Newton Public Schools FY26 Digital Budget Book

Conditions and Assumptions in the FY26 Budget:

The conditions and assumptions in formulating the FY26 budget are outlined below:

• Federal and State Grant Funding - With the increased cost of health care, steps, lanes, and COLAs, level-funding of our grant revenue translates to a reduction in programming. This is a significant factor for two grants for which a majority of the funding supports staffing: Newton's Title I, II, and III funding; and our METCO funding - across the entire district. The Title grants are especially significant, as the FY26 budget has been developed with the assumption that the district will not experience any loss in Title I, Title II, and Title III funding, even though the future of these grants is unknown as of the time of this writing. Due to the uncertainty of grant funding in these areas, these may be costs that the district will need to absorb. • Shifting and Declining Enrollment - While the district continues to experience declining enrollment, increasingly complex student needs continue to present and evolve in our students across all levels. The district remains aware of its financial constraints, while continuing our dedication to maintaining reasonable class sizes that facilitate a supportive learning environment for all students. This budget assumes a reduction of 10 FTE in our elementary schools and 2 FTE at the middle schools. Overall, this results in average class sizes at the elementary level that are slightly larger than this year (but still below average class sizes pre-pandemic), and an overall average team size that is equivalent to the current year at the middle schools. • Yellow Bus Student Transportation – The district will experience a net 2.8% budget increase based on our current five-year contractual rate increase, our anticipated fee offsets, and our current fleet of 34 in-city buses. • Special Education Transportation – In FY26, this budget adjusts for a rate increase and assumes an overall increase of 9.88% due to greater ridership numbers and the district’s major special education transportation vendor being able to free up a greater number of vans for students. More information on Special Education and Yellow Bus Transportation can be found in the “Overview by Major Program Area” section under the subsection “Transportation”. • Special Education Tuition – We will be experiencing an increase in the gross out-of- district tuition budget based on a state-set rate from the Operational Services Division (OSD) of 3.67% for day and residential private school placements, as well as rising student need and our anticipated end-of-year expenses in FY25. • Special Education Circuit Breaker Reimbursement – We anticipate receiving an expense offset at 75% of net claims for a total reimbursement of $7,865,756 with the State funding for special education with special education transportation reimbursement included.

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