroom to ensure continued high quality education offerings
* operate non-classroom services as leanly as possible in order to keep the maximum amount of our dollars in the classroom
* identify new revenue sources

My Goal is to continue to keep our community informed as we work through this budget process. We invite you to use this website to learn more about the district budget.  If you have a question, please click on the yellow button above.  We will do our best to answer and add every frequently asked question to this website.

Dr. Larry Mussoline,
Superintendent