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Upcoming meetings:
School Committee
Newly Scheduled - Tuesday,
March 21, 7:30pm at WHS Library. On the agenda:
FY07 Budget - Vote on the Gap List.
ANNUAL TOWN MEETING
starts - Monday, March 27, 7:30pm at Wellesley High
School auditorium.
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| WPS Gap List Presented |
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The WPS Administration presented the Gap
List for
the FY07 Budget at Tuesday's School Committee
meeting.
The Gap List details items which may be
removed from the budget in the event the override
vote fails. These items total $2.8
million. For a discussion of the amount and how it
is determined, see the next article.
Because of the magnitude of the amount
(5.6% of the total budget), the Administration
stressed that these items would significantly impact
class sizes, services and student fees, yielding a
school system dramatically different than that of
today.
The list is as follows (FTE is full time
equivalent staff):
PreKindergarten - $37,759
- eliminate early childhood coordinator - 0.5
FTE
Elementary - $1,133,470
- eliminate 14 teachers
- reduce specialists (art, music and fitness) - 2.0
FTE
- eliminate Reading Intervention Program- 6.0
FTE
- eliminate library assistants - 5.6 FTE
Middle School- $693,910
- reduce grade 6 staff - 2.0 FTE
- reduce grade 7 staff - 2.0 FTE
- reduce grade 8 staff - 3.4 FTE
- reduce language staff - 0.9 FTE
- eliminate new specialists (art, music and fitness) -
0.7 FTE
- reduce guidance staff - 1.0 FTE
- reduce main office secretary - 1.0 FTE
- eliminate educational technology - 0.5 FTE
- increase athletic fee per sport from $100 to
$300
High School- $886,473
- eliminate 7 teachers
- reduce elective staff (art, family and consumer
science, and technology education) - 1.2 FTE
- reduce elective support staff (performing arts
choral accompanist) - 0.3 FTE
- reduce fitness and health - 0.5 FTE
- reduce guidance staff - 1.0 FTE
- eliminate library support - 1.0 FTE
- reduce SpEd teaching assistants - 2.0 FTE
- increase parking fee from $250 to $360
- increase athletic fee per sport from $150 to
$400
K through 12 - $17,388
- eliminate personnel clerk - 0.4 FTE
The total impact on faculty and staff is a
reduction of 54 full-time equivalent
employees:
- 33.7 teachers (or 8% of the faculty)
- 3.00 professional support
- 14.90 classroom support
- 2.13 administrative support
School Committee will consider this list over
the next week. An additional School Committee
meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 21st
to approve a final list prior to Town Meeting.
For a detailed description of the proposed
Gap List,
click on the link below to the WPS document.
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Gap List Narrative |
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| Structuring the Override |
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At this point, the Town Budget exceeds the amount
allowed under Proposition 2 1/2 by approximately
$3.8
million, thus requiring a voter override if approved by
Town Meeting.
Current proposals for the structure of the
override outline a rational approach to financing, as
well as long-term planning, by dividing the total into
two parts to bring to the voters:
- an override amount, which becomes a
permanent addition to the tax base and is used to
fund operating expenses, and
- a debt exclusion, which is a temporary
tax increase for the term of the debt service, funding
discrete capital projects proposed over the next
3 years, FY07 - FY09.
Town officials have identified $9.2 million of
capital projects proposed over the next 3 years
for which the annual debt service would be difficult
to fund within the town's operating budget. The
proposal is to bring these projects to the voters in
the form of a debt exclusion rather than
including the cost of the debt in the operating
budget (which would necessitate higher overrides in
each of the next three years).
The net result is to bring to the voters an
override totaling approximately $3.2 million and a
debt exclusion to fund $9.2 million in capital projects
over the next three years.
The school budget constitutes approximately
85% of the Town Budget (operating and capital
requests) and therefore, 85% of the override amount
is allocated to the WPS for a total of $2.8 million ---
the gap.
The Board of Selectman will be finalizing the
structure of the ballot questions in the coming
week. It is anticipated that they will present a
recommendation at Town Meeting once the Town
Budget has been approved.
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| Time to fund OPEB |
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The General Accounting Standards Board
(GASB) has issued a final position regarding
how towns must account for Other Post Employment
Benefits provided to retirees. Other Post
Employment Benefits (OPEB) is the term given
to the
Town's obligation to subsidize health insurance
coverage for retirees. Simply put, the Town of
Wellesley has two primary obligations to its retirees:
- Pension benefit - employees contribute
to the cost of this benefit through payroll deductions
during their working life
- Other Post-Employment Benefits - the
Town pays a portion of the health insurance
premiums for retirees
The Town's financial liability for each of
these benefit obligations exceeds $100 million. In
1978, the Town had the foresight to start funding
the pension liability (the cost of benefits earned to
date by current and past employees). Today, we
have a fully-funded Pension Fund. Other Post
Employment Benefits however, have been paid as
they come due. While this has been manageable to
date, the obligation is increasing at a rate faster
than can be reasonably absorbed by overrides.
Further, state law prohibits the town from changing
eligibility rules or eliminating the program at this
point, as have many private sector companies when
faced with this issue.
Wellesley has been lauded as very
progressive in securing special legislation to create
an account from which to pre-fund OPEB. Though
created, this account has not yet been funded.
Town officials have concluded it is fiscally
prudent to start funding this obligation now, in FY07,
and have included a $600,000 contribution in the
town operating budget to initiate this effort. While
the annual need is $3 million, the impact of such a
large number would be difficult to absorb in a single
year. Over the next 5 years, the plan is to increase
the annual OPEB contribution until it reaches the
plateau of $3 million.
The addition of $600,000 in the Town
operating budget is profound, especially in the
budget environment of today and as we review the
school's gap list. But this is an obligation the
Town of Wellesley must pay, whether now or in the
future, and deferral will only increase the severity of
the tax impact and increase the pressure to reduce
future budgets, including the school's, to
compensate.
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Committee for Education in the 21st
Century
