Presented at the 1/12/2023 School Board Meeting
What is the School Budget Process?
Following the January 12, 2023 public hearing, there is the town wide Deliberative Session held on February 10, 2023 where residents can discuss the proposed budget and make any amendments by a majority vote. Here, all articles are voted to move to the official ballot, which is voted on at the Annual Town Elections held March 14, 2023. Either residents can vote to support the recommended School Board Budget or the calculated Default Budget, with all other articles voted separately.
| Major Categories of the Budget | Superintendent Proposed Budget | Default Budget |
| Personnel | 70,095,154 | 69,962,153 |
| School Operations | 1,308,126 | 1,271,228 |
| Co- Curricular and Extra Curr | 518,682 | 505,385 |
| Pupil Services | 4,573,364 | 4,588,859 |
| Buildings and Grounds | 2,754,705 | 2,572,650 |
| Information Technology | 915,750 | 906,500 |
| Central Office | 5,270,262 | 5,230,659 |
| Total | 85,436,043 | 85,037,434 |
Major Budget Categories:
Personnel: Personnel costs represents $70.1 million, or 82% of the School Board proposed general fund operating budget. This category covers the costs of all approved collective bargaining agreements (teachers, allied, support, and custodians), administrators and other full-time and temporary positions as well as substitutes and stipends. This category also covers the costs of all employee benefits, which are negotiated during collective bargaining agreements. The contracts for support and custodians expire in FY23. We are currently in negotiations with these groups and the financial impact will reflect in a separate warrant article. As public school depends on the power of people, our staff is critical to the success of our students.
School Operations: The cost for this category calculates to $1.3 million. The collection of these costs represents the operating costs for programs and departments in each of the individual school buildings. Items such as texts, general or classroom supplies, small equipment, professional development, library, and maintenance of small equipment are included.
Co-Curricular and Extra Co-Curricular Activities: The cost of these essential programs is $518,000. The funds cover all the operating costs for Athletics, Music / Band and all other small after school groups. Stipends are included in the personnel category.
Pupil Services: At $4.5 million, this category captures all the operating costs associated with Special Education Services, Nursing Services, ESOL, Out-of-District Placements, Specialized transportation and all the operating costs for specialized student services. The out-of-district tuition line reflects a $221,000 decrease due to the number of students being out-placed.
Building and Grounds:This $2.7 million covers the upkeep of our buildings and grounds, and athletic fields. It includes vendor contracts, utilities, all building maintenance and repairs, normal custodial services and supplies. The District is fortunate that we executed a fixed price contract for electricity and natural gas through 2026, avoiding the large increases in these areas. The Londonderry community has a substantial investment in our buildings and grounds, and maintaining them properly prevents costly un-planned repairs.
Information Technology:At $915,000, this covers the cost to maintain the District wide network infrastructure, all computing devices including 1:1 at the High School, repairs, maintenance and supplies. In addition to hardware, all software costs, such as the District’s student database, financial software and all curriculum-based software used by individual programs are covered here. These systems allow our employees to be more effective, students to access curriculum, and parents to track their child’s attendance or progress.
Central Office Operations:This $5.3 million consists mostly of transportation with district-wide legal, audit, debt service, and curriculum being included here. This budget will be the fifth year of a ten-year contract with STA for busses. Miscellaneous central office supplies and professional services are also included. Debt service saw a reduction mainly due to the pay off on the High School bond. This resulted in a savings of approximately $665,000 in principle and interest.
Why did the budget increase from last year?
The total proposed budget increased 1.51% from last year, with the default budget showing a 1.04% increase. The largest increase is benefits ($1,023,245), and salaries ($705,766). Salaries reflect contractual obligations from collective bargaining as well as a 3% budgeted increase for other groups. Custodians and support staff increases are not included as they are currently being negotiated and, when approved, will reflect in their own warrant articles. The increase in benefits in mainly due to a 5.1% increase in health insurance premiums, about 1.2 million. There was also a substantial reduction of approximately $312,000 in the NH Retirement rates, which are reflected in the benefits number. Many supply lines saw increases due to the high cost of inflation.