Got something to say about the school budget? Now’s the time to speak up.
The school board will host a public hearing to review its proposed 2014-2015 budget at 10 a.m. Saturday at Scotts Ridge Middle School.
The 2.86% proposed increase is a reduction from the original 3.34% increase proposed by Superintendent Deborah Low Jan. 13.
Chairman Austin Drukker doesn’t believe this year’s budget discussion will attract much controversy from the public.
“I think our budget is pretty straightforward this year and I don’t expect the hearing to go as long as others have in the past,” he said. “I’ve never seen a hearing like this go over two hours so I’d imagine this one should take about a hour to a hour and a half.”
He added that the board will begin by running through its budget slides department by department.
The public may ask questions and offer comments.
“The length of the meeting depends on how many people show up and how many questions they have for us,” he said. “There’s not a lot of controversial areas this year so I don’t foresee us getting up on anything specific for too long.”
Teacher salaries make up 2.16% of the revised 2.86% increase request.
The board was able to shave $390,416, or 0.48%, in health care costs at its Jan. 29, reducing the total proposed 2014-2015 school budget from $85,635,143 to $85,244,727.
“The health-care increases were actually lower than we had projected, which helped us make some revisions,” Mr. Drukker said.
Under the revised budget proposal, the district will not have a health insurance increase in 2014-2015. This year, health costs rose 2.85% and last year, 6.5%.
Paul Hendrickson, the district’s business manager, said the cost of health benefits — $12,713,882 this year and next — stem from the district’s switch from Cigna to Aetna.
Rob Fitzpatrick, the district’s insurance consultant, had originally projected a 3% increase, while Aetna was projecting a 3.5% increase.
Aetna “made a business decision,” Mr. Fitzpatrick said, agreeing to absorb the 3.5% increase and give the district no increase.
Mr. Hendrickson added that the decision was affected by the fact some employees’ health plans “encountered Aetna computer glitches which caused disruption in service.”
The board has two scheduled meetings this month after Saturday’s public hearing — Monday, Feb. 10, and Feb. 24, where the budget will be the main focus.
Those meetings will start at 7:30 p.m. and will be located at the town hall annex.