New Granby School Programs Could be Added Even in Tough Budget Year

Even with tight budget constraints, the Granby school district could add several high-profile programs without increasing costs, according to a high-ranking school official.

Granby School Superintendent Alan Addley told the Board of Education Wednesday that if the board were to work with a 1.3 percent spending increase in 2012-13 – a total of $354,000 over the current operating budget – it would still be possible to add integrated pre-school, full-day kindergarten and expand the world language program.

“I know we are working with a tough economy,” Addley said during his presentation of the “Plus One” budget, which looks several years into the future. “I’m asking the board for some flexibility to move to the next level for some of these things.”

The personnel to staff the new programming would come through attrition, redeployment of resources and the use of the quality and diversity funds, Addley said.

The three programs have already been approved, at least in principle, by the school board at prior meetings. Their implementation, however, has not been determined.

The integrated preschool would be cost neutral, according to Addley, as the school district already pays to outsource its pre-school program for special needs students. The remainder of the funds would be recouped through tuition charged to non-special needs students.

The cost for all-day kindergarten could be covered through “Open Choice” funding and a $400,000 “Open Choice” academic grant, Addley said.

Addley also proposed adding Chinese Level III at the high school, which would require an additional teaching section at the cost of $27,000 (.2 FTE). The funding would likely come from the quality and diversity funds, he said.

Addley’s plan also calls for an additional grade 5-6 Spanish teacher, a full-time guidance counselor and a K-12 instructional coach. Addley stressed that no new positions were actually being created in the budget, but rather through the reshuffling of resources.

“If we can do it within the 1.3 (percent increase), then we should do it,” Addley said.

Addley’s presentation also called for a $100,000 increase to the small capital budget, which is separate from the operating budget, to a total of $625,000. Among the items included in the small capital budget is the purchase of three large buses for $239,475, as well as $59,000 for an F350 pickup and a maintenance van.

Also included in the small cap budget is $100,000 for the expansion and completion of wireless access at the middle and high schools, Addley said. This would represent a change in policy that would allow students to bring their wireless devices - laptops or tablets - to school for the use in the classroom.

Several school board members expressed their concerns over the proposed policy shift.

“I’m concerned about throwing tons and tons of money at something if we don’t know if it benefits education,” school board member Lynn Guelzow said.

School board chairman Cal Heminway said that, to some degree, the policy shift was a move away from that line of thinking, with students bringing their devices to school as opposed to creating a one-to-one computer lab.

New school board member Ben Perron said that he was concerned about moving too quickly with the technology, particularly in light of the issue of cyberbullying.

“I think it’s too early to move in this direction,” Perron said. “I just don’t think we’re at a maturity level [with the technology] yet.”

“Well, then we better hurry up,” school board member Jen Emery responded. “It’s going to happen anyway. I don’t think we have any choice.”

The "Plus One" budget also looked several years into the future, though Addley cautioned that "[l]onger-range projections are based on enrollment projections and broad assumptions which can vary widely over time."

Projected enrollment in Granby schools is expected to trend down from 2,158 students currently down to 1,948 in 2015-16, according to Addley.

The discussion regarding the budget ended with the board taking no action, but agreeing to have members approach Addley with questions if they had any.