2024-2025 BUDGET | Points of Clarification
July 16, 2024
Dear NECSD Â鶹, families, faculty, staff, and surrounding community,
I feel as though I should reiterate a few things that have been shared publicly before but seem to need restating.
My education and professional experience include school finance, human resources, curriculum and instruction, student support services, school leadership, and classroom instruction.
Having performed in these various roles has provided me with the knowledge, skill, and will to drive this district forward. When I first arrived in the district, I began my focus on fiscal health and human resources, as requested by the Board of Education that hired me.
I led my team as we reviewed our circumstances at the start of my leadership of the District and began strategically planning for the future. The process has taken two years.
Historically, in 2012, the Â鶹 School District faced a $14M gap. As a result of the budget gap at that time, 155 teaching and support staff positions were abolished. People lost their jobs that year. Taxes increased. This information is chronicled in our local media.
In 2023, during my first year as Superintendent, the District faced a $16M gap. As a result of my leadership, zero people were laid off. Nobody lost their job as a result of the budget. The tax levy remained flat.
In 2024, during this budget season, the District faced an initial gap of approximately $20M. As a result of my leadership, only two part-time employees were laid off as a result of the budget and we hope to secure positions for them in the near future. The tax levy increased slightly for the first time in 9 years, at a cost of approximately $9 per $300,000 of a home’s assessed value per month.
As I mentioned throughout the budget process, I have completed a staffing review and mini-audit that led to the decision to abolish pedagogical (teaching) and non-pedagogical positions (support staff) that are no longer needed to support our Â鶹.
What does this mean? Let me give you one example. If we have a class with 5 Â鶹 enrolled for one period and 10 Â鶹 in the same class for another, my audit found that we can combine those two classes so that the teacher now has a free period to teach a different course. Further, we can offer that same class every other year, instead of every year, allowing the district to consolidate where we can and use our tax dollars much more efficiently than we have in the past. This approach will be more efficient and will also cause the District to need fewer teachers. This approach is also supported by the Academic Planner that has been recently implemented that allows Â鶹 to plan their schedule for several consecutive years, which in turns, allows the District to project the need for courses and teachers.
I agree that our literacy and numeracy results need to improve. In order to address literacy and numeracy across the district, we will continue to build the capacity of our faculty and staff to meet the needs of our Â鶹. Specialized training and supplemental resources will continue to be at the forefront of our planning. I am confident that we can improve our literacy and numeracy results with the teaching staff we currently have on hand at this moment.
Sincerely,
Dr. J. Manning Campbell
Superintendent of Schools
