The Gillingham Board of Trustees passed its 2013-14 budget Thursday night in the amount of $2,610,916.
The board approved the proposed budget at the May meeting and the budget was based on assumptions made by the administrative team and Charter Choices, an independent educational consulting and advisory firm that offers back-office and administrative support to charter schools.
According to a report by Charter Choices, the budget is based on an average daily membership of 216 students, an average of 18 students in each grade.
Lori Quinn, treasurer and director of public relations and marketing, said Tuesday that the current enrollment at Gillingham is 203 students.
She said the office is closed this week so this is the most recent enrollment available.
During the 2013-14 school year, Gillingham will have students in grades kindergarten through 11.
In the report from Charter Choices, it states enrollment from each month starting with 131 students in July 2011.
Gillingham ended the 2011-12 school year with 177 students enrolled, during the 2012-13 school year, it had 159 students enrolled in July and ended with 183 students in June.
During the 2012-13 school year, its highest enrollment was 221 students in September 2012 and the number decreased steadily each month.
While Gillingham is expecting an average enrollment of 216 students this year, it expects to have 245 students by September and for the enrollment to drop to 197 by the end of the year, based on previous trends.
Gillingham's budget also takes into account numerous revenue and expense assumptions.
The revenue assumptions include Public School Employees' Retirement System subsidy continuing, which may go away and would result in $106,000 in lost revenue, a 4 percent reduction in district tuition rates, a 10 percent reduction in federal title funds due to sequestration and $160,000 of implementation grant funds.
As far as expenses, the budget assumes a 10 percent increase in health insurance based on the current year actual increases, total payroll is expected to increase 19 percent compared to the projected 2012-13 cost, due to an average 3 percent increase in salary and the hiring of two teacher aides, the full-time status of the art teacher, having two second-language instructors for Spanish and Latin and hiring a curriculum coordinator.
Transportation funds are also increasing to allow for more field study and trips and the budget cost of the state retirement system, PSERS, increases about 56 percent due to additional eligible wages and the increase in the required employer match.