School Committee Recommends Two Additional Positions

The School Committee has recommended a position at the high school and a in its budget for the coming fiscal year.

The committee will hold a public hearing on its proposed budget for fiscal 2012 at its next meeting on April 27. The meeting will start at 7 p.m.

The most contentious issue Tuesday night was the proposed third assistant principal. The committee voted 5-2 on a roll call vote to add the position. Committee Chairman Patricia Chisholm and committee member Dr. John Wells voted against that recommendation.

Chisholm said she was “wary” about adding new positions, based on comments from Mayor Scott Galvin and the City Council.

Quoting fellow committee member Joseph Crowley, committee member Christopher Kisiel said the committee’s job is to make the city’s school system good, not just OK.

“We have to do what’s best (for the school system)," Crowley agreed.

WMHS Principal Joseph Finigan and the previous high school principal said another administrator was needed at the high school, Crowley and Kisiel said, elementary principals pressed for another adjustment counselor.

The issue with the high school position for Crowley is that department heads can’t, by contract, evaluate teachers in their departments.

Now, with a teacher contract being negotiated is the time to change that, argued Wells.

“We are not in the business of education,” commented committee member Michael Mulrenan. He suggested that the committee follow the recommendations of school Superintendent Mark Donovan and Assistant Superintendent for curriculum and assessment Dr. Garry Reese. Donovan had included both the high school and elementary school positions in his recommended budget to the committee.

Financially, next year will be worse than this year, Mulrenan said.

Quoting Finigan, who attended the committee’s previous meeting, Mulrenan said, “Sometimes good isn’t good enough. I want to say (the Woburn public school system is) great.”

Several members said they were unhappy that Finigan did not provide a list of possible cuts to offset the cost of another high school administrator.

As for the need for a third adjustment counselor position, “Times have changed,” Mulrenan said.

Wells cast the sole vote against that position.

Whenever a new position is proposed, Wells asked that the proposal include the number of students affected.

He also asked that future budgets include an explanation of why amounts have increased.

The committee declined to add a new teaching position for sixth-graders at the Kennedy Middle School. Kennedy Principal Carl Nelson revised the number of anticipated students downward, Donovan said.

Copies of the proposed school budget are available at the and for the public to peruse, according to the committee members.