Budget community forum
Arlington Public Schools is facing the need for making future budget reductions to take effect next year. Our district has strong financial management and has maintained a healthy fund balance, but several issues combined are making budget reductions necessary:
· Pandemic-induced federal and state aid are ceasing
· Enrollment is recovering more slowly than hoped
· The district has continued to provide high levels of services many of which were previously bolstered by federal/state aid
· On the heels of this pandemic, the Board directed fund balance be used as 'rainy-day-one-time-funds' in order to continue to mitigate the impacts and accelerate learning, even as costs are rising, rather than a formal reduction in staff for 2022-23
· We estimate dipping into minimum reserves by roughly half, by the end of 2022-23
· State funding models (reformulated by the legislature in 2018) continues to lead to funding gaps
· The district is working to make comprehensive reductions across the district to take effect for 2023-24 (the year after this one)
· There are many priorities of great magnitude and difficult decisions will need to be made to right-size the budget
Community engagement is important for feedback on values and priorities to help inform the decision-making process. Please join us for the Budget Community Forum on Feb 28, 2023 at Post Middle School and April 11, 2023 at Eagle Creek Elementary School at 6 p.m.