Superintendent: District's Agenda Could Be Compromised

An open hearing on the Attleboro school district’s operating budget showed small changes from the previously proposed versions of the Fiscal Year 2012 budget, in the form of a $200,000 reduction. Those small changes, however, will have a big impact.

Superintendent Pia Durkin discussed the changes during the School Committee's  budget meeting held Wednesday. 

The change is due to reductions in projected health insurance costs for district employees due to a recent open enrollment period where district employees had the option of changing plans, Marc Furtado, the district’s business manager, said. 

After these changes the proposed budget is $59.2 million, down from $59.4 million. The new figure represents a decrease of 0.89 percent from 2011’s $59.7 million budget. It is also a drop from 2010's $59.5 million budget.

Superintendent Pia Durkin said that while the district has been able to operate and sustain its progress with the tight budget of the past three years, she has concerns about the future.

“We are at the breaking point now, if we don’t get additional resources we risk compromising our educational agenda,” Durkin said.

Durkin’s concerns for the future included the need for extensive professional development for teachers to prepare for the new MCAS standards that are being implemented for the fiscal year 2013.

Additionally, the budget has put any possibility of extending the full-day Kindergarten program to all students in the district on hold for the time being, according to Durkin.

Durkin also expressed concern about the high school’s career and technical education programs, which she said were in need of expanding to include HVAC and plumbing programs in order to stay current with other programs.

An additional strain on this year’s budget compared to recent years is the loss of $2.4 million in funds from the federal American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). Becaue of the loss of federal dollars, the city is expected to increase its contribution to the school budget by $1.7 million to help offset the loss of the federal funds.

“The investment in our children is an investment in our city,” Durkin said.

A PDF of the proposed budget is available by clicking " PDF."