One hand gives, the other takes away. I posted here yesterday about a smaller than expected Required Net School Spending (RNSS) number for the Dartmouth School Department in FY 2010. That number was more than $1.2 million below the budget projection.
Now it appears that our Greater New Bedford Voke Tech (GNBVT) assessment is up by $377,680 for FY 2010. The budget estimate for that increase was $91,246, a difference of $286,434. One reason for the Voke jump is ...
... that Dartmouth has 22 more students attending than we did a year ago.
The net result for our budgeting process is that we have over-estimated our school spending requirements by around $900K.
The question now is what to do with the money that we are not required to spend for the schools. I think that an equitable way to divide it up is by the percentage of the school spending to the overall budget. In other words, school spending is about 52% of the total town budget. We allocate 52% of the $900K to the schools and the remainder to the non school departments. In round numbers then, $468K would go to the school department and be provided above the RNSS amount. The remaining $432K goes to the non-school town budget.
My reasoning here is that even though the attendance numbers are down at the school department, the cost is not exactly proportional to the student population. We must still heat, light and maintain the same number of buildings and, in most cases, have the same number of classroom teachers despite having 140 fewer students. Providing some level of spending above RNSS softens the blow to the school budget while the School Committee and administrators work out the new budget realities based on their reduced student census.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Voke assessment numbers. Implications for budget
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
12 comments:
Greater New Bedford REGIONAL Vocational Technical High School.
Anyone one notice the operative word there??? I thought it was supposed to SAVE us money not cost us MONEY!! What's this regional thing again?? Yes, lets add Their Problems to our PROBLEMS!! It all makes sense to me. Let me remind all of you that in the state's eyes we are a very RICH community. Therefore we are looked upon as the one with the widest shoulders that's why they all want to jump on our back to hold them afloat. WE sink and drown while they float on our dead corpse. I'm all for this scheme, bring it on. YAHOO!!
Do you have any facts to back up your assertions or are you just ranting?
Let's see North Attleboro DOR comparitive community get's alot more money in state aid than we do. Care to venture why??
Besides i do not want to make comparisons on this website for they are not allowed by Capt. Flannel. Numbers and facts are irrelevant around these parts, just wild accusations, thick headed opinions and Agenda driven motives are all that are needed to influence Dartmouth's future here.
Oh here's another fact many have voiced their opinion how the VOC TECH assessment is wrong and must disputed. All of sudden with CPR being jammed down our collective throats that is all forgotten. How convenient, don't ya think?
I agree that regionalization may present as many problems as it solves. The Voc illustrates this problem perfectly in my opinion-and that it is somehow not mentioned during this rush to regionalize is not lost on me. Look at the Dennis Yarmouth battles that are going on as the 'wealthier' of the 2 comunities demands more service while the other screams 'we can't afford it' No simple, easy answers.
ALL HASTE..hmm repent at leisure..but shouldnt we think before we act..measure twice cut once
Yes, but the town could save money on transportation what else is there to consider?
What exactly is the problem with Voke? They provide a very good education at Minimum Required Net School Spending. It is true when students decide to go to Voke, it reduces the number of students and therefore the money available to our town school department. But the students are well served and the money which would be spent on that child is allocated to Voke. Where is the problem?
Bill, I wasn't sure whether or not Voke operated at RNSS but since you verify that they do, I would say that the increase in students that want to enroll there speaks volumes to the success of the school.
Bill,Bill,Bill how quickly we forget. Remember the much to do about the Voc Tech assessment. Surely you remember, come on buddy. BTW when are the cuts and layoffs coming at Voc Tech or even better the overpaid professors at UMASS Dartmouth. Surely as a member of the conservative party around these parts and working for the regional and state schools they to must feel the pain of these awful economic times. Strangely enough they are not, what shame,i think it would be very noble of them to voluntarily take a layoff or a 35% paycut to save us all tax money.
OH yes operate at RNSS at the expense and on the backs of the Dartmouth taxpayer, not NB or Fairhaven. Politics 101, twist info to fit your argument and take care of your friends.Bravo you graduate.
The issue at Voke was that we were assessed at less than the amount per student that the state foundation budget sets based on the original formula when Voke was established. The new assessment number has the foundation budget money follow the child. That's all there is to it.
New Bedford and Fairhaven have different amounts of state aid and although their local contribution is lower than Dartmouth's, the per student funding is the same for those communities as well.
As for UMass Dartmouth, check out the headlines today, State college funds slashed
If it is as simple as that why are we then suing the state about it?
Post a Comment