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Board gives consensus to budget assumptions including 70% excess‑cost grant estimate
Summary
The board agreed by consensus to budget development assumptions — including an assumed 70% reimbursement of the state's excess‑cost special education grant and class‑size guidelines — while members expressed concerns about high kindergarten class‑size targets and numerous small high‑school electives.
The Waterford Board of Education provided consensus support for administration's budget assumptions that will guide preparation of the recommended 2025 budget.
Administration asked the board to accept several year‑over‑year assumptions: the district will continue to assume 70% funding of the state excess‑cost special education grant (an amount administrators said is no longer guaranteed under recent formula changes), and will use class‑size guideline targets (preK up to 21; grades 2–5 up to 23; grades 6–12 up to 25) to model staffing needs. "We are going to here in Waterford we're going to continue to assume 70% funding," an administrator said, while cautioning that some districts received less and the amount is not guaranteed.
Board members expressed concern that targets such as 21 students in kindergarten are high and noted the high school also has many elective classes with enrollments under 10 students. The board discussed whether to formalize the assumptions via motion; members agreed to proceed by consensus so administration can complete budget development and present numbers in time for February deliberations.
Administration said the bus contract (current vendor contract ends June 30) will go out to bid and that estimates from the request for proposals should be available by mid‑January to inform the budget timetable.
Next steps: department heads and principals will finalize requests in December; a recommended budget and budget book are expected for board review by February.
