On Saturday, November 2nd, the ConVal Schoolboard met with administrators and school principals at the SAU office for a day-long budget development workshop.
Budgets established by the eight elementary schools, two middle schools, and the high school were examined, as were the district’s administrative expenses and program offerings.
This first round in the district-wide budget development process began with three sets of assumptions for the 2019-2020 fiscal year — procedural, financial, and programmatic.
Procedural assumptions are those assumptions that support the mission, vision, and values of the District. These assumptions include referencing ConVal class size guidelines, annual reviews of Special Education caseloads, and the potential reallocation of existing resources.
Financial assumptions primarily deal with fixed costs. They include items such as collective bargaining agreements, contractual obligations, health insurance costs, utilities, and legal obligations.
Programmatic assumptions deal with curriculum, the continuum of services for identified students, community education program, and technology investments and upgrades.
Board members looked over every line item to determine what the overall expected expenditures would look like for the 2019-2020 school year and where savings could be made.
Another development session is planned for November 13th when budget portions will be further researched and revised before the Budget and Property Committee meeting at 5:30 pm that day.
The budget will continue to be reviewed and refined before it will be presented to voters in March 2019.
