Pittsfield Public Schools reveal proposed FY ’14 budget

PITTSFIELD – During a recent school committee meeting, Interim Superintendent Gordon L. Noseworthy presented a preliminary fiscal year 2014 budget of $56,762,983.

“My job is to advocate for the children,” Dr. Noseworthy said, indicating he was doing so through the presented budget.

That $56.7 million-plus figure is a 4.9 percent increase over FY ’13, but it is expected to go down as town officials and school administrators work together over the next couple of weeks.

Pittsfield Mayor Daniel L. Bianchi, who also is a school committee member, expressed a desire to cut that increase in half, to two-and-a-half to three percent.

The mayor’s office had a proposed budget of $55.4 million for the schools; as presented by Dr. Noseworthy, a level-service budget (with increases due to contractual obligations) would come in at $55,456,399.

Increases

The school administration’s proposed additions of $1.3 million bring the total budget to the $56.7 million-plus figure.

A substantial share of the increases revolve around improving the district’s vocational programs. In FY ’13, the district spent $109,750 on CVTE (career vocational technical education), where the state average for spending on the programming Pittsfield has in place is $292,000.

To find a middle ground, Dr. Noseworthy came up with $182,250 as the proposed figure for FY ’14.

One major vocational-related cost is the addition of 2.4 FTE teaching positions to implement the week on-week off schedule for Taconic High School CVTE students.

“Local initiatives come with a cost,” Dr. Noseworthy said, highlighting the importance of improving the CVTE programming to retain and draw in students.

A final FY ’14 budget is expected to be presented at the school committee’s May 22 meeting (scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Pittsfield High School library), which will also serve as a public hearing. Following the hearing, the school committee is scheduled to vote on approving the budget.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on May 2, 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