Sue Flicop

Overview: There was a reminder from the Superintendent that the budget is not fully funded, and that the amount of state aid going to the schools has not been announced yet.

Found Money: Savings of $97K were identified since the city will be taking possession of the current NNHS one month earlier than is in the school budget. The school is such an energy hog that significant savings can be added back to the budget. Additionally, at the last SC meeting, the Superintendent mentioned that the cut to the high school drama stipends was added to the budget book by accident, and that the money needed to be added back to the budget.

In particular, the Superintendent recommended that the money be divided as follows:

• Restore Creative Arts $17,214
• Correct Drama Stipend $10,000
• Science Aid to Full FTE $12,678
• Add reserve position for teaching, aides, ELL $54,000
• Benefits $3,227
• Total: $97,119

Discussion: The rest of the meeting was a deeper discussion and clarification related to questions the School Committee members had at the last meeting. The questions and the full written responses should be posted on the SC website tomorrow (Friday). In brief:

• Student Services Summer Positions: The Ed Center intends to restructure the pay scales, so the same summer positions in different programs will have the same compensation.
• New BCBA (Board Certified Behavioral Analysts) Positions: By bringing approximately 60 hours of contracted services in-house, Student Services hopes to increase teacher support and deliver services proactively.
• Technology: Shelley Chamberlain is working on a plan that would identify the amount of money needed for technology, how it could be funded and how it would be spent.
• Communications: The open position in the Business, Finance and Planning department is being restructured to provide interface between the BF&P and the Technology departments. A certain amount of communication responsibilities are included in the job description. However, the SC felt that communications should be the primary responsibility of one part-time person. The SC asked the Superintendent to create a proposal for this position and how to fund it.
• Maintenance: The discussion of how much money is needed led to the conclusion that the SC cannot catch up using money in their operating budget. Additional resources will be available this year, even though maintenance is level funded, since the new NNHS will be so much more energy efficient. The new school will free up approximately $100,000 in the budget for other purposes. The concern about moving forward with the facilities plan and to not invest too much in buildings that will either be replaced or substantially renovated was mentioned.
• Class Size: Kindergarten screenings are taking place currently. The proposed budget uses numbers based on the January enrollment book projections to determine how many teachers and classrooms are needed. At least one school (Zervas) was mentioned as having larger numbers of children than expected. This is due to the increase in home purchases in Newton.

Straw Vote: All seven School Committee members present voted to support the proposed budget with the add-backs mentioned above. One recurring theme to the comments was that although this seems relatively painless due to the marshalling of resources in the classroom, there were going to be difficulties this year. There is not enough money for new technology or professional development; class sizes are too high; the quality of the buildings is continuing to fall; and next year will be significantly more difficult without the federal stimulus money.