$3.07M Increase (5.09%) Superintendent's Budget Recommendation Part I - Certified Salaries

During last night's BOE Business meeting, Dr. Florio presented his 2011-2012 Budget Recommendation of $63,448,229 or an increase over the current 2010-2011 Budget ($60,377,875) of $3,070,424. This represents a 5.09% requested increase...The full presentation from last night can be viewed here. This post will be the first in a series that will break down the budget into more detail and, hopefully, will foster a constructive dialogue throughout the budget process.



Part I breaks down the accounts representing the 5.09% increase:

The account summary above is from the presentation last night. However, it doesn't show the true picture as it doesn't include the $540,000 one-time Federal Teacher Stimulus grant that will be used in 2011-2012. Without the grant, the increase would be $3,610,424 or 6% increase. This grant will expire, be used up, at the end of the 2011-2012 school year. Where appropriate, I'll highlight the impacts grants have on our finance throughout the series.

Let's break down the summary above into the it's corresponding budget accounts taken from BM-1 in the 2011-2012 Budget Workbook:

Certified Salaries:
This line item increase of $1,237,053 includes:

• $120,099 in Administrative Salaries (Administration, Directors/Supervisors/Principals/Asst Principals)
• $90,793 of which is due to the loss off Federial Stimulus Funding under the ARRA program. A portion of the Director of Pupil Services salary was paid under this grant in 2009/10 and 2010/11.
• $1,083,524 in Teacher's contracted salary increases.
• $11,760 in Homebound Teachers
• $21,670 for Student Activities & Adult Education
• Salaries for sports coaches and faculty advisors for extra-curricular activities at the High School and Middle School are included here. The Education Association of Cheshire contract calls for a 2.4% increase in these stipends.

In Part II, we'll break down the Non-Certified salaries & Employee Benefits.