Elementary Schools Request Third Adjustment Counselor

Elementary school principals have asked the school superintendent to add one school adjustment counselor, bringing the total to three, shared among the schools, according to the discussion. The cost: about $50,000.

 Principal Wayne Clark likened the counselors to firefighters.

“When there is a crisis, these are the people we turn to,” he said, and there are more and more crises.

 Principal Eileen Mills said her peers in other communities are “shocked” that Woburn has two elementary school adjustment counselors for eight buildings.

If problems are solved at the elementary level, they may not move up to the middle schools, said committee members Christopher Kisiel and Michael Mulrenan.

Several committee members, including Joseph Crowley and Dr. John Wells, asked for more information about the number of adjustment counselors in other comparable communities and how their time is divided among the city’s elementary schools.

During its one-and-three-quarter-hour budget review, the School Committee spent the longest amount of time—about an hour—reviewing elementary school budget issues.

Principals from seven of the school’s eight elementary schools attended that part of the meeting.

Several of the principals in attendance said they need full-time paraprofessionals in their kindergarten classes.

The paraprofessionals’ time cannot be cut below half-time or the city will lose a grant of $270,000, Dr. Garry Reese, assistant superintendent of schools, told the committee and audience.

The School Committee and principals also discussed teaching foreign languages in elementary schools versus programs for English Language Learners.

Staffing of English Language Learners programs fails to comply with state standards, Reese told the committee.

The Shamrock School needs help for English Language Learners most, followed by full-time kindergarten paraprofessionals and then another adjustment counselor—but the ranking is close, Clark said.

The committee will next meet on March 30, partly as a regular meeting and partly to review budgets for the coming fiscal year, including the high school budget. Supt. Donovan has proposed to add a third assistant principal there.

Budget-wise, salaries constitute 78 percent of the proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, according to a pie chart graphic distributed to the committee. Special education accounts for 9 percent of the budget; fuel and utilities, 4 percent; and maintenance and equipment, instructional supplies and auxiliary agencies, 3 percent each.