(Acton, MA) - Dr. Mills made clear that he is moving ahead with plans to implement the $1.15M reductions in staff and resources to meet the zero percent budget increase guidelines for next year. He announced this at the December 17th School Committee meeting. He stated that there may be retirements and may be some people leaving, which will help to minimize the impacts on staff. But Dr. Mills was very clear: there will be some people not here next year who are needed, and who want to be here. But the money to cover them will just not available in the budget.
This planning action is being taken because there is virtually no chance for Acton to see any improvement in the financial background surrounding the budget process. State aid will not increase, and, instead, everyone is waiting to hear how much it will decrease. Dr. Mills is planning for reductions at this time to allow the administration to move ahead with minimal disruption.
Dr. Mills will also move ahead with the recently announced $312k reductions in January. He announced that he will make these cuts with or without State cuts. This action will put Acton schools in a better position for next year no matter what happens.
On a separate note, enrollment for Acton’s kindergarten came in well above expectations at the start of this school year. This amounted to 47 more kids than the 287 projected. This caused a series of problems, but most importantly, it raised serious questions about the accuracy of enrollment projections for future years.
The school enrollment numbers were discussed and caused concern. While enrollments are projected to decline by as much as 160 students over the next five years, the projections on which they are based are quite volatile, and projections are always lower than actual enrollments.
The main component of the projection is the birth rate from five years earlier. While this is a fixed number and relatively easy to track, there is a component of “move in” students that is not easy to track. Many suggestions were brought forth, but this will be an ongoing discussion.
The enrollment data grows in importance in a difficult budget year of intense budget pressures. Declining enrollment should allow Acton to reduce resources, but that has not turned out to be the case because the projections do not turn into less students. In response to the data, the School Committee voted to endorse the number of teachers included in the budget for next year, and this will hold the class sizes to those presently projected.
As the budget pressures continue, cost reduction actions will be more important than ever. The School Committee is taking this seriously and Jonathan Chinitz, School Committee cost reduction czar, reported that he has begun the cost reduction effort with school staff. While good progress has been made, it is too early to report substantial progress. This will be reported on in future meetings.
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