The Chester Board of Education (BOE) reviewed and discussed multiple items in the proposed Chester Elementary School (CES) budget for the 2023-’24 academic calendar year at a workshop on Feb. 16.

Regional School District 4 Superintendent Brian White shared with BOE members how changes made to the broader supervision budget for Region 4 affected the proposed budget for CES.

Broadly, in crafting a new academic budget for the five public schools part of Region 4, including CES, the combined boards have established a trio of priorities that act collectively as their direction for the next five years. These include teaching and learning, culture and climate, and finance and operations. According to White, these identified areas were recognized by the joint boards of education in the past year to represent “to develop the next generation of district strategic priorities with input from community stakeholders.”

“It is the goal of the boards of education to maintain the quality of our schools over the next five years while meeting the challenges of declining enrollment and the high cost of education in our three towns,” said White.

The proposed CES 2023-’24 budget requests a total of $5,789,666 in spending over the next academic calendar year. This represents a 6.4% increase in spending, or $348,144, from the current year. Over 64% of the budget, or a requested $3,715,686, accounts for staff salaries, representing an increase of 7.49% from the current year. This includes “regular, overtime, and extra compensatory wages for employees,” employees,” according to the object description on the line item.

Salaries, along with contractual employee benefits for employees, including medical and life insurance, are commonly found to make up the majority of annual budget expenditures, according to White.

“As with all of our budgets, the main drivers are the contractual obligations for employee salary and benefits,” he said.

Employee benefits account for over 20% of the CES budget, or $1,189,126, out of the total.

On the 7.49% increase in salaries, White added, “The significant majority of our workforce is employed under union contracts. Therefore, salaries are determined through the collective bargaining process. Each of our unions negotiate their contracts with their employing boards of education. Contracts are typically negotiated for multi-year terms. Consequently, annual salary increases for the coming fiscal year are often pre-determined prior to the start of our budgeting process based on these negotiations.”

With CES and other Reg. 4 schools moving past the hindrances caused by the coronavirus pandemic, a 17.61% increase for field trips and CES-based events directly related to the CES curriculum has been added to the budget.

“As we continue to move forward beyond the pandemic, students will have increased opportunities for off-campus, educational field trips, as well as participation in a variety of afterschool extra-curricular offerings. Our proposed 2023-’24 budgets provide for these experiences,” White said.

According to White, the “only new spending initiative in the Chester Elementary budget is funding for a building substitute,” which has an attached budget request of $45,000, according to the Feb. 16 workshop minutes. This position has existed in all Region 4 schools with the support of grant dollars through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, but would be solidified as a salaried position if approved in the final budget.

“It is necessary due to a shortage of substitute teachers in our area,” he added.

The “building substitute” would not be required to hold a teaching certification, as not required by the state Department of Education. As a worker unaffiliated with the Region 4 teacher’s union contract, they would not receive the kind of benefits other salaried employees with the district do

White said the “position would help to provide daily substitute coverage for classrooms” and would further “provide stability in staffing and management of significant numbers of certified/non-certified absences in response to sub shortage,” according to the workshop minutes.

Considering the expenditures, White stated overall, “The budget has been developed to maintain the existing programs at the school in a manner that is financially responsible to taxpayers. The budget is largely unchanged from the current year.”

Outside of spending, the workshop minutes show a total of $75,000 in capital requests for CES’ in the areas of infrastructure and energy for the next calendar year. These requests, which are part of the general Chester town budget, include routine improvements for paving and sidewalk ($30,000) and “building rehabilitation and enhancement” for items such as entrance-ways, bathrooms, gaskets, and windows ($25,000), but also the future installation of a new generator ($20,000). White said the dollar amount that is currently requested in the budget is “a contribution towards acquiring a generator large enough to power the building in the case of a power outage.” As a generator with such capabilities would be at least $100,000, White said the BOE is instead budgeting a fraction of its cost each year “in the hopes that within the next two or three years, they’ll be able to save up enough overtime to buy that large item.”

While the Chester BOE has scheduled its next workshop on Monday, March 20, a consensus reached amongst members at the most recent workshop strongly suggested that a third meeting would be unnecessary since there are no major changes they currently wish to see.

Nevertheless, White says that the joint BOEs, including Chester and Valley Regional High School, are committed to crafting budgets that have the best educational and administrative results possible

“The boards remain focused on improving operational efficiencies while ensuring that we continue to offer a wide range of programming at Valley Regional High School and ensure equal educational outcomes across on [sic] our three elementary schools.”