The school budget represents an increase of about $1.2 million over current school funding.
Kevin J. SullivanWESTFIELD – Acknowledging that it is not yet complete, the School Committee this week forwarded a request for $52.4 million to operate city schools for fiscal 2012 to Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and the City Council for approval.
The amount represents an increase of 2.3 percent or about $1.2 million above current funding levels. It provides for no staff cuts or reduction in programs and services to students.
“We know this is still a liquid budget but we are trying to get it to the council for review earlier then in recent years,” School Committee finance chairman Kevin J. Sullivan said.
“We still need to make some adjustments and we know the budget will come back to us at some point before final adoption,” he said.
Sullivan was referring to a need to trim some $317,000 from spending to balance the budget for the new year that begins July 1.
The school amount will be included in the city’s overall Fiscal 2012 budget that Knapik will present to the City Council Thursday night.
He has declined specific comment on the budget amount for the new year but indicted this week that it, like the school request, will not reflect staff cuts or any sizable reduction in municipal services.
The city’s current $117 million budget forced staff concessions in the form on employee furloughs that ranged from one to three days for various employee groups, including the School Department.
Knapik said Monday night “this will be the first time in at least 10 years that the requested city budget will go to the council this early.”
“There are a lot of things in flux,” the mayor said referring to confusion over state funding. “But, I am confident things cannot get worse then the present House budget for the new year.”
The Massachusetts House of Representatives last week voted to approve a $30.4 billion FY12 budget.
Westfield schools anticipate a $173,792 increase in state education aid, Chapter 70 funding during the new year. Currently the School Department receives $32.4 million in Chapter 70 funding.
The city anticipates receiving about $4.9 million in unrestricted state aid for the new year, down about $500,000 from this year.
Knapik said he will use a portion of the city’s estimated $8 million in reserve funding to offset next year’s budget needs.