FY12 Budget

Dear Parents, Guardians and Community Members,
I want to provide you with some early information on the development of the FY12 budget. At a recent joint meeting with the Town Manager,Selectmen, the Advisory Committee and the School Committee, we were provided with the directive to prepare a level funded budget, the same budget figure ($23,132,796) that we have submitted for the last two years. A level funded budget is a "reduction budget" as annually we need to increase the school department budget over $1million dollars to meet the contractual and fixed cost
obligations. FY12 is no exception as we anticipate that if we submit a level funded budget, the school department will need to make an estimated reduction of  $1.6 million dollars, even with the use of FY11 federal "education jobs" grant money which we have deferred until FY12.

With this amount to reduce, nothing will be spared, and our school system - its personnel, programs and services -will not look the same next year. The administrators are currently developing their reduction lists which will be shared publicly at future SC meetings in December. The following amounts reflect what each school has been asked to cut: HS - $260,625, MS- 342,375, C/S - $219,375, Cedar - $174,000. The total of these amounts represents just under $1 million dollars. The remaining $600,000 in reductions will be  dispersed among athletics, SPED, transportation, technology, and maintenance, to name a few.

I invite you to attend the SC budget meetings on December 15th, 18th and 22nd where discussions will take place regarding personnel, programs and services reductions and when the SC will need to make some difficult decisions.  If you would like more information, please do not hesitate to post your questions on my blog or, if you prefer, email me at knash@hanoverschools.org. As always, whatever, the decisions we make, they will continue to be based on what is best for students.

Kristine E. Nash Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools