FY05
Budget Guidelines
The
expectation based on all projections is that there will be continued decreases
in federal and state aid for education due to significant ongoing budget
deficits and slow, if any, economic recovery especially in Massachusetts. The
School Committee anticipates the need to keep budget increases to no more than
two percent again this year, although the Mayor’s estimated allocation will
come in December. Despite these pressures, the School Committee is determined
to sustain the program and gains of previous years to the best of our
abilities. As with last year’s budget,
efficiencies must be identified in order to maintain the critical classroom
elements that should be the focus of our educational system.
We are looking to the Superintendent and the School
Department to evaluate the changes made last year. While we hope for gains through ongoing
reorganization and consolidation, we wish to proceed deliberately, ensuring
that we monitor the effect of previous changes. We ask again this year that the Superintendent
carefully examine every phase of operations in order to find different ways of
doing business that might produce economies without sacrificing excellence in
education for all students.
Before
setting forth specific guidelines based upon the standards studied and agreed
upon two years ago, the following general guidelines are important to affirm:
·
Preservation
of class sizes and breadth of program are at the core of the school system’s
mission. In these budget deliberations, we need to balance these values against
the imperative to find savings.
·
It is vital to
continue to fund reserve positions to provide a measure of flexibility to
respond to changing needs that might arise due to influxes of students.
·
Funding must
also be included to meet all federal and state mandates, including Title IX.
·
The School
Committee continues the long-term commitment to the METCO program and
recognizes its value to the community.
·
Spending for
special education is critical but expensive.
We must continue to assess the quality and cost of the services we
offer.
·
The School
Committee wishes to maintain the gains in spending on areas such as building
and maintenance, instructional materials, and technology.
The budgeting process for the last two years began with an examination
of standards in 6 areas: class size, program, technology, support staff,
instructional materials, and building maintenance and security. We ask the Superintendent to address the
following in each of these areas and have added a separate section on special
education:
Class size remains of central importance to the School Committee as
the best mechanism to provide individualized instruction to all students. As such, we request:
·
That the
favorable class sizes of the last few years in elementary schools be continued.
We would look for K-1 classes to have about 18 to 20 students and 2-5 about 21
or no more than 25.
·
That the gains
made in reducing classes over 25 students in the high schools be maintained.
·
That team size
reductions in the middle schools to less than 100 be targeted at approximately
88 to 92 students.
Budgetary constraints restrict our ability to initiate new programs.
The School Committee reaffirms the Superintendent’s practice of avoiding the
start of new initiatives that would not be sustainable. Within the program, we
recognize the importance of breadth of offerings both academic and
extracurricular, especially at the secondary level.
The most significant program initiative in the last two years has been
the literacy program in the elementary schools, including professional
development to enhance differentiated instruction in reading for classroom
teachers and literacy specialists in each elementary school.
·
We remain
committed to this program and ask the Superintendent to ensure funding to
continue this effort in FY05.
·
With the
earlier than originally planned elimination of the PIRP program last year, we
request that the Superintendent review how this change has affected the
literacy initiative to see if adjustments are needed.
The program to support students who have been identified as requiring
assistance to pass the 10th grade MCAS examination has been highly
successful in
·
We hope
continued support for this type of programming will be within the means of this
budget.
The pupil to guidance counselor ratio especially at the high schools
has been an ongoing source of concern. A
lower ratio provides a better opportunity for the counselor to connect to each
student.
·
Budgetary
constraints make it unlikely that we will be able to reduce these ratios. Thus,
we ask the Superintendent to consider whether there might be other service
models.
·
If ways can be
identified to increase contact between adults and children within the high
schools that might not cost money, we support such efforts.
The major purchases in technology last year were completed for Newton
South. Mobile carts were purchased for each elementary school. An additional appropriation requested by the
Mayor from the Board of Aldermen funded technology purchases for Newton North
through a leasing program.
·
We request
that the Superintendent proceed ahead with the next phase of technology
expenditures.
·
We ask for a
review of the purchases to date and a new assessment of the major needs for
fiscal ’05.
·
We would like
to see continued exploration of leasing rather than outright purchases to see
if leasing might allow for increased power to add equipment up front and avoid
obsolescence of a substantial amount of equipment at all levels at the same
time in the future.
We request that the Superintendent assess the staffing levels
throughout the system for support staff including secretaries, custodians,
lunch staff, system-wide and high school support staff, aides (for SPED,
regular education, and high school), and technology specialists. We will look for recommendations on any
adjustments to this structure, which may have an effect on the budget.
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
A significant effort was made in the last two years
to reduce the gap in expenditures for instructional materials between
Building maintenance has frequently been sacrificed in favor of
program in the past. The FY04 budget
increased funding in this area with a plan toward improving this part of the
budget in subsequent years. Security was
also identified as a critical area for well-planned expenditures.
The School Committee would like to continue to increase building
maintenance funds in FY05. We request
the Superintendent to include money in the budget to provide as much of the 2
percent standard, established in the Newton charter for this purpose, as
possible, taking into account how many projects the department can actually
accomplish during the year.
With uncertainties about how the new circuit breaker legislation will
influence state funding for SPED, the School Committee would like the
Superintendent to look for systematic ways to deliver special education
services in the most cost effective manner. However, we recognize that some
flexibility is necessary to continue planning for students with known needs as
well as a reserve margin to meet unanticipated needs, including an increase in
students identified in preschool.
·
We ask for an
analysis of the circuit breaker allocations to inform these budget discussions.
·
We would like
to address the effects of changes made last year such as the introduction of
the