Superintendent Invites Residents to Be Educated, Involved in Budget Process

Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District Superintendent Mike Harvey is personally inviting residents to learn more about and become involved in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget process that is currently underway.

According to his latest blog post, the superintendent’s proposed FY 2016 budget includes a $923,050, or 3.2 percent, increase over the current year’s FY15 operating budget. The proposal is a “level-service budget” with the exception of implementing Team-Model at the Miles River Middle School.

Harvey defined a level-service budget as one that “contains funding to support the current operations of the district after taking into account expected annual increases, including “Cost of Living” and “Step and Column” salary adjustments for staff, increases to our out-of-district tuitions for special education students and increases for transportation costs.”

He also notes that the proposed budget incorporates a 4 percent decrease in health insurance costs, meaning the level-service budget actually represents a net increase of $773,000 over the FY15 operating budget.

Read more from Harvey’s blog post here.

The public hearing about the budget will take place Thursday, Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. in the Multi-Purpose Room of the Buker Elementary School. Following the 6:30 p.m. hearing, the School Committee will hold its regular meeting during which members plan to discuss the proposed budget.

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