Running head: Budget Part 2 1

Budget Reflection and Rationale

Emily Stacy

University of New England

EDU 709-School Finance

Professor Smith
February 24, 2016

Budget Part Two

Introduction
I made several changes to the MSAD 55 budget for the following
school year. My district consists of an elementary, middle and high
school. Recently, two elementary schools were closed to create one
central campus and save the district much needed funds. I was able to
sit down with my superintendent and talk about the changes I made
and the consequences of my decisions and the opportunity costs. I
chose to center my decisions around giving our districts more teachers
and support, and cut money from departments where the money goes
to things. I believe educators will give our students the best
education possible and if cuts need to be made we can live with a little
less money in certain departments.
Revenue for our small public school district comes from two main
places. A large amount comes from local taxpayers and another large
amount comes from the State of Maine. One area of my budget I made
a small change in was moving a contingency fund from one article to
another, which makes the money more flexible to use. My budget is
equitable because it does not take away too much money from any
one category, but rather takes a little away from several different
categories.
Enrollment

Budget Part Two

To create my budget for the following year I assumed our
enrollment would go down by about twenty students, as this has been
the trend over the last several years. This trend may be due to fewer
jobs in the area and more community members commuting over an
hour to work. According to Odden and Picus, student enrollment makes
a big difference because class size is something that needs to be
determined for adequate staffing (2014).
Teaching Salaries and Benefits
To begin, I increased all salaries by two percent as this comes
from the Collective Bargaining Agreement. For this matter, I also
increased benefits by four percent. According to my superintendent,
this percentage is a difficult one to calculate, as they do not know the
actual percentage until after the budget is passed. It usually ranges
from three to five percent. According to Roza, school and district unions
have a very strong impact on the school budget and how resources are
allocated (2010).
Cuts
It was difficult to decide where in such a tight budget I could
make cuts. I decided I would be able to cut textbooks by $20,000
because the cost was such a high number and I feel as though
teachers can go with older textbooks if they need to. I also cut supplies
by 15,000 which means teachers will need to make cuts when it comes

Budget Part Two

to supplies. This should still give us enough money to pay for our
membership to a reusable supply store where teachers can get most of
the supplies they need for free.
I also took into account that most likely electricity costs would go
down a little, according to the superintendent. The price of oil has also
been decreasing steadily so Im accounting for that to go down as well.
Taking into account that we will have fewer students I accounted for
less money being spent on technology.
Another area I decided to take money from is the building and
grounds area. I chose to take $75,000 from this section of the budget
because I believe more teachers are more important than
improvements to our facility. We have made some major improvements
over the past few years that I feel as we can go with a little less money
for now in this department.
The only personnel position I am cutting is a part-time guidance
position at the high school. This is because this position was never
filled this year and one guidance counselor did all of the work.
Although this is not ideal, it worked. I feel as though it is more
promising to hire other personnel, where the position is a little more
likely to be filled. The total cost of all the cuts was $143,500.
New Positions

Budget Part Two

In my budget I propose several new changes when it comes to
personnel. I would like to add a .70 physical education teacher. This
would be so the Athletic Director can have his full time position be just
as an athletic director. I feel as though this would make our district
more productive in the athletic area, which promotes school/district
pride.
The other position I would add is a seventh/eighth grade U.S.
History teacher. This position was cut due to smaller class sizes. This
has significantly reduced the amount of social studies knowledge being
learned at the middle school level. Also, teachers have larger class
sizes and are being asked to teach an additional subject. According to
Roza, creating a smaller class load can reduce teacher turn-over
(2010).
Another position I would like to have is an additional educational
technician at the high school level. This is because there is a strong
need from many special education teachers as well as regular
education teachers that there is not enough support. The only support
for many students in special education is for English and math classes.
However, there has been a strong push for more reading and writing in
social studies classes but no support. The total cost of hiring these
additional teachers and support staff is $130,000.
Reflection

Budget Part Two

Although this looks as though I have saved the district $13,500,
this number does not account for the two percent increase for salaries
and the four percent increase for benefits. When adding up my new
budgets with the increases and decreases, it comes out to
13,208,957.3. This is about a 1.3 percent increase from the previous
budget. This may or may not pass when the taxpayers vote and I
would need to go back and make cuts if it didnt.
This was the most mind-blowing experience for me. The impact
salaries and benefits have on the budget is substantial. It makes it hard
to gain anything or make any positive changes if these categories
always have to be accounted for an increase. What I do know is that
my budget does not account for salary differences based on seniority
because retirements are not officially public at this time in the process.
When someone with a lot of seniority retires or resigns the district has
the ability to save some money in this category.
In addition, the district is looking at losing $85,000 from the
State of Maine due to fewer students being in the district. It is likely
that if I were trying to pass this budget I would not be able to add any
new positions but would likely have to cut an instructional position to
gain another and there is not a lot of room to do this in our district.
Throughout this process I was able to feel empathy for my district

Budget Part Two

leaders and better understand why they make the decisions that they
do.
Equity
According to Roza, schools lack equity when it comes to resource
allocation within school districts (2010). My budget accounts for adding
a .70 physical education position, which would teach mostly at the
elementary school, a middle school teacher, and an educational
technician for the high school. In addition, no money was taken from
any school specifically, except the guidance position but that was not
filled this year. All salaries and benefits increase for the entire district.
It does, however, lack equity from the State of Maine because even
though the amount of money from the State is based on enrollment,
our school may have more needs than neighboring schools. I believe
my budget is as equitable as it can be between schools and
departments.

Resources
Odden, A., & Picus, L. (2014). School finance: A policy perspective (5th
ed.). Boston,
Mass.: McGraw-Hill.

Budget Part Two

MSAD55, 2015-2016; Proposed Budget Annual Report. 2016.
Roza, M. (2010). Educational economics: Where do $chool funds go?
Washington,
D.C.: Urban Institute Press.