January 2010
Dear ARHS Parents and Guardians,
We are currently deep into the process of developing our FY11 budget. At the January 12th Regional School Committee meeting, we presented our recommendations for how the high school will meet the various projected revenue levels that the town’s Budget Coordinating Group[BCG] has advanced. Under the BCG’s worst case scenario, the high school must be prepared to cut $1.3 million from its current budget for FY 11. Our budget recommendations along with other supporting documents can be found on our web site: www.arps.org/hs/Principal/.
Predictably, these recommendations catalyzed a wave of creativity. Smart ideas have been advanced by parents/guardians, teachers and community members to help us think about how to restore people and programs. All of this will, ultimately, help us fashion a better set of recommendations. At the same time, I have an interest in keeping everyone sober, which means pointing out the limits of creativity and innovation.
Their implied promise is that, at the end of the process, we will be able to figure out a way to keep everyone and everything and avoid any pain. The hard reality is that all the creativity we can muster cannot eliminate our obligation to present a plan to reduce the ARHS’s budget by $1.3 million. At best, creativity and innovation can soften this reality, but it doesn’t go away.
There is one additional creativity caution. Every good idea that insulates a course, program or person from being cut necessarily comes at the expense of something else. The bottom line doesn’t change. If something is added back into the budget, something else must be taken out. I’d ask that everyone try to keep this thought in mind as work our way through the process.
Over the last week, we have had three opportunities to take feedback on our initial recommendations: two School Committee meetings and a faculty meeting. There are more public opportunities scheduled for us to take feedback. As a result, we have a lot to think about. We will take the feedback seriously, looking for a better balance between all the competing interests. At the same time, this can’t happen quickly. We haven’t sorted out all the feedback we’ve already taken and email brings more everyday. However, as we sort through the feedback and new recommendations emerge, I will bring them to you and the community.
Lastly, our school-based discussions have mostly focused on the expense side, which is predictable since our primary charge has been to reduce ours. To keep the discussion balanced, however, a word about revenue is in order.
The most basic point is that the entire budget development process is just that - one big set of revenue assumptions. Each of the three reduction levels corresponds to a different level of funding: "if revenues come in at this level, here’s what our budget could look like. If revenue comes in at a lower level, here’s another budget recommendation." And, what level of funding will actually come in is, right now, a matter of speculation.
So, like every year, there is a softness to all of this, which is both the good and the bad news: things could change for the better - or not - but it also requires us to plan for the worst and, as a result, sow the seeds of deep anxiety.
Our work is to balance - with dollars in short supply - all the interests that are now competing and develop the best school we can afford. Given the varied conceptions about what ’best school’ looks like or means, this is a complex process. We will continue to take feedback and listen as carefully as we can. And, if or when revised recommendations come into focus, I will bring them to you.
Sincerely,
Mark Jackson
Principal