School Committee Puts Forward $33.5 Million Budget

Editor's note: This story is part of a  probing the economy's effect on local schools.

The Dedham School Committee voted to adopt a $33.5 million budget Wednesday evening after little discussion amongst the group and it now moves to Town Administrator Bill Keegan’s desk.

Despite the weather and the snow day for schoolchildren, the committee met Wednesday with two residents in attendance.

The committee approved the budget 6-0 with committee member David Roberts absent.

The proposed budget is a 2.64 percent increase over this year’s budget, which according to superintendent June Doe is on the low end of budget increases in the area.

The school district is seeking a budget with $831,170 more than this year, but Michael LaFrancesca, the assistant to the superintendent for business affairs, pointed out that the town would not receive $983,000 in federal grant money that it received for this year.

“We knew we were losing federal stimulus grants,” he said. “We wanted to develop a budget that would have level programs.”

Programs at , and aimed at increasing MCAS scores will continue, he said.

The school department will try to hold on to roughly $225,000 in a federal jobs grant that it didn’t use. They will have to file an amendment in order to use the money in fiscal year 2012, LaFrancesca said.

The budget doesn’t cut personnel or programs, but maintains the current levels for both, LaFrancesca said.

Two positions – the new math tutor at Avery School and a reading specialist at – will be funded through the budget instead of through a federal jobs grant, Doe said.

The majority of the increase is due to scheduled pay increases for teachers, according to LaFrancesca’s presentation.

“What drives [the increase] is salaries,” he said. “I want to point out that 77 percent of our budget are salaries and 12 percent is special education.”

Once the school district receives the town administrator’s version of the budget, it will go in front of the Finance Committee in March.

School Committee chairman Tom Ryan said he was pleased with the relatively small increase that the district is seeking for next year.

“I know in the past, in my early days, there were times where we were asking 9, 10, 11, 12-percent increases,” Ryan said.

Joe Heisler, a member of the budget subcommittee, called this budget a conservative one that isn’t pushing for anything extra.

“At this point I give the [administration] a lot of credit for crafting a budget that allows us to maintain what we have with really a minimal increase,” Heisler said.