Thinking about the budget
After being on vacation for the last two weeks, I’ve been trying to get a handle on what actually happened with the school budget this year. The final result was a good one for Lowell schools, since, after delaying deliberations for a week in hopes of finding out what the State funding package would provide, the city council went forward without this information. In the end, they asked for only minimal cuts ($330,00) to the school budget. This was highly gratifying for several reasons:
(1) There was an acknowledgement by a majority of councilors of the realities of the school budget in that looming federal cuts to the schools plus increased fixed costs were taken into consideration.
(2) Most of the councilors seemed to realize that the school committee and school department had already worked hard to present a very lean budget to the council.
(3) When the city council went through their own budget and could only come up with minimal cuts totaling $330,000, they limited the amount the schools had to cut to that amount. This was a fair way to proceed. For the first time in a long time, I felt that the schools were not being treated as a scapegoat or poor stepchild by city hall.
(4) By making only minimal cuts to the school budget before knowing what the State funding amount was going to be, the council was recognizing that the school committee budget was based on the actual needs of the system.
Of course, most gratifying of all is the fact that the Senate number prevailed, increasing Chapter 70 funds to Lowell by $3.26 million.
(1) There was an acknowledgement by a majority of councilors of the realities of the school budget in that looming federal cuts to the schools plus increased fixed costs were taken into consideration.
(2) Most of the councilors seemed to realize that the school committee and school department had already worked hard to present a very lean budget to the council.
(3) When the city council went through their own budget and could only come up with minimal cuts totaling $330,000, they limited the amount the schools had to cut to that amount. This was a fair way to proceed. For the first time in a long time, I felt that the schools were not being treated as a scapegoat or poor stepchild by city hall.
(4) By making only minimal cuts to the school budget before knowing what the State funding amount was going to be, the council was recognizing that the school committee budget was based on the actual needs of the system.
Of course, most gratifying of all is the fact that the Senate number prevailed, increasing Chapter 70 funds to Lowell by $3.26 million.
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