BFA, Fairfax budget plan increase less than 1 percent
By LISA M. BOUCHER
Messenger Correspondent
From The Weekend Edition Of The St. Albans Messenger
February 20, 2010
FAIRFAX— Citing a bad economy and monetary issues for schools and education in general, the local school board has proposed a budget increase of less than one percent.
The budget plan, presented to taxpayers earlier this month, stands at $11,415,155 a 0.86 percent increase over the current budget for a total monetary increase of $97,214. That figure includes federal funds.
This year the school has nearly $300,000 in ARRA (federal stimulus) money that it says it intends to use wisely on things that won't need to be funded once the money is gone in 2012.
The elimination of a full-time technology integration teacher was among the concerns Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax officials addressed at the Feb. 8 budget presentation.
"We really thought long and hard about it," said Peg Stewart. "But we've worked it out so students will receive technology instruction as part of their library time."
She and other board members explained that the “mobile lab" (a traveling cart of laptop computers and gear) manned by the instructor was only to be a temporary offering, which had reached its anticipated end.
Tom Walsh, BFA Middle School principal, stressing the point that technology learning will not be lost just because the position is eliminated, said, "All of the teachers have been trained for this. We've been integrating technology into the classrooms wherever we can."
He added that teachers are using Smartboards, a computerized dry erase white board that is replacing the standard dry erase white board, which in turn replaced the chalkboard. The 21st century classroom innovation has interactive technology built into it.
Walsh noted that students respond positively to this particular technology and most can troubleshoot a problem better as well as the instructors (due to the fact that technology has been such a big part of their lives since birth).
"We're teaching for future jobs and we don't even know what they're going to be," he said.
The majority of the school budget, contrary to a view held by some, is not fully funded through the local property tax. It is about one-third of the amount. State contributions make up approximately 36 percent of the annual funds.
The school board - utilizing a comparative line graph - also addressed its assertion that there is no correlation between school spending and the rise in property taxes. While school budget increases over the past four years remained relatively consistent, averaging 4.5 percent, the taxes increased about another 4 percent above the school budget each year, except one.
The Common Level of Appraisal (CLA), a statewide system certifying that properties of equal value are assessed equal taxes, is unstable and changes with every property sale in the community. The CLA has increased this year, due to current property assessments.
The estimated local proposed education tax rate is $1.2063 (based on homestead rate of $0.88), the estimated non-residential rate is $1.5000 (based on non-residential rate of $1.37).
Other Fairfax school budget highlights include a fourth kindergarten teacher and para-educator (0.67 FTE) that have been added due to increased enrollment. Inconsistent with reports from the state, BFA has not seen a decline in student enrollment in more than 10 years. The student body has remained stable at around 1,000 students in grades K-12.
There were some questions from the floor regarding full-day kindergarten being added this year. It had been initially proposed and then removed from the final budget last year; much to the chagrin of some parents, faculty, and administrators.
"Unfortunately, there is no money for this," said Lisa Delorme, BFA Elementary School, principal. "It could be a long time the way it looks."
Other noteworthy changes to the budget are a now vacant maintenance position (1.0 FTE) that was moved to the supervisory union as a director of facilities to oversee all the schools in the supervisory union. A compensatory education teacher was also assigned to the supervisory union.
This cost sharing has been instituted to save money, when feasible. Such positions are removed from the BFA budget to the supervisory union budget to be shared by the three schools. An information technology position was moved there last year.
The 1999 bond debt was retired in December 2009 and there was reduction in administrative support with the elimination of the audio/visual assistant position and a reduction of the bookkeeper hours.
Buildings & Grounds equipment is to be replaced as well as the Student Management System. Updated heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning unit installation in classrooms will continue this year. This has been a budget item for a number of years.
BFA was once again below the state average of $12,034 per equalized pupil cost at $10,665 the next to the lowest in surrounding towns. The only school lower is Bakersfield Elementary and Middle School. A total of three schools were under $11,000 in the area. Four schools were under $12,000 and four were over the state average.