HSD Update 3.21.22

HSD Updates 3.21.2022

COVID Update: The entire district has 3 confirmed cases!!

PADS: 1 Active Case

HMS: 0 Active Cases

HHS: 1 Active Case

2-Years Later Staff Finally Come Together!

Apple Computer joined the Hermon School District for last Friday's March 18th in-service. The day’s focus was on technology integration.

Hermon K-12 teachers and staff worked with trainers from Apple Computer to share best practices for classroom technology integration. The sessions included:

•Intro to iPad •Digital Resources •Getting Started w/ Apple Classroom • Google Classroom Management •Google Slides •Intro to Mac •Intro to iMovie •Pear Deck •Mandated Reporter Training •Behaviors in the Classroom •Needs of a Students w/ Hearing Loss •Wilson Reader and •Safety Care and more

The in-service day represented the first time in two years that staff has come together as a school system to participate in district-wide professional development. The administrative team placed a top priority in getting staff back together. Jenny Perry, the district's curriculum coordinator organized the day's events.

Congratulations to Hermon Football Senior, Chris Gage, who was selected today to be a member of the East squad at this summer's Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic at Lewiston High School. The game will be played on July 16th with a scheduled kickoff of 4pm. Great job!!HSD Updates 3.18.22

2022-23 HSD Budget - How does that work?

In developing a budget, the following filters are used:

· What is in the best interest of our students?

· What is needed to continually improve and pursue excellence for all?

· What is needed to move forward on our mission and vision for each school?

· What is fiscally responsible to our taxpayers?

The budget process for HSD is a scripted step-by-step process that includes initial classroom requests, school level requests, enrollment and staff considerations, capital improvement projects, and more. These are then vetted through the administration and the school committee.

HSD Budget Timeline

• December Staffing analysis due

• January School/Department/Central development and entry (Sped, Tech, Principal, Facilities and Transportation)

• March Draft budget review and adjustments with school leaders

• March/April School Committee Draft Presentation, School Cmt Approval

• Early May Town Council first reading

• Late May Town Council Approval

• June Annual Town Meeting Approval

The state classifies school budgets through "Cost Centers" that include regular and special education, support services, facilities and transportation, and administrative costs.

The state of Maine funds about 64% of Hermon's cost for education through their Essential Programs and Services (EPS) model. The percentage is determined through positional ratio expectations (such asteacher to student) and operational costs. The state sets a local expectation for communities to raise funds (the 36%) in order to receive the state share (the 64%). In Hermon, for the year 2022-23 this represents $7,321,143 and $4,005,465 respectively. Additional funds can be raised locally to meet educational needs, not within the EPS model, this is referred to as additional local funds. The DOE funding page can be found here.

To determine the amount of the above items the state uses the valuation of the town and an expected mil rate to arrive at the state and local share. Last year Hermon's valuation increased about 24 million dollars and this year another 27 million dollars. The 3-year average valuation of Hermon is $564,150,000. (That is substantial growth!) The growth of valuation essentially creates a greater volume of taxation as enrollment growth also increases the need for educational services.

Hermon's enrollment continues to climb, it is about 200 more students from just 2015 and 100 of those students just over the past two years. The current and predicted enrollment trends will require additional staffing and facility space.

Enrollment	2014-15	15-16	16-17	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22	22-23 projected
HHS	509	508	510	515	503	535	526	570	580
HMS	270	273	283	298	308	322	319	322	323
PADS	402	426	415	448	469	496	440	461	471
Hermon Public Schools	1181	1207	1208	1261	1280	1293	1285	1353	1374
							COVID-19 Hybrid Schedule		(this could reach 1380)

HSD must also consider factors such as increase or decrease in tuition from outside districts which affects revenue and expense at our high school. The state sets the tuition rate based on countable high school and district-wide expenses for the previous fiscal year and divides it over the total number of attending students at the high school.

The district also relies upon various savings to help balance its budget, including capital reserve/tax stabilization, secondary tuition, and fund balance.

The school auditor recently reported on HSD finances recognizing no deficiencies and a healthy fund balance, primarily due to the pandemic hybrid schedule of 2021. The pandemic affected the 2021 budget as students only attended school 2 days per week, travel was decreased for regular and athletic transportation, food service was restricted, and overall costs for goods decreased. The infusion of COVID dollars also decreased local spending, driving increases to our fund balance. This will prove to be helpful to the 2022-23 budget and any losses caused by the pandemic.

The primary items influencing HSD school budgets include enrollment trends, foodservice costs, inflation, cost of living adjustments, oil and diesel costs, electricity, employee wages (collective bargaining), and goods and services. The school is seeing the same inflation costs that families are experiencing.

The school committee has held two budget workshops to work through all of the detail above to eventually present a responsible budget that meets the qualifications found in the first paragraph above, one that meets the needs of our students and supports those meeting those needs, our employees!

The additional fund balance, reserves, and local increases will continue to place Hermon as an educational leader in our region.

Go Hawks!