Seekonk Unveils $36 Million School Budget

The proposed Seekonk Public Schools budget for the next fiscal year is $36.3 million, a 2.98 percent increase over the current year’s budget. The $36.3 million is the actual cost of operating the schools. It is offset by other district revenue sources totaling approximately $4.2 million. This brings the net FY’24 tentative operating budget to $32, 110, 960.

Superintendent Rich Drolet and members of the School Committee made their presentation to the Board of Selectmen Wednesday. The majority of the budget, $23.9 million, is for instruction. $1.7 million is for administration. $4 million is for pupil services and $2.3 million is to pay for maintenance and utilities.

There will be a projected increase in state aid of $578, 354 for a total of $7, 754,874.

“It should be noted that our FY24 school department budget is increasing by 4.06 percent compared to our FY23 school department budget, but with the increase in state Chapter 70 funds for FY24 the amount asked from the town is less,” Drolet explained. “It should be noted that there is an estimated $80,123 increase for public school tuition increases at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School and Bristol County Agricultural High School.”

New positions include a Transitions Coordinator and a part-time social studies teacher at Seekonk High School, an Elementary Adjustment Counselor for Aitken and Martin schools, a Special Education teacher for Aitken, and a Special Education teacher at Hurley Middle School.

A Community Coach will also be hired for the Seekonk Transitions Academy. The coach will help students as they engage in job training and community experiences outside of the school building.

Drolet noted the majority of FY24’s newly proposed positions will offer programming for students with IEPs (individualized education programs), which will lead to increased support for students with special needs, stronger district programming at the elementary level, and increased opportunities for inclusion with expanded related service providers within the classroom setting.

“As it relates to our budget, we will continue to strive to reduce the number of students who need to be educated outside of our public school district by strategically investing in programming and staff in FY24. In the past five years our number of out-of-district students has gone down 25 percent (from 40 to 32 students),” Drolet noted. “During the same time, the number of students with IEPs has risen 22 percent (from 332 to 406 students).”

“We’ve tried to build up programming and we’ve done a good job with that,” Drolet said. “There are a couple of new Special Education programs that require a teacher at the elementary and middle level.”

The district will be paying increases for the following:

• Special education out of district costs. There is a state-wide projected increase of 10 percent for Educational Collaborative tuitions and 14 percent for MA non-Public and Out-of-State tuitions for students already out of district. The increase total is $329, 744.
• Transportation. Along with contractual increases of four percent for all transportation contracts, the district needs to add another regular route due to an increase in Hurley Middle school enrollment. That increase is $195,052.
• Rising energy costs. Inflation and high demand has resulted in significant increases in electricity and gas prices that have affected the nation. Delivery rates provided by National Grid and Eversource have increased substantially as well. The projected increase is $119,000.
• Technology software. The increase is $129,119.

The school committee will be voting to approve the budget at their March 20 meeting. The link to the budget can be accessed under the Quick Links tab on the district website: https://www.seekonkschools.org.