Jeanné Collins
Superintendent of Schools, Burlington
February 8, 2008

Superintendent's Message

This year's budget reflects new enrollment trends in Burlington. The Burlington schools continue to increase in enrollment. This year, our student count has increased by nearly 90 equalized pupils. Even with reassigning staff to add two kindergartens this year, we had full kindergarten classes across the district, and anticipate this trend to continue.

Despite declining enrollment across Vermont, the increase in students in Burlington ensures increased funds through the base education grants from the State of Vermont, which are calculated based on two year trends. We continue to successfully secure substantial state and federal grants to cover approximately twenty-five percent of our expenses. This enables the Burlington School District to keep the local cost of education per equalized pupil at the lowest level in Chittenden County. A graph comparing the local costs of each Chittenden County school district is available at our website at wwww.bsdvt.org

We had four priorities in this year's budget: Support Student Achievement through adequate staffing Absorb cost shifts and compliance mandates from federal and state laws Maintain a safe physical infrastructure through preventative maintenance Continue to maximize cost savings and fiscal responsibility

The proposed budget, unanimously adopted by the School Board, supports these priorities, and requests 3.49% to achieve these goals for FY 08-09. This 3.49% is the difference between the proposed budget request and increased revenues.

The baseline budget in this proposal includes salaries and wages, with 79% of the budget focused on direct instruction to students. This includes the recently settled paraeducator contract that has a 4 year phase in to livable wage. This was a request from the community to honor the city's commitment to this goal. Preventive maintenance, special education costs, and a 25% increase in energy costs make up the rest of the mandatory increases in this budget request.

This budget proposal addresses several other areas Burlington residents have raised as important for our students. It adds needed funds to the after school program while keeping the total local investment to less than half the cost of the program. This program serves 60% of our student population district wide and continues to have substantial support through grant funds. This budget proposal also introduces some World Language instruction in each school at the elementary level as the work world of the future increasingly requires fluency in multiple languages. And as our English Language Learner population continues to increase, with over 80 new arrivals this fall, the budget proposal also requests 2 additional teachers to provide adequate instruction in this area.

Looking deeply at the existing budget also led to a reallocation of existing funds to increase services and provide necessary staff. A reallocation of funds will allow us to add a preschool at Flynn Elementary next year to serve New North End students and provide special education at Flynn through the Early Essential Education program. We were also able to reallocate funds to add a kindergarten teacher to meet our increasing enrollment.

With 79% of the district budget going to direct instruction to students, and 8% of the budget going for administrative support, this budget proposal also requests a Director of Operations. This administrative position is needed to ensure our infrastructure is effectively managed and to ensure that the district has the necessary resources to focus on excellence and equity, our top priorities for all students across all schools. Funds are also included to allow a facilities audit, and for implementation and planning funding as the Board makes its decisions on the excellence and equity initiative.

More information can be found about the budget on the district website at wwww.bsdvt.org, and at upcoming NPA meetings throughout February.

PLEASE NOTE: Kindergarten registration is just around the corner. We are encouraging early registration to be sure we are planning effectively for next fall. Please contact your local school for more information. Also, be sure to see the results of our parent, teacher and community surveys now available on our website at www.bsdvt.org.

I continue to be interested in your thoughts and suggestions for Burlington schools. Please feel free to contact me at superintendent@bsdvt.org, or at 865-5332.