Business manager outlines cost centers 6—1010, East Auburn ventilation and storage building requests for FY26 CIP bond

Amanda Kuchar, business manager for Auburn Public Schools, presented cost centers 6 through 10 during the March 19, 2025 school committee meeting, describing system administration, school administration, transportation, facilities maintenance and debt service elements of the proposed FY26 operating budget.

Kuchar said the district budgeted a 3% increase for employees not covered by collective bargaining and that the large one-time expense for a major software transition (about $187,000) is mostly behind the district; next year's figures therefore show a decrease in that cost center. She explained cost-center increases driven by salary, health-insurance and retirement costs in building-administration budgets.

On transportation (cost center 8), Kuchar said the district budgeted for a new bus-routing app (BusRide) intended to generate more efficient bus runs and offer parents an app to see bus arrival times. She said the state previously subsidized specific routing software (Transfinder) but no longer contracts with a single vendor; the Department of Education will reimburse districts directly through the ED279 subsidy line in some cases. Kuchar said the district is short a few bus drivers (seven openings originally; four in training at the time of the meeting) and budgeted for the positions and runs the director expects to need. She also confirmed the district employs a full-time bus mechanic and stores buses at a central facility on Industry Avenue.

Kuchar described cost center 9'the city MOU for facilities and a debt-service component'and said the MOU increase reflects shared salaries and benefits for city employees who provide maintenance services to the district, including a facilities operations coordinator now assigned 50% to the school department. She said overall debt service in the cost center is down roughly $111,000 due to amortization of prior bonds.

Kuchar previewed two capital-improvement projects proposed for an FY26 capital bond: (1) a ventilation upgrade at East Auburn Community School (previously considered for an SRRF loan but ineligible under new state rules) and (2) a cold-storage building to house field-maintenance equipment at Edward Little High School. She displayed subcontractor photos showing existing ductwork at East Auburn and said the project would reroute and raise ductwork to improve airflow, address potential basement upgrades and repair a flat rooftop area to prevent leaks. Kuchar said the ventilation work could not begin for the 2025'26 school year and, if funded, would occur in summer 2026. She said the storage-building request is intended to house a recently purchased tractor and other equipment on the high-school campus to reduce response times for field maintenance and snow removal.

Kuchar also reviewed debt-service schedules and explained the ED279 state subsidy in general terms: it is the state contribution the Department of Education provides to the district, based on factors such as student counts and program needs; local-share debt items (for example, some added features of a project) remain the taxpayers'responsibility. She said the Park Avenue bond will be paid off in FY26, reducing future debt-service costs.

Ending: The committee asked clarifying questions and scheduled further revenue discussion for a later meeting; later in the agenda the committee voted to approve updated FY21 CIP bond budgets to fund two small projects (Park Avenue slide replacement and elementary classroom furniture) using remaining unallocated FY21 bond funds.