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What’s Going On:
- The Sudbury Public Schools (SPS) leadership met with the Sudbury Finance Committee on Monday, December 9 to talk about budget pressures in the current fiscal year.
- After about an hour of discussion, SPS leadership concluded their time with the Finance Committee and moved on to their own meeting later that night. But the Finance Committee continued discussion about SPS transfers and how the district manages Circuit Breaker special education reimbursement funds from the State.
- The Finance Committee is trying to get a grasp of where the money is moving within the SPS budget and across fiscal years, but after multiple discussions and correspondence with SPS, members lamented that it was still unclear.
- Member John Baranowsky said “If I went and looked at all the transfers that have been made would I be able then, if I spent that time and effort, would I be able to know which line item they came from? Were they coming from the Circuit Breaker or were they coming from somewhere else? So it still leaves it, to me, it’s still an open issue. Or I agree that its not clear. It’s still not transparent. We’re getting there, but it’s death by a thousand paper cuts, it usually seems with this.” (1:19:30)
- Co-chair Mike Ferrari highlighted that there’s still a lack of clarity around the sources of additional funding for a recent SPS HVAC project. (1:22:50)
- Members did feel that they were getting closer to clarity after the latest discussion, but there was more to discuss and look into in future conversations.
Why It’s Important:
- Public schools tend to require flexibility in their budgets as student needs are constantly changing. The Finance Committee was careful not to suggest that SPS was doing anything wrong with their budget, while also working to improve clarity and transparency.
- A recent Finance Committee meeting featured a conversation with a Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education representative who told the committee that school districts manage Circuit Breaker funding differently, and that most approaches were acceptable so long as the district is transparent in what they are doing. (More here.)
