CHATHAM – Monomoy Regional Schools Superintendent Scott Carpenter presented the school’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget to Chatham Selectmen on Tuesday night.
The $38 million budget is a 4.84 percent increase over last year’s budget.
District enrollment this year included 65 percent of the students from Harwich, 23 percent from Chatham and 12 percent from other towns on the Cape.
Harwich’s contribution makes up 62 percent of the budget, while Chatham’s is 22 percent of the budget.
“As we developed the FY18 budget, we took in consideration that the district, in the past year, has developed a strategic plan looking forwards,” said Carpenter.
The minimum required contribution for Chatham is $4.2 million, representing a 1.51 percent increase from the FY2017 budget.
Carpenter told selectmen that the cost to educate each Monomoy student in the FY2018 budget is $111 per day.
Carpenter also proposed a number of capital projects that need to be done by the school district, that would need to be approved by taxpayers in Harwich and Chatham.
“Each calendar year, we spend a lot of time reaching out to the Town Manager in Chatham and Harwich to make sure that this budget sits within the where with all of our two communities,” said Carpenter.
Chatham would be responsible for paying over $80,000 for those projects if it is approved by voters.
Up to 66 percent of the new budget is set aside for personnel costs including employee salaries, and at 339 staff this year, the school district is looking at the same amount of staff next year.
Around $67,000 for an additional bus and $35,000 for diversity training are improvements incorporated in the FY 2018 draft budget.
By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter
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