The District begins crafting the budget for the coming year in late fall. Administrators and building principals develop lists of their needs and wishes. These lists are reviewed and refined by the District’s Finance Team with the goal of fulfilling our vision and obtaining the best educational outcomes for our students.
At the same time, District leaders work collaboratively with officials in our sending communities to understand more about their challenges within the confines of Proposition 2 ½.The School Committee reviews these proposals, and votes on a final budget number. Any final changes will be made and then the budget is expected to be voted by the School Committee on March 14, 2024.
Proposition 2 ½ is a state law that caps the amount of money each community can increase taxes each year. Voters must be asked permission to increase that cap, in both Town Meeting votes and on a referendum ballot. For example, voters needed to approve spending for the new NM High School in this way. There are several options for a Proposition 2.5 override, they include a debt exclusion such as the approved NM High School or an operational override which becomes a permanent part of the tax levy.
Simply, the costs of providing an education are rising by more than the 2.5 percent cap under the law. The challenges we are facing: Increasing operating costs, health insurance premiums, collective bargaining agreements, staffing and transportation costs.
Further, our sending communities provide about two-thirds of our funding. The remaining one-third comes from state aid. However, the state does not always recognize its legal commitment to full funding of mandated programs, such as special education and transportation, and has provided districts such as NMRSD minimal aid increases each year. For the 2024-2025 school year, the District is expecting to receive an additional $30 per student or $92,910. Adding the transportation and Charter School Reimbursements, the number actually is less than we received in Fy2024 by $22,991.
These increases do not begin to cover inflationary increases that are baked into each year’s budget. And each year, more of the cost of a NMRSD education is shouldered by the communities.
The District budget comes into sharper focus as we receive new information. State aid estimates are currently based on the Governor’s budget proposal. There are a number of additional items that are not available at this time but will likely come in before town meetings. These include final regular transportation numbers as well as Group Insurance Commission (GIC) retiree Health Assessment.
We anticipate having these numbers available shortly. The towns on average with their budgets can usually support a 3.0 % increase in assessments. Based on preliminary numbers and estimates, the District is facing a projected shortfall of $3,314,000.
The Finance Team does a terrific job finding innovative ways to provide educational excellence within the constraints of our budget. As a result, NMRSD has fallen well behind the state, peer schools and neighboring districts in Per Pupil Expenditure and Net School Spending. We are currently $1,535 under the state average based on the Per Pupil Expenditures from FY2022 (most current available)
Years of cutting corners left us few places to find cost savings for this school year without significantly affecting students and services. We therefore are asking voters to approve an override of Proposition 2 ½ in the spring of 2024. This additional funding will raise per-pupil to the state and regional averages. The last request of this nature was in 2012. Without an override, we will be in the difficult position of cutting budgeted positions, reducing program offerings, and increasing or implementing user fees.
Although we have no way to “guarantee” future budget needs, it is expected that an approved override for the school district will be able to provide level services for a number of years. There are unknowns with regard to the future of state aid, or unsettled contracts but we are confident that providing this increase will go a long way to supporting the school’s needs. The last approved override was from 2012 and we have been able to make it for almost 12 years.
Be informed. By watching meetings and reviewing budget documents, residents receive a fuller picture of the District and its challenges, and will be more informed when voting at Town Meeting or the ballot box.
Here is the enrollment in each school. Also, this DESE website link has more detailed enrollment by school for the state (from FY24) by grade, which might be useful. We aren’t able to give exact data “by Town” as we need to avoid providing data where students could be specifically identified. In some of our schools, the town enrollments are very low.
https://profiles.doe.mass.edu/statereport/enrollmentbygrade.aspx
| NMRSD Enrollment by School as of 3-12-24 | |
| Total Students | |
| Ashby Elementary | 152 |
| Spaulding Memorial School | 427 |
| Varnum Brook Elementary School | 619 |
| Hawthorne Brook Middle School | 454 |
| Nissitissit Middle School | 490 |
| North Middlesex HS | 744 |
| Squannacook Early Childhood | 119 |
| Out-of-District Students | 75 |
| Special Placement (Gateway) | 13 |
| 3093 |