The Bristol Warren Joint Finance Committee (JFC) indicated no major issues after their first pass at the school committee-approved $58.9 million school budget proposed by Superintendent Ana Riley during their meeting on Thursday evening at Mt. Hope High School.

To begin the proceedings, Warren Town Council Vice President Steve Calenda — who had led the JFC for the past four years as its chairman — nominated Bristol Town Councilman Tim Sweeney to become the new chair, which was agreed upon unanimously.

“It’s an honor and I’m glad to be onboard,” Sweeney said. “I want to take a minute to thank all my Bristol and Warren colleagues for their vote of confidence. I hope to live up to your expectations. I also want to take a minute to thank Chairman [Steve] Calenda for his four years of service. You helped lead us through Covid, and that wasn’t easy. There was a lot of changes going on but you kept us steady through it all.”

Budget drivers
In guiding the JFC through the budget proposal, Riley explained how the major drivers in the new budget included an increase in need for social emotional and academic supports for students in the wake of the disruptions and issues brought on by Covid, and all of its attributed chaos.

“COVID has impacted our students in many ways,” she said. “One of the ways being demonstrated this year, not just in our district but in districts across the state, is in increased needs both social emotionally and academically. We have had to put more students in out of district placements than typical. There has been an increase in that number both for this current year and, we anticipate, for the following year.”

Riley explained that increased costs for the district’s transportation contract, healthcare, dental and life insurance premiums for employees, and increased need for professional services for special education students were primary drivers for the increase in the budget — albeit only a slight increase, she said, at just 1.39% above the anticipated expenses for the current fiscal year that ends June 30.

Other drivers included items such as $116,840 (an 8.54% increase over last year) for general supplies, such as paper, which were affected by global inflation, Riley explained.

Local aid increase same as last year
Combined, Bristol and Warren will be asked to pony up 2.46% ($1,044,891) more in local aid for FY2024, which is the same increase asked for during the FY23 budget cycle. That includes $522,733 from Bristol (amounting to a 1.82% increase over laster year), and $522,158 (3.79% increase from last year) from Warren.

JFC member and Bristol Town Council Chair Nathan Calouro, mimicking his own commentary from last year, said that at first pass the budget ask once again appeared to be “well thought-out” and “reasonable.” “We appreciate that,” he said.

Members of the JFC also asked a couple of questions outside the purview of the budget, including ongoing legislation regarding the proposed change to Bristol Warren’s transportation zone, which is currently being held for review at the State House.

Sweeney also asked about a recent report from this media outlet regarding declining population in traditional public schools versus soaring enrollment in charter schools.

“The more we improve and the better we get, the less those parents will want to go to another school,” Riley replied. “We don’t want parents to think they need another option. We want us to be the best option.”

When asked about the district’s career and technical education (CTE) offerings, Riley said that the district may not ever be able to offer competitive programs for every area of CTE, such as automotive studies, but that they should focus on growing the programs they have to be the best in the region.

“We have an amazing construction program,” she said, adding that over 60 students were enrolled in that program this year. “Kids may leave us to go to an automotive program, but they may come here for the construction program.”