So everyone is hearing it’s budget season but what does that really mean? In this write-up, you will find a basic overview of Weston’s budget process and links to key documents/calendars. The Town of Weston’s (TOW) budget process is governed by state law and TOW’s own charter. The TOW budget is made up of basically 4 parts; the school operating budget, the Town’s operating budget, the capital budget and debt service. Outlined below is a month by month guide to the budget process. It is critical for Weston residents to engage early to understand the components of the school budget. If you can’t attend a meeting, videos of the meetings are available on either the WPS or TOW websites. Some critical dates are: Jan 26 (BoE public forum on the school budget), Jan 28 (BoE adoption of the FY 22 school budget), Feb 16 & Feb 25 (BoS review of BoE budget, Mar 30 (BoF public hearing), Apr 21 (ATBM), and May 1 (budget referendum).
October
The Weston Public School (WPS) administration works with the BoE to develop a detailed budget calendar. The calendar is voted on in the October BoE meeting. Here’s a link to the FY 22 budget calendar: Weston Public Schools Budget Calendar -- FY 2022 October 27, 2020
Please note dates may change!!!!!!! The official calendar on the westonps.org website (click HERE) will have the legal postings for all meetings and our CABE database has all agendas and documents used in our meetings. Here’s a link to CABE: CABE's Public Portal.
January
The WPS administration presents a requested budget to the BoE during the first week of January. The WPS website has a section for all budget information. Here’s a link: Budget. The current FY 22 request as well as the approved budgets for the previous 8 years are presented in full. The backstory is the WPS administration would have been working on creating the budget for the past 3 months. Once the BoE receives the requested budget that kicks off a series of public meetings during January with a mandate by the TOW charter that the BoE adopt a budget and submit it to the TOW Board of Selectmen (BoS) on or before Feb 3.
The first step is the actual presentation of the budget by the WPS administration. This is a public meeting for everyone to get a first look at the requested budget. The BoE will then have a series of workshops. As the name implies, a workshop is a working session between the BoE and the WPS administration. This is a public meeting so anyone may observe the collaborative work of the BoE and the WPS administration. There is no public comment at a workshop. There is public comment at our January BoE meeting. We will also have a public forum late in the month to allow the public an opportunity to comment/question any portion of the budget. The FY 22 BoE public forum is Jan 26. This is an excellent opportunity for everyone to have a say in the budget. The final piece is the deliberation/vote by the BoE to formally adopt the school’s operating budget and it’s requested capital budget items. This year, we are scheduled to deliberate and vote on the budget on Jan 28. The approved operating budget and capital projects then moves to the BoS.
February
The BoS will review the BoE operating and capital budgets in a series of meetings during Feb. These meetings are open to the public. They ask questions of WPS administration and BoE leadership to gain an understanding of the request. The BoS will then vote to recommend the budget to the Board of Finance (BoF).For FY22, the BoS is scheduled to vote on the BoE budget on Feb 25. The BoS may include a recommendation for a reduction to the operating budget or an elimination of a capital expenditure at this point. This is a recommendation only. It is not an actual approval or reduction of the BoE budget. The process then moves to the BoF.
March & April
The BoF holds a series of meetings with WPS administration and BoE leadership to gain an understanding of the BoE operating budget and capital project requests. The BoF will also hold a public forum to allow TOW residents to question/comment on any portion of the budget. The FY 22 BoF public forum is scheduled for Mar 30. The BoF then deliberates and votes on the school operating budget and capital budget. It should be noted, the BoF only votes on the total of the WPS operating budget. The BoE has the sole authority to adjust individual line items of the operating budget. The BoF will also approve each individual capital project. The amounts voted on by the BoF are the amounts presented at the All Town Budget Meeting (ATBM). The FY 22 ATBM is scheduled for April 21. The ATBM allows for Weston property owners to have another opportunity to challenge the various components of the complete TOW budget. If there is a quorum present, any single individual can request a reduction to a line item in the TOW operating budget or to any of the requested capital projects. There will be discussion and then a vote by the Weston property owners present. A simple majority vote can adjust any line item in the budget. At this point, the BoE operating budget is a single line item. The budget amounts approved at the ATBM are the budget amounts presented for public vote in the final step of the budget adoption, the budget referendum vote.
May
And finally, we are at the final step, Weston property owners vote on the budget in a town referendum. The FY 22 budget referendum is May 1.