The School Committee would like to share the FY25 school budget and an explanation of the budget with Worthington voters in advance of Annual Town Meeting so folks have an opportunity to review them. Please feel free to contact Superintendent Gretchen Morse-Dobosz at RH Conwell with any questions about the budget requests.
Superintendent Gretchen Morse-Dobosz
gmorsedobosz@hr-k12.org
(413) 238-5856
Alison Todd, Chair
Worthington School Committee
atodd@scm.hr-k12.org
Download a PDF of the Handout below here
Dowload a PDF of the School Budget Spreadsheets shown below here
Explanation of Worthington School District FY25 Budgets
The school and school committee put together the following information to accompany the budget spreadsheet and explain some of the significant factors determining this year’s budget request. The percentages below are based on the school budget request (gross minus revenue.)
FY 25 School Expenses
| Salaries | $921,242.66 |
| Tuition (High school and Out of District) | $399,954 |
| Special Education | $174,200 |
| Transportation | $152,297.20 |
| Contracts | $72,775 |
| Materials | $17,400 |
| Other | $14,850 |
| Total Gross | $1,752,718.86 |
| Total Revenue | $255,326.37 |
| Total Town Approp. | $1,497,392.49 |
Student Demographic for 2023-2024
| Worthington Students attending R.H. Conwell | 70 |
| School Choice into R.H. Conwell | 12 |
| Total Students at R.H. Conwell | 82 (Preschool: 14, K: 9, 1st/2nd: 18, 3rd/4th: 17, 5th/6th: 24) |
| Worthington Residents that School Choice Out Grades K-6 | 14 |
| Worthington residents that Homeschool K-6 | 5 |
Education Budget highlights
The Elementary Budget is the one the superintendent and school committee have direct control over, and is therefore the best place to manage costs. However, Worthington’s elementary costs fluctuate more than larger schools when we have Worthington students who need high levels of special education services. A relatively modest increase in special education costs one year can result in a significant increase in the total “per-pupil” cost for that year. The increase in the gross elementary budget from FY 24-25 is $234,555.21.
Staff Salary Increases, lines 11,12, 20-24: In our November committee meeting we approved a new salary schedule that catches teachers up on cost of living adjustments. During the financial insecurity of COVID, our teachers accepted a 3-year schedule with COLAs that did not keep up with inflation as a way of contributing to managing town costs. For example, last year other town employees received 6.1% while the teachers received 2%. We’ve agreed to a new 3-year contract in which they will receive a 5% COLA each of the next 3 years, as we attempt to keep pace with inflation and correct the discrepancy. We are so appreciative of their hard work and feel it’s important to compensate them fairly.
Preschool, included in Lines 20, 21: Conwell had 14 full-time preschool students in the 2023–24 school year. The program will continue to be free in order to be accessible to all Worthington families and to prevent the district having to pay out-of-district costs for preschool special education. Priority will be given to existing preschool students and incoming Worthington students before students from other towns.
School Employee Benefits: Full-time employees at Conwell (20) are eligible for health insurance benefits. Full-time and part-time employees with teacher status make their own mandatory payroll contributions to the state teacher retirement fund. The Town does not
contribute to their retirement. The Town does contribute to Hampshire County retirement for non-teacher staff who work 20 or more hours. That is a total of 10 employees.
Line 48: After-School Enrichment. Conwell continues to provide an after-school enrichment program to all students, 5 days per week during the school year and for 4 weeks during the summer. It is almost entirely funded by grants. The program director, Shannon Madden, succeeded in securing the highly competitive 5-year 21st-Century Community Learning Center Grant from DESE that funds $150,000 per year for the first 3 years, with decreased funding for years 4 and 5. This allows Conwell to offer the after school and summer programming free to all students. We also are in year 2 of a 20,000 per year DESE state grant, – After-School and Out of School Time grant (ASOST). This funds our school year program.
Line 49: Hampshire Regional. This line is a per-pupil cost and cannot be adjusted by the school committee or superintendent. It reflects the total number of students (32) who plan to attend Hampshire Regional this fall for grades 7–12 under the tuition agreement between Worthington and Hampshire Regional. We are entering the 4th year of a 5-year tuition agreement. The two districts negotiated a 10% annual increase in the tuition for years 1–3 of the agreement to “correct” for 6 years of no increases, and then will revert to a 5% annual increase for the last 2 years of the agreement. Worthington will pay $10,482 per student in FY25. Hampshire Regional High School’s per-pupil cost was $21,392 in 2022.
Out-of-District Services and Special Education Summer School
Lines 52–55. These lines are for necessary special education services to Worthington students that cannot be provided at Conwell or Hampshire Regional during the school year. They are services required by students’ special education plans and Worthington is legally obligated to provide them. Each year the costs are determined by the particular needs of the individual students living in Worthington.
Using grant and other revenue to reduce the budget request
The Worthington district receives aid from multiple state and federal sources that help reduce the amount the town needs to raise through taxation to support the school budget. These grants and other revenue are listed at the bottom of the budget spreadsheet with an itemization of where they have been allocated to reduce line items in the budget.
School Choice
One important source of funds continues to be our school choice income. The school committee voted two years ago to reserve one third of each year’s school choice income in a revolving fund to cover unexpected special education costs. The remainder of funds are applied to various line items of the budget to reduce the request. This year, 2023-24, Conwell had 12 school choice students, resulting in $60,000 income. We anticipate a similar number of school choice students for FY25.
The school choice fees Worthington pays for Worthington students attending other districts are reflected in the town “cherry sheets” and are not reflected in the school budget. It obviously
benefits Worthington to minimize the number of elementary students who choice out. The trend over the 8 years of the Worthington district has been toward decreasing numbers of Elementary students leaving the district:
Town-By-Town Per-Pupil Cost Comparison – FY2023, the most recent data available from DESE is at this site:
https://www.doe.mass.edu/finance/statistics/per-pupil-exp.html These numbers include all employee benefits and building maintenance costs, in addition to all of the costs itemized in Worthington’s budget. The same categories of costs are included for each town so we can compare “apples to apples”. Total students are all residents in the district for whom the town pays educational costs. It includes all resident public school students: those who are not home-schooled or attending private schools.
R.H. Conwell Building Budget
Our Conwell office administrator and building custodian collaborate to run a very tight ship. As anyone with an electric bill or heating costs knows, it has been difficult to predict utility costs over the past year, and it continues to be difficult for FY25. These line items 9 and 13 reflect our best estimate for what costs may be, but we’ve aimed conservatively, hoping costs may go down and to avoid any unnecessary tax requests. The building continues to run well and efficiently.
FY25-Worthington-School-Budget-and-Building-budgetClick Arrows to Change Pages
What is the total amount (in dollars) realized by the Town as a result of having Cromwell in operation vs using regional school? I see at least an $800k savings in salaries alone.