Hynes Charter School’s proposed budget will increase slightly from about $5.4 million this year to nearly $5.7 million in 2013-14.
The budget reflects a slightly higher student count, with 650 students anticipated next year, according to Hynes principal Michelle Douglas. In the 2012-13 school year, the preK-8 school budgeted for 624 students.
Total salaries are expected to decrease by about $31,000, despite the increase in student count.
The school expects to have a total of 64 staff members and teachers in the 2013-14 school year, Douglas said. Anticipating Title I federal funding cuts, Douglas said that for now she has cut an intervention specialist position from the school.
“It’s an estimate,” Douglas said about the school’s salary expenses.
Other changes in the budget reflect anticipated changes in curriculum and teaching strategies.
The school has budgeted $20,000 for new language arts and math textbooks in 2013-14 in order to more closely align with the Common Core State Standards, Douglas said.
“It’s a significant shift in how we teach,” she said of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. “We are going deeper in concept, rather than broader in a lot of stuff.”
The academic standards define the skill set students are expected to learn in certain subjects, such as English language arts, math, science, social studies and others.
The initiative has been adopted in 45 states and the District of Columbia, including Louisiana.
Louisiana is aligning state assessments and end-of-course tests to the new common core standards, phasing in items each year until completely measuring students’ achievement of the standards in English language arts and math in 2014-2015, according to the Louisiana Department of Education.
“We wanted to purchase materials sooner rather than later,” Douglas added.
Hynes will also be increasing the school day from 395 to 405 instructional minutes in the 2013-14 school year, Douglas said.
By lengthening the day, the school will have to pay for fewer days of bus service, she added.
That helped bring the anticipated transportation expenses down to $51,466, a decrease of about $1,300.
Other transportation expenses are expected to increase, however, because the school is proposing to budget $14,000 more for teachers to travel next year.
“It will be nice to send a cohort of teachers to a conference,” Douglas said.
The school also proposed a $12,580 budget increase for maintenance for the brand new building, because a one-year warranty will run out for several things, such as locks, doors and other items, Douglas said. In 2012-13, the maintenance budget was only $2,000.
Insurance and benefits are also expected to increase.
Generally, the school anticipates ending next year with net assets of more than $2.8 million.
“Overall, the budget’s great. We’re very happy,” Douglas said. “It looks like it will meet the needs of the school.”
The Hynes Charter School board of directors will meet at 4 p.m. on today to discuss the school’s proposed budget. The hearing will be held at 990 Harrison Avenue and will be open to the public.
