Marblehead charter school achieves fall budget goals

MARBLEHEAD – As the new year begins, the Marblehead Community Charter Public School has reason to celebrate.School treasurer John Sullivan reported this month that the $240,000 budget reduction needed to prevent cash flow problems next fall has almost all been achieved. The overage stood at $28,000 as of Jan. 1, and Sullivan and Interim Managing Director Albert Argenziano expected to make that amount up by renting the school building for short-term programs during the February and April vacation weeks.Sullivan commended the administration for a remarkable recovery.School enrollment was up to 212 as of Jan. 1, 20 more students than the MCCPS had on Oct. 2.The school based its original $2.325 million budget for the current year on an enrollment of 230, with revenue of $10,000 per student. The reduced enrollment caused Sullivan to project a loss in October. The new students have improved revenue by approximately $138,729. An auction also added approximately $29,000 to the school’s coffers.On the expense side, the administration managed line item costs, especially in areas that would not impact classroom teaching, and personnel was maintained, with no increases or decreases planned.The treasurer said the school has begun next year’s budget process, and will use a service funding approach – that is, estimating an expected number of students, and funding services only to those levels, unlike the level funding approach used in the past.He said the biggest concerns were the lack of flexibility in the anticipated budget, and a need to begin to restore the balances of our cash reserves.