DE,RBY PIJBLIC SCHOOLS

PO Box 373 Derby, Connecticut 06418

(2 0 3) 73 6- 5 02

7' fax (2 0 3) 73 6- s 03

I'

www. derbyp

s.

org

Dr. Stephen Tracy

Super inte ndent of S cho ol s

May
To the Board of Apportionment

17

,2012

& Taxation:

Thank you for this opportunrty to share a few thoughts with you regarding the Board of Education's FY2013 budget request.

As you know, the Board of Education presented you with a budget request in
March of this year calling for total school spending of $16,169,000. Compared to the total current year appropriation of $15,548,000, the school request amounted to an increase of $621,000 or 4Ya.

Mindful of the fiscal challenges that you face, including the impact of declining assessments for many of the properties on the grand list, I want to tell you that I believe the school district budget request can be responsibly reduced by about $200,000. That would bring us to an FY2013 of $15,969,000 - or about $421,000 over the FY2012 appropriation of $15,548,000. That's about a2.7%o increase.

am prepared to recommend that sort'of a reduction to the Board of Education. I believe we can make that reduction with minimal loss of current staff. It will probably mean just restoring one of the four librarians that we had to eliminate from the budget a couple of years ago - rather than the three that the Board had hoped to restore. And it will mean less in the way of curriculum development and staff training that we were hoping to accomplish. But I believe we can manage it.

In the category of good news, I reviewed our payroll and medical benefit rolls today and was able to verify that the number of Board of Education employees who are enrolled in the Anthem benefit pro$am has actually been reduced by 12 since the school district turned the benefit program over to the city on July 1, 2011. That should mean that the new positions that the Board of Education is hoping to fund for next year can be added within the city's existing estimates of
benefit costs.

And more good news. Due to a relatively mild winter, a favorable experience with unemployment, and the recent decision by the state to increase Special Education Excess Cost funding, the Board of Education is projecting a substantial year-end balance for FY20l2. This will enable us to make some much needed purchases for our schools, including some supply and equipment items that we may have to cut from next year's budget, and still return a significant amount of money to the city at year's end. I hope you will see this as a good faith effort on our part to spend money prudently and to return funds to you if we truly to not need them for our schools.
Thank you for your attention, and good luck in your deliberations!

cc: Board of Education