Newton Public Schools FY26 Digital Budget Book

allocated the funds as she sees fit, the School Committee will review and vote on the Superintendent’s proposed budget. Once the budget is approved by the School Committee, it finally goes to the City Council. Neither the Mayor or the City Council is responsible for allocating funding to specific programs; that is solely the responsibility of the Superintendent and School Committee. The City Council will vote on the bottom-line budget. The General Fund is allocated on the first day of the fiscal year, which is July 1 st . General Fund funding must be spent within the year it is allocated. Grant Funds revenue consists primarily of Federal and State funding sources. These funds are more restricted in how they can be used than what is allocated from the General Fund and are generally earmarked to be used for specific programmatic expenses that comply with the purpose of each specific grant. A smaller amount of grant funding also comes from trusts and private grants. A full list of grants awarded to Newton and their funding is provided later in this section. These funds are kept separate from the general fund and are audited separately to ensure that all monies spent are spent appropriately and for the specific purpose of each individual grant. Unlike general funds, grant funds may be allocated at different times of the year and the school department will have varying lengths of time to spend these funds, sometimes spanning years. With federal, state, and private grant funding shifts due to factors such as a change in political administration, unavailability of continuing funds, or loss of eligibility to receive funding, these funds are not wholly guaranteed. Revolving Funds revenue primarily consists of funding received from student tuition and fee- based programs. School revolving account revenue directly supports activities associated with the programmatic purpose of each account. These funds collected include fees to participate in athletic and extracurricular activities such as football, basketball, band, and drama; fees collected for instructional programs such as the culinary arts program at the vocational program; student tuitions to attend Newton for programs such as ELL and pre-school; school bus transportation fees; and the use of school buildings by groups outside of regular operating school hours. A full list of revolving funds can be found later in this section. Revolving fund revenue filters into the school district as the fees are paid and, although the funds must be used to pay for or offset programmatic expenses tied to the purpose of the fees, do not follow typical funding year restrictions. NPS projects annually what it anticipates receiving in revolving funds, but these funds are not guaranteed and may differ from anticipated projections.

The following pages provide an overview of Newton Public Schools’ revenues and expenditures in all these funding categories.

-51-

Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator