HANOVER — South Shore Tech is proposing a fiscal 2024 budget of $15,280,290 an increase of 2.5 percent over fiscal 2023 — the region’s School Committee learned at its Wednesday, Dec. 21 meeting.
“We’re building a budget for what we need,” Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said, noting that district officials are watching revenue information. “You can’t build a legitimate budget without knowing legitimate revenue … but this is an initial starting point.”
That information gap regarding the budget bottom line is due to state rules granting new governors more time to draft their spending plans
SST is not affected by a 14 percent increase in state-mandated special education tuition because the district does not have students in out-of-district special education placements.
Hickey reviewed the SST budget development process and some of the highlights of the spending plan at an early stage that the committee and community should know about as well as giving updates on the MSBA process and district expansion as Marshfield decides if it wants to join the district. If that moves forward, it could appear on town meeting warrants this year, as well.
“The budget building process starts early for us because we have to certify a budget 45 days before our earliest town meeting,” Hickey said.
Three of the eight member towns hold annual town meeting in early April. To meet the February deadline for that, SST begins the process at the department level in October as work begins to built the district’s zero-based budget.
“Planning for this fiscal year, unlike a lot of fiscal years, is a challenge because we have a new governor, and with that the governor is afforded extra time to put out a budget,” Hickey said.
That means SST officials will not receive a clear picture of Chapter 70 aid until March.
But there is no debt for fiscal 2024, other than plans for replacing the existing bus fleet, which have been in the works for five years.
The sole capital expenditure in the budget will cover a new bid process for the propane bus fleet for which the lease was paid off early. In late FY ’24, the district can leverage the existing fleet for equity, retaining some spares for a lower lease payment.
He said the district will not be incurring debt until it is a “little deeper into the MSBA project.”
Hickey also anticipates a lower annual cost for the successor lease.
While enrollment for member towns is increasing, non-resident enrollment is falling off, largely due to state enrollment regulations.
The shifting of three positions from grants onto budgets for $117,435, including part-time nurse a speech language pathologist, a social worker and a shift to a full-time salaried athletics director are also planned.
Among the accomplishments of fiscal 2023 have been:
• A robust co-op education program;
• Securing outside funds through Skills Capital, Mass Life Science and CTI grants;
• The district has been invited into the Massachusetts School Building Authority funding program; and
• Students have shown strong MCAS growth despite pandemic pressures.
“We’re very happy to say that our co-op program continues [to be successful],” Hickey said. “It’s seen now as the ‘new normal.’ We have lots of students eager to go to work [while] doing what they need to do to keep their grades up. Our employer partners are stronger than ever.”
Competitive grants are providing $250,000 for automotive programs, and a $2.5 million grant for renovations to culinary arts and carpentry programs that will be detailed in a future meeting. The ESSER III federal COVID grant funds will also be used to support the fiscal 2024 budget. Nearly $450,000 in other grants support program positions at the school as well.
“I do not have numbers for next year, but I’m operating under the premise that they will be level funded,” Hickey said.
Hanson’s enrollment has increased by four students for the current school year and Whitman’s by 11. Only Norwell and Rockland have seen slight declines in their enrollment numbers.
“Enrollment matters,” Hickey said. “We know enrollment drives assessments.”
By January, the district will have an owner’s project manager to present to MSBA for the planned renovation and expansion project, so in February the organization can conduct it’s panel review of the OPM and potentially allow SST to begin the next steps, and the project team should be in place by the end of 2023. Hickey estimates that, at best, the final design and cost estimates could be brought to towns by late fiscal 2025.