The School Year Never Ends

By Ejay Lockwood

With a population of 167 students, Botelle School represents the largest single expenditure in the town of Norfolk’s budget. One might wonder how that amount is justified and how the money is divvied up.  A good way to understand the budget is to “follow the money,” and that comes down to having a basic understanding of the process.
Within this year’s proposed budget; 70 percent goes to salaries and benefits of the people who work at the school. Another 20 percent is for purchased services, things like heating oil, school buses and other necessities. Seven percent is for supplies and materials, another two percent is for capital outlays (building improvements and maintenance), and finally, a miscellaneous category accounts for the remaining one percent.  
Each year, around Thanksgiving, the Board of Education (BOE), the superintendent of schools and the administration of the school (in partnership with the teachers) begin to plot out what the following year will look like from both a student population, and student need perspective. Student need starts with making sure that Connecticut school law is complied with, but gains complexity as these mandates are applied to a specific population of a school. With this information in mind, they then begin to gauge how this student body may or may not impact the number and expertise of the personnel on hand at the school.  
By the time January rolls around, the first draft of the budget, including projections of what will be received from state and federal sources, begins to take shape[R1].  
While the BOE meets once per month, in January and February they add two sessions dedicated solely to the budget.  A “solid” draft is due in the selectmen’s office by March 1. In case you haven’t attended one of these meetings in the past, one of the first items on the agenda of every BOE meeting is public comment, so if one wants to express an opinion or concern, one can do so without sitting through an entire meeting. The Thanksgiving to March timeline makes it clear just how important it is to participate in the process during this special time of year.  
In the middle of March, the BOE meets with the Board of Finance to justify the proposed expenditures. In a late-April town hearing,  anyone[R2] may make the case for budgets to be increased or decreased. The annual town budget meeting follows in mid-May, but during this meeting, budgets can only be decreased.
As a final step, there are often state or federal grants that can be attained and added to the budget. Volunteer organizations, most prominently the PTO, also allocate funds to the school for important cultural programs. 
Once July 1 rolls around, the new fiscal year begins, and the school, administration and BOE track the monthly expenditures against the annual budget, until the process begins anew.