The W-H Regional School District on Wednesday, Feb. 2 unveiled a $58,939,591 fiscal 2023 budget — a 3.7 percent increase that “adjusts to the needs of the post-COVID student.”
The assessment for Hanson will be $13,372,100.76 — or 39.4 percent — and Whitman would be assessed $16,936,529.76 — or 60.6 percent of the total assessments.
“This is just a global view of what we feel we need, coming out of the gate, for the FY ’22-’23 school year — hopefully getting back to somewhat normal,” Superintendent of Schools Jeffrey Szymaniak said in introducing the presentation. “The past two years have been very difficult on us as a society, our community, our school system and, especially, our students. Masks, hybrid learning, remote learning missing school days due to COVID, being ill and quarantined, have affected our students, academically, socially and in ways that we have not yet determined.”
It was the first time the School Committee members were receiving the budget documents, according to Chairman Christopher Howard, and all members were given the opportunity to ask questions after Szymaniak’s presentation. School Committee member David Forth attended the meeting remotely.
“This is the start of the budget process,” Howard said. “The presentation is tonight, we will have time at the next meeting to go through it, as well.”
W-H Business Manager John Stanbrook, in reviewing the calculations involved in determining assessments said there are 26 financial documents posted on the district’s website (whrsd.org/school_committee_budget/budget). He said the districts excess and deficiency account — generally used to finance unexpected expenses — began the budget process with a balance of $1,868,318. Proposed uses of the funds are: year two and three of the Whitman water bill settlement ($123,885); half of the full-day kindergarten start-up cost of ($370,404.64); and for Chromebook purchases ($400,000) for a total of $894,288.64 in expenses, with an ending balance of $974,000. Szymaniak said all the district’s Circuit Breaker funding has also been used in calculating the budget. He said it was up to the committee to decide how much of E&D funds they wished to use to help balance the budget.
The meeting may be streamed on the WHCA-TV YouTube channel and is rebroadcast on its educational television channel.
In addition to fulfilling the needs post-COVID students, Szymaniak said the budget works toward the strategic plan initiatives that support School Committee goals while providing academic and social services to all 3,442 students in the district.
“Although the budget presented tonight doesn’t get the district to where I think I’d like us to be, it’s definitely a movement in the right direction for all of our kids,” he said.
School Committee priorities voted on last summer are tuition-free all-day kindergarten, one-to-one student personal electronic devices and a robust related arts curriculum.
Anticipated increases in the budget include contractual increases for staff, custodians and transportation; special ed services; insurance costs; moving staff salaries from expiring grants to the budget; building utilities; $740,000+ tuition for full-day K; and two special ed teachers (paid with federal funds). Unanticipated increases include an increase in charter school tuitions. He also reviewed setbacks and achievements of the past three years.
The student-to-teacher ratio is now 14.6:1 thanks to recent faculty additions, with the only larger ratios in the area at Bridgewater-Raynham and Abington. The state average is 13.4:1.
“We’re better than we were and I thank the communities for supporting our budget in the past,” Szymaniak said.
Enrollment is dropping, however the district is starting to stabilize in the elementary grades. Student enrollments and departures during the school year make projections difficult, he said.
As student numbers decline Szymaniak said teachers now on staff may be used to fill retirement vacancies throughout the district.
There are 670 special education students now enrolled in the district with individual education plans (IEPs) — 456 are in full-inclusion within general classrooms. 95 in partial-enrollment programs, 78 substantially separate from general classrooms and 42 in separate school placements.
Full-day kindergarten implementation will require an additional three teachers and three paraprofessionals at $740,804.27 in FY ’23.
“I think it’s been on the docket for quite a while,” Szymaniak said.
School choice students at the high school, meanwhile should bring about $309,154 to the district.
Szymaniak said that, since full-day kindergarten has been a topic of conversation for some time, he proposed three option to fund a fully tuition free program.
“I took the one right in the middle,” he said.
Option 1 would use no excess and deficiency funds and would increase assessments to $17,160,993.87 for Whitman and $13,518,039.80 for Hanson. Last year’s assessments were $16,104,903.22 for Whitman and $12,646,117.72 for Hanson.
Option 2 would use excess and deficiency for 50 percent of the startup cost — or $370,404.64 — and would put Whitman’s assessment at $16,936,529.27 and Hanson’s at $13,372,100.76.
Option 3 would use excess and deficiency to fully fund the $740,804.27 startup cost with Whitman’s assessment being $16,712,064.67 and Hanson’s at $13,226,161.73.
School choice
Tuition for students going to other districts will cost an estimated $222,684 and charter school tuition will cost $1,043,981 — up $229,827 from the current year.
“That was unexpected,” he said. “We do get some back, but it doesn’t cover that [gap].”
Special education is one of a handful of uses for which the district may use federal ESSERIII (Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Act) funds. ESSER II ($1,001,704 which must be spent by Sept. 30, 2023) and III ($2,314,697 which must be spent by Sept. 30, 2024) are multi-year grants. There are strict stipulations on how the ESSER funds can be used.
There are about 1,400 Chrombooks that are expected to reach end of life in June, meaning they are no longer useable for testing, assessments or the current curriculum. The district already has the replacements for those, but another 1,500 go out in 2026 and the district must begin planning to replace them, according to Assistant Superintendent George Ferro.
“We’re trying to get on a fiscal cycle of where we can earmark that money — keep that money, but now know that yearly we’re putting that through,” he said.
While the budget can be worked on up until the Monday, May 2 town meetings, it must be certified and sent to the towns by March 19, so Szymaniak has scheduled Wednesday, March 16 as the vote to meet that deadline.