School officials are projecting budget increases around 5 percent for the five years beyond the 2007-08 school year.
The Westport Board of Education discussed a five-year budget projection model during its meeting tonight. The school board has a $88.9 million 2007-08 school budget proposal, which is a 8.4 percent increase, that will be reviewed by the Board of Finance next week.
The budget model shows that the school budget will reach $114.2 million in the 2012-2013 fiscal year, and the budget is projected to increase 5.3 percent, 5.2 percent, 5.1 percent, 5.1 percent and 5 percent.
Schools Superintendent Elliott Landon said the model was created as a discussion tool during the budget approval process with the finance board and eventually the Representative Town Meeting.
Nancy Harris, assistant superintendent for business, said she can project certain items such as salaries, but the biggest unknown lies with utilities.
School officials have locked in electricity costs for three years, she said, but there are constant additional costs.
There is also no sense on oil or gas prices in the future, she said.
During recent meetings, many have asked why the current budget proposal is higher than predictions, Landon said.
“In the past we tried to be conservative and erred on the low side,” he said.
Now they are planning to err on the high side, he said.
“There is a growing inflation trend,” he said. “It looks that it will continue to go higher, but it’s not clear how high.”
Board Vice Chairwoman Marge Cion—running the meeting in place of Chairwoman Mary Parmelee, who was ill—said the board needs to measure its appetite for future costs, but she’s not sure the budget model is the right tool for it.
“This is something to put the town on notice for what is down the road,” she said.
I would sign up for under 6% for 5 years right now. I can’t recall any year in the past 10 where the increase was under 5%. Put it in their contract.
Anyone know where to look for the past budgets?
At least the board (with the exception of two) is doing their part to help save money by voting to implement a full day kindergarten. Yes that’s right, they were convinced by Dr. Landon that a full day kindergarten would save money. I wonder if he told them that Pit Bulls make excellent lap dogs, would they question it.