School Committee Successfully Crafts 2012 Budget

The School Committee went into lengthy discussion on Tuesday night to be sure they stayed within budget while at the same time providing services and programs that maintain the district’s level of achievement.

Everything was on the table as the committee sought creative ways to find money in areas of the budget that might provide a savings that could be used elsewhere. The good news was that an additional $193,000 would be added back to the district’s coffers after state officials calculated the reimbursement due from the circuit breaker revenue.

One principle in the group's deliberations was to provide an equitable distribution of goods and services throughout all schools. Another consideration was state law. As Superintendent Bodie cautioned them, “We can’t do something differently if the state has legal specifications that tell us otherwise.”

The committee also had to consider what best practice in educational research has been discovered, said Brodie. When a discussion arose about using more paraprofessionals and fewer teachers in the reading program, Bodie said, “Research has shown that the early intervention of highly trained reading teachers is the most effective strategy for improving reading ability. Our own results show more students reading at grade level each year because of our professional intervention model.”

Some members of the committee wanted to know how many teachers it would take to retain  a cluster model in middle school before Bodie answered, "Four."

The money for those additional salaries couldn’t be appropriated under the current fiscal constraints, she said.

Although there has been no growth in the Special Education budget in 2010-11, other years have shown growth anywhere between three and 14 percent, said Bodie.

Chief Financial Officer Diane Johnson explained that the yearly cost in Special Education fluctuates unpredictably. Bodie illustrated the issue by saying, "There is no way to know if a child will be diagnosed with any number of health or cognitive issues or who might move into the district with a child that has needs we had no way of anticipating.”

Johnson explained that since special education has a revolving account that is empty, the committee cannot expect to use any excess funds from that account to alleviate any cut backs.

Dr. Allison-Ampe thought there might be a way to find some additional funds. With a revised estimate for the circuit breaker reimbursement and by reconfiguring the fuel allocation cost for the Thompson School additional revenues were found that the committee applied to the new position of a library/media specialist, further athletic fee reduction and some replenishment of  special education’s revolving account.

After considerable analysis the superintendent’s proposed budget of $43,869,822 was approved by the committee with five in favor. Member Cindy Sparks opposed the measure. Member Joe Curran left the meeting before the vote.