Manchester Schools Approve Budget, Teacher Contract
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Jordan Fouts-
The total budget to be requested from the state is $14,395,095, up from nearly $14 million received for 2012.
It includes $9.81 million in the general fund – up from $9.47 last year; $1.46 million in debt services, an uptick of about $60,000; and $1.9 million in capital projects, unchanged from 2012.
As part of the budget school board members also approved a bus replacement schedule through 2024, with three buses scheduled for replacement in 2013, at a cost of $250,000.
School Business Manager Steve Shumaker walked board members through several pages of forms, remarking on recent changes to state laws that he fears will leave many schools unable to afford buses. Manchester itself has been “working with a pretty barebones budget for the past few years,” he told the board.
He also noted that the tricky funding formulas the state uses in determining what it will actually allot the school require him to request higher numbers than he can expect to receive.
“It’s all a game. You have to advertise high and expect to get bumped back down,” he said. “It could be a lot easier, but you’d have a bureaucrat or two out of a job.”
Schools Superintendent Bill Reichhart also remarked on the loss of local control as the board discussed a new collective bargaining agreement with teachers. The new agreement was necessitated by laws signed in Indianapolis early last year restricting teachers’ collective bargaining ability.
“What’s really revolutionary with this, what we’re doing, is it’s something none of us thought would happen,” Reichhart noted. “For teachers, it takes away the security of knowing what their pay will be in the future.”
Informal negotiations on the new model for teacher pay began in April and only became official Aug. 1. Manchester teachers ratified it Monday, and it goes next to the Department of Education for final approval.
School officials and teachers described the process of forging the agreement as cordial, and Reichhart said other schools have asked for copies as models for their own agreements.
The model sets a base pay for new teachers of about $32,000, with compensation increases given based on factors such as yearly evaluation. Reichhart said he expects the average teacher pay increase for 2013 to be about 3 percent, totaling $115,000 among all teachers.
He expressed doubt that a prospective new teacher with college loans will find $32,000 very appealing.
“With the state putting clamps on us, we have to fight back and do whatever we can for teachers,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]
The total budget to be requested from the state is $14,395,095, up from nearly $14 million received for 2012.
It includes $9.81 million in the general fund – up from $9.47 last year; $1.46 million in debt services, an uptick of about $60,000; and $1.9 million in capital projects, unchanged from 2012.
As part of the budget school board members also approved a bus replacement schedule through 2024, with three buses scheduled for replacement in 2013, at a cost of $250,000.
School Business Manager Steve Shumaker walked board members through several pages of forms, remarking on recent changes to state laws that he fears will leave many schools unable to afford buses. Manchester itself has been “working with a pretty barebones budget for the past few years,” he told the board.
He also noted that the tricky funding formulas the state uses in determining what it will actually allot the school require him to request higher numbers than he can expect to receive.
“It’s all a game. You have to advertise high and expect to get bumped back down,” he said. “It could be a lot easier, but you’d have a bureaucrat or two out of a job.”
Schools Superintendent Bill Reichhart also remarked on the loss of local control as the board discussed a new collective bargaining agreement with teachers. The new agreement was necessitated by laws signed in Indianapolis early last year restricting teachers’ collective bargaining ability.
“What’s really revolutionary with this, what we’re doing, is it’s something none of us thought would happen,” Reichhart noted. “For teachers, it takes away the security of knowing what their pay will be in the future.”
Informal negotiations on the new model for teacher pay began in April and only became official Aug. 1. Manchester teachers ratified it Monday, and it goes next to the Department of Education for final approval.
School officials and teachers described the process of forging the agreement as cordial, and Reichhart said other schools have asked for copies as models for their own agreements.
The model sets a base pay for new teachers of about $32,000, with compensation increases given based on factors such as yearly evaluation. Reichhart said he expects the average teacher pay increase for 2013 to be about 3 percent, totaling $115,000 among all teachers.
He expressed doubt that a prospective new teacher with college loans will find $32,000 very appealing.
“With the state putting clamps on us, we have to fight back and do whatever we can for teachers,” he said.[[In-content Ad]]
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