Being Fiscal Stewards

Public Schools are an essential part of our country. School boards throughout the United States have a great responsibility to be excellent stewards of the taxpayer dollar and to provide an excellent education to students. The New London-Spicer School Board takes that job very seriously and they reaffirm their commitment to fiscal accountability and excellent education formally every year.

Every January, by formal resolution, the school board directs school district administration to provide them with a list of options for reductions in programs and positions along with explanations of why the cuts should be made. In pursuit of an effective, efficient, and meaningful budget, the administration meets and solicits feedback from staff to identify areas in which expenditures could be reduced while minimizing the impact on educational opportunities.

Those areas are identified through the review of programming, enrollment, class sizes, interest in course offerings, efficiency in operations, and all other expenditure areas. This process is followed annually regardless of the financial situation of a school district and is an important step in addressing the overall state of the district while managing taxpayer dollars wisely. In simple terms, the district is not going to spend money if the spending isn’t necessary for the improvement of educational outcomes for our learners. We want as much of our budget as possible to directly impact our students.

Since the 2005-2006 school year, the New London-Spicer School District has made more than $3.5 million in expenditure reductions. These reductions were made out of necessity due to past declining enrollment, the financial condition of the school district, and several other factors. Of the $3.5 million, more than a half-million dollars in budget reductions were made over the last two years, and nearly $1 million in reductions were made for the upcoming school year in order to maintain a balanced budget. These reductions were made even with increasing enrollment over the past five years.  In essence, the school board has worked diligently to run the district efficiently with the overall goal of keeping our taxes low. 

Just like with personal, family, or business budgets, the School District is constantly looking into our financial situation and finding ways to make adjustments as needed. We adjust when necessary to avoid spending on programs and other things that are no longer part of our plans and keep the focus on our students by providing meaningful educational opportunities for them. While the latest round of cuts will increase class sizes, reduce programming, and lengthen bus times, our school board, district administration, and the entire staff take the mandate given to efficiently utilize tax dollars very seriously. 

For a list of budget reductions for our school district, please visit the following link: https://bit.ly/nlsreductionshistory