PALMER — The School Committee was presented a budget report during its Oct. 16 Palmer School Committee meeting that updated how the fiscal year 2025 budget is looking so far into the new school year.
District Director of Finance and Operations Sara Menard gave the presentation and broke down where things stand one month into the school year. Of the district’s over $18.2 million in total budgeting for the fiscal year, it is almost split between Palmer High School, Old Mill Pond Elementary School and the district’s general fund, special revenue and revolving accounts.
According to Menard’s report, of the district’s general fund, special revenue and revolving accounts as of Sept. 30, the district has spent 50.8% of its $6.3 million in funding that is going toward technology, tuition, facilities and transportation.
Menard explained that with the district now using electronic purchase orders, these figures were factored in with an incumbrance. She explained the incumbrance figure details money that has been spent but also factors in money to be paid based on any ongoing contracts.
For Old Mill Pond, Menard said of the schools allocated $5.8 million, they have so far only spent 8.7% of funds. The high school has only spent 8.8% of their $6.04 million of their funds thus far. Menard explained the way they manage the budget has created a more efficient process in staying on track.
“The budget was put together by looking at the trends and looking at, at least 12 months, if not two years’ worth of trends as to how much we’ve spent overall. Then we take that average and multiply it by the current or predicated rate,” Menard explained. “We are tracking every month in order to stay on top of that so then there are no surprises at the end of the year. If we earmark it, then we don’t accidentally spend into that either. We only have to worry if it’s over our expectations.”
State of the District presentation
School Superintendent Matthew Francis took time during the Oct. 16 Palmer School Committee meeting to share his state of the district presentation.
Francis shared a number of celebrations for the community as well as areas that need improvement after his wide view recap and presentation of the state of the district. Through using state accountability data and comparing the district to similar ones in the state, Francis calculated criterion scores and overall accountability scores for each school in the district and for the district overall.
According to the data, the Palmer School District rated 52% which is considered “Substantial Progress Toward Targets” by the district criterion, with its lowest performing student rated at 68%. Other highlights for the district shared by Francis included chronic absenteeism improving at the high school and grade 3-8 mathematics improving in achievement and growth.
Francis said one area the district must improve on is with its ELA scores still below pre-pandemic levels.
“Our writing is our lowest performing category,” Francis added.
Francis said the district also needs to focus on the declining of advanced coursework at the high school and that there is chronic absenteeism being seen at the early grades.
“It was at a 68.1% [percentage of students taking advanced coursework] and went down to a 50.4%,” Francis explained of the decline of advanced coursework at the high school.
Based off the data collected and shared by Francis, school leaders from Palmer High School and Old Mill Pond will present initiatives based on this data to the School Committee in the coming months as a response.
The full presentation and budget report presentation can be viewed in the Palmer School Committee meeting recording archive.
