Latest news with #CapitalImprovementsProjects
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Manchester school board sends $246 million budget to aldermen for approval
Feb. 23—Manchester school board members have voted to recommend the district's proposed $246 million Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal be sent to aldermen for approval. The vote followed a public hearing Thursday night at West High School on the budget that failed to entice a single member of the public to speak in favor or against the proposal. Also recommended for approval was the school district's 2026 School Food and Nutrition Budget of $6.3 million and the 2025 Capital Improvements Projects (CIP) plan of $6.6 million. According to Superintendent of Schools Jennifer Chmiel, the budget supports 11,865 Manchester School District students, as well as services at charter and parochial schools. It also supports several areas of student success, including educational programming, hiring and retention, improved measures of college and career readiness, improved graduation rates and the start of priority one facilities projects. "On behalf of the district, I would like to thank the Board of School Committee for approving our tax-cap compliant budget proposal," Chmiel said Friday. "I have the responsibility of preparing a responsible, tax cap-compliant budget that funds our priorities and continues to meet the needs of our students. We remain one of the lowest-funded districts in the state, thousands below the average in per-pupil spending. This forces us to be diligent, thoughtful and creative in seeking efficiencies. Parameters of tax cap "We worked hard in developing this budget to ensure we are meeting the needs of students while working within the parameters of the tax cap." The school budget proposal contains $112.1 million in salaries (a $10.7 million increase over last year), $11.3 million in transportation costs (a $3.7 million decrease from last year due to the transition to in-house home-to-school busing), $11.7 million in debt service and $9.7 million to cover a $320,000 increase in costs for city services, including a 3% increase in costs for the Aramark custodial services contract and 5% increase for school resource officers from Manchester Police. The $6.6 million in CIP projects includes $300,000 for playground replacement, $1.2 million for the purchase of 11 buses and $250,000 for information technology network infrastructure costs. Manchester operates under a cap on property taxes established by a voter-approved amendment to the city charter. Generally referred to as a tax cap, the provision limits the total amount of money raised from property taxes, rather than the tax rate itself. Before the vote City and school budgets for the next fiscal year can increase by 4.27%. Prior to Thursday's vote, school board member Leslie Want raised the idea of sending to aldermen both a tax-cap compliant budget and a so-called "needs" budget, listing what the district would need to adequately deliver services to students, something administrators did in prior years. "In the past, we've always presented a needs budget," Want said. "We didn't do that last year, and we're not doing that again this year. I'm only asking because, last night, in a committee meeting, it was brought to the Student Conduct Committee's attention that we have a school that's unable to provide all the needs for all the students because they don't have full-time personnel to deal with those needs. "I mean, I know that the district's doing its best, but I just want to say that I'm disappointed that we don't have more to offer our kids, because I do believe that Manchester has some of the highest needs in the state." "Highest diversity, highest level of need," confirmed Chmiel. Mayor's comments Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais reminded board members of the compensation study done on salaries of employees on the city side — which concluded raises are due for Manchester to retain and recruit employees — and the importance of staying within the tax cap. "I'd be very careful characterizing this as a political will conversation — there are very real fiscal realities that we face," Ruais said. "I wouldn't characterize it in a political sense, more just the reality of budgeting and the global view that we all have to have when we're putting forward budgets." pfeely@
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Public can weigh in on proposed $246M Manchester school budget at hearing
Feb. 19—Manchester School Superintendent Jennifer Chmiel has gone through the district's Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal line by line and item by item. The proposal has the unanimous backing of a school board subcommittee. Now it's time for the public to weigh in. A public hearing on the Manchester School District's $246 million budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 — as well as the FY '26 School Food and Nutrition Budget of $6.3 million and the FY '25 Capital Improvements Projects (CIP) of $6.6 million will be held Thursday at 6 p.m. in the large conference room on the third floor in the district offices at West High School. According to Chmiel, the budget supports 11,865 Manchester School District students, as well as services at charter and parochial schools, and supports several areas of student success, including educational programming, hiring and retention, improved measures of college and career readiness, improved graduation rates and the start of priority one facilities projects. "We're approaching (the budget process) understanding the level of scrutiny on public (education), but I think the team and I go back and say we've got to do the best for our district, and we're doing good stuff — good things are starting to happen," Chmiel said. "We're seeing those outcomes start to go in the right direction. So while that scrutiny is there, we kind of feel strongly that we just need to keep pushing the ball up the hill. and do right by kids." The Fiscal Year 2026 school budget proposal contains $112.1 million in salaries (a $10.7 million increase over last year), $11.3 million in transportation costs (a $3.7 million decrease from last year due to the transition to in-house home-to-school busing), $11.7 million in debt service and $9.7 million to cover a $320,000 increase in costs for city services, including a 3% increase in costs for the Aramark custodial services contract and 5% increase for school resource officers from Manchester police. The $6.6 million in CIP projects includes $300,000 for playground replacement, $1.2 million for the purchase of 11 buses and $250,000 for information technology network infrastructure costs. Chmiel said this is the fourth budget she and Karen DeFrancis, executive director of finance for the Manchester School District, have worked on together. "We've got a better system, we've got a different eye, looking for efficiencies, pulling building-level leaders and department heads in and really scrutinizing," Chmiel said. "What we do now is we bring in principals, we bring in the department heads, and we go line by line by line. We're really in the weeds with them, but that gives us a different footing of what the budget really looks like. So much of it's staffing, that if we can get really solid in those numbers, we're in a good space when we present that budget. I think it's 68 or 69% of our budget right now is staffing, so it's a huge chunk of our work." Chmiel said the district is starting to see enrollment numbers stabilize. "We saw some of the sending districts pull out over the years, and then we saw a dip right around COVID," Chmiel said. "We're seeing that number starting to come back and stabilize a bit. Last time I looked, right before last week's (school board) meeting, we were up by 14 kids. Not a lot, but it's still 14 kids going in the right direction, not reverse. We talked this morning — we're still seeing enrollments coming in." Staffing costs include salary lines of $203,359 for Chmiel, $155,017 for Assistant Superintendent Nicole Doherty, $128,068 for Athletic Director Christine Pariseau Telge and $119,911 for Amadou Hamady, executive director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Chmiel's salary is not the highest in New Hampshire, even though Manchester is the state's largest school district. Her salary falls within the median range of average salaries nationwide. "We're not the highest, we're not the lowest," Chmiel said. "What's the turnover of superintendents? How often are we seeing them flip? There's some value to the district to have someone sitting for longer than two years. We saw that cycle in the past, of people kind of just rotating through here." Following Thursday's public hearing and discussion by the full Board of School Committee, the proposed FY '26 school budget will be sent to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for consideration.
