Schools

Superintendent Proposes $144 Million Budget

The budget calls for an increase of $6.3 million, or 4.62 percent, over last year.

Cranston Public Schools Superintendent Judith Lundsten last night presented a $143.9 million budget for fiscal 2015 — an increase of $6.3 million, or 4.62 percent over last year's budget.

Of the additional $6.3 million sought by the superintendent, $3.16 million would come from a larger appropriation from the city. The rest is reflected in additional state aid promised to the school district.

The increases would cover higher costs for salaries, benefits, out of district tuitions for special education and charter schools and "only has a small number of new requests," Lundsten told the School Committee during her budget presentation Monday night. 

The new requests are for $200,000 to "begin to address safety needs for each of the buildings," Lundsten said, and $500,000 to begin the district's task of replacing its aging school bus fleet. The current fleet of 48 large and 42 small school buses needs replacement.

$2.5 million of the increase would go to salaries, mostly contractually based increases. It also would cover staff returning from unpaid leave, costs associated with two new positions the superintendent is proposing and "potential district-wide compensation."

Benefits costs are going up due to a 3 percent increase in Blue Cross and Delta Dental rates and pension costs are going up about $1.15 million for increased contributions.

Of the extra money the district is asking from the city, all of it is to cover "expenditure increases of utilities and tuitions only," the superintendent said. "All other expenditure increases are being accommodated for through other revenue means."

Both the superintendent's budget presentation and the proposed budget are available at the Cranston Public Schools' Web site. (They are also attached to this article; look for the "download .PDF" link.)

The School Committee will now begin combing through the budget and three work sessions are scheduled for public discussion. The first is Thursday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. at Western Hills Middle School. The others are on Feb. 10 and Feb. 13, both at the same time and place as the first.

We'll be going through the budget in more detail in the coming days.


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