Pittsfield Public Schools begin FY ’14 budget process

PITTSFIELD – As neighboring districts wrap up their budget seasons, the school administration recently began the budget process with the school committee.

In order to give some context for the fiscal year 2014 budget, Deputy Superintendent N. Tracy Crowe and Assistant Superintendent for Business and Finance Kristen C. Behnke gave presentations to the Pittsfield School Committee on grants, school choice and enrollment.

“This is the big picture about what you’ll be hearing at the next budget meeting [on April 24],” Dr. Crowe said.

For FY ’13, the district received $7,908,603 in grant funding, a decrease of just over $1 million from FY ’12, at $9,006,668, according to the deputy superintendent.

Enrollment is also a declining number for the district (and the county). As of October 2012, 5,987 students attend Pittsfield Public Schools; 5,955 are anticipated for FY ’14.

Pittsfield has also been losing a substantial number of students to school choice. According to Ms. Behnke, 392 students choice out, while only 84 choice in to the district. In addition, 106 students attend BArT (Berkshire Arts and Technology) Charter School from Pittsfield, bringing the total number of students leaving Pittsfield to 498.

Committee discussion

After seeing these numbers, members of the school committee began to discuss ways to improve the district’s school choice and enrollment figures.

School Committee Vice Chair Daniel C. Elias brought up the subject of hiring someone to do publicity for the district, something the administration and other committee members thought was a good idea.

“Having someone who does publicity for the district would be wonderful,” Ms. Behnke said.

Mr. Elias said the position would need to be long-term, not just for one year as the district has done in the past.

“It has to be a multi-year approach,” he said.

Meanwhile, School Committee Member Terry M. Kinnas expressed concern about the whole timing and organization of the district’s budget process.

“We’re a little behind the curve,” he said.

Mr. Kinnas specifically said he would like regular updates on the school improvement plans during school committee meetings, suggesting the process start in September, with one or two schools presenting per meeting.

He also suggested this would be a way to keep parents and taxpayers informed of what’s going on at the schools.

“If you want to have all of the parents buy in, let them know where their money’s going,” he said.

Mr. Kinnas’ comments were met with a mixture of agreement and disagreement from his fellow committee members and the school administration.

Interim Superintendent Gordon L. Noseworthy said he “saw some validity” to Mr. Kinnas’ concerns, but added some of his suggestions seemed like an attempt to do some “micro-managing.”

Budget schedule

Also as part of the preliminary presentation, the administration announced the schedule for the rest of the budget season.

At the school committee’s April 24 meeting, the full budget will be presented, to be followed with a workshop on the budget at the May 8 meeting. A public hearing on the FY ’14 budget will take place during the May 23 meeting, with the school committee hoping to approve the budget at or before its June 12 meeting.

All of the meetings are scheduled for 6 p.m. at the Pittsfield High School library, except for the June 12 one, to be held at Pittsfield City Hall in the city council chambers.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on April 18, 2013. Filed under Education News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry