11/13/1996 BOARD OF SELECTMEN Executive Session (4)

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SANDWICH SCHOOL FINANCE A Report for theSandwich Public Schools Lure years, Sandwich is to ecperience a$3 decrease in overburden aid. To date, however, r the legislature has exempted new state lottery assistance from this provision. r The standard of effort gap is to be closed over the course of the reform period. In FY 97, the total amount required is $59,000; of this, the state provides $52,000 and Sandwich must contribute $71,000. with this slight extra requirement, Sandwich is stili raising its local contribution by 3.317o; state aid is up by$137,000, and total spending rises by 3.8%. Spending fails to keep up with enrollment and falls below the foundation budget. By FY 98, the foundation budget has leaped ahead o f the slowly increasing local contribu- tion. The standard of effort gap (the shortfall from foundation if the town simply increases its contribution by its 3.3% growth factor) is $953,000. This suggests that, given only minimum aid of$25 per pupil and raising its local contribution by only 3.3%, Sandwich is falling behind the increasing foundation budget by almost one million dollars a year. Since the reform period will be almost complete by FY 98, $829,000 of this gap must be filled; Sandwich is expected to provide$93,000 and state overburden aid $7367000. (If personal income and property wealth in Sandwich change relative to the rest of the state by 1998, the local and state shares of the overburden may change,but I've assumed that the 89% support ratio calculated in 1994 remains). The local contributions is now rising by 3.9%; state aid is up 38.5%, and total spending is up 7.9%. Even so, the foundation budget is up 8.4% and Sandwich has fallen slightly far- ther behind. The pattern in FY 99 is similar to the two prior years, except that rising enrollment has pushed the foundation budget to a point where even local taxes at the gross standard of effort would be insufficient to meet the spending goal. Accordingly, Sandwich receives $618,000 in foundation aid as well as $918,000 in overburden aid. Because of this over- burden aid, the actual local contribution is still $918,000 below what might eventually be g y required, as defined by the gross standard of effort. Spending is up 8.2% and has reached foundation levels. Per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, is still only$4,763---well be- . low the $5,155 being spent in the current year. The budget trends described here are illustrated in the charts below. The first shows pro- jected school spending through FY 1999, broken down between state and local contribu- tions. s Page 14