Financial resources are—and will continue to be—scarce and often less than optimally desired. Knowing this, all members of RSU No. 5 need to be vigilant in ensuring that our resources are best spent in ways that will continue to promote our mission and vision. As such we are committed to the following goals:
Establishing the optimal use of our 6 physical buildings to most efficiently advance our K-12 programming goals
We will examine the best strategies for using our 6 physical buildings to provide a safe and effective environment in which to achieve our mission. We will seek efficiencies by carefully considering factors like transportation costs, transportation time, square footage per student, maintenance and debt service along with other key metrics to determine quality solutions that ensure both fiscal efficiency and quality student learning.
Exploring strategies to increase revenues beyond taxes
We recognize that in both good economic times and bad that alternative funding sources are important to sustain our commitment to excellence. We will explore strategies that will diversify our revenues such as attracting grant dollars for innovative programs and initiatives.
Establish a meaningful measure to compare our per pupil expenditure to other state and regional districts
Benchmarking and communicating our per pupil expenditures against relevant state and regional school districts will help our community gauge our relative effectiveness and help us better plan for the future. We are committed to establishing a metric that reflects both our desire for excellence in educational programming and financial efficiency – and one with data that is readily available from comparable systems.
Establish meaningful comparative measures to demonstrate financial focus on students and programming
Benchmarking and communicating the percentage of our total budget which is spent on educational programming against the same metric from relevant state and regional school districts will ensure that the Board and district educators constantly strive to align expenditures with actions that focus on the district mission and vision.
Explore and Implement a Range of Strategies to Support Energy Efficiency and Cost Savings
This initiative is as important to the district financially as it is educationally. This effort will enable us to research ways to reduce our budgets in all areas while we demonstrate effective use of sustainable resources for our students.
Evaluate and maintain financial health
In order to ensure long-term sustainability and viability of the education mission of the RSU, we will utilize banking advisors, our auditors and other financial advisors to:
a. Analyze district financial practices; and
b. Develop targets and strategies to ensure district financial health
We encourage you to participate in the budget process as we work together to provide the resources needed to realize the goal of educational excellence while demonstrting a greater efficiency in the use of our resources.