Bethel Superintendent Christine Carver, Ed.D addresses the budget in her recent e-newsletter to parents:
Our aim is to present a budget that meets our critical needs, advances improvement, but is also responsible to the tax-payers of Bethel. Our current proposed increase is 3.24% over the current year’s spending. 1.37% of this increase is driven by healthcare cost increases and 1.67% of the increase is in salaries, mostly driven by contractual salary obligations. We make conscientious choices and attempt to effectively manage all of those costs that are within our control. The total increase in all non-salaries and non-health spending is .25%.
We remain concerned about the over-reliance on property taxes to fund our schools and work with our local legislators to push back against unfunded mandates and lobby our state government for relief. One of our legislative priorities is to move our state government to fully fund its Special Education Excess Cost obligation. The state has failed to fully fund this obligation for a number of years. In addition, state grants continue to remain flat, even given increased needs. We also continue to advocate for the review of the Excess Cost grant formula so it can be revised to continue to ensure equity in revenue allocation.
The proposed budget prioritizes technology integration, enhancing intervention programs for students with academic gaps, maintaining appropriate class size at the elementary level and ensuring that we will be able to continue to provide our staff with the training and support necessary to respond to the demands of Common Core Curriculum and the new state assessments.
Please click HERE to see the Superintendent’s Proposed 2015-2016 Budget Presentation