MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING
SUPERINTENDENT'S FY06 BUDGET PRESENTATION
PRESENT: Chairperson
Anne Larner, Vice-Chairperson Dori Zaleznik, Gail Glick, Susan Heyman, Patricia
Kellogg, Marc Laredo, Nancy Levine, Reenie Murphy, Mayor David Cohen,
Superintendent Jeffrey Young, Charlie Heidlage, student representative – Newton
North High School
ABSENT: student
representative –
Chairperson
Anne Larner called the meeting to order at
Superintendent Jeffrey
Young began the presentation by first acknowledging all the hard work of the
central staff, principals, curriculum coordinators, and department heads, in
helping him develop this budget. He
especially thanked Sandra Guryan, Assistant Superintendent for Business,
Finance & Planning, and her staff, for their countless hours in assembling
this document. Finally, he thanked the
School Committee for creating clear and thoughtful budget guidelines, which
helped frame their work.
The budget that he will
present this evening is full of challenges, but also not without pride in the
strengths of the system. There are tough
decisions ahead and the reductions they will be forced to make will not be
easy, but they will still have a strong and viable system. The goals for this year are to maintain a
high quality of education while also living within their means.
In order to maintain a
maintenance of effort budget, which means retaining the exact same program next
year as they have this year, would cost $142.5 million, or an additional
7.8%. Some will argue that they should be
looking over and above maintenance of effort, but he will not be addressing
that tonight. The School Committee has
directed him to bring in a budget of $137.7 million, or a 4.2% increase over
the current budget. This amount results
in a $4.8 million gap.
There are four categories
associated with maintenance of effort increases: contracts & benefits, staffing
adjustments, fixed and mandated costs, and other program additions.
They need $7.6 million in
new money to fund contracted requirements next year, which includes salary
increments, changes in degree status, and all benefits. Health insurance alone will cost the City an
additional 11-12% next year.
Staffing adjustments
actually favor the system in terms of turnover savings, which is when a senior
employee leaves the system and a less experienced teacher comes in at a lower
salary. They anticipate $900,000 in this
area. The other staffing adjustment
relates to a savings due to an increase
in the METCO grant, of which they will apply a greater portion toward general
school use. Total staffing adjustments
favor the system by $1 million.
The fixed and mandated
costs, of which they have no control over, include categories such as
utilities, tuition for special education and career & technical education
students, and contracted services required by law. This category will require an additional $2.6
million.
With regard to the other
program additions category, they are adding to the budget this year funding to
ensure the completion of the purchasing of math and science textbooks, which
will culminate the work of the five-year curriculum revision cycle in these
disciplines. They also anticipate
increases in special education, particularly around the preschool program, as they
have continued to see an influx of students in this area, and in the English
Language Learners Program. Total
increases in this area are $1,100,000.
The total maintenance of
effort increases for FY06 is $10.3 million.
This amount does not allow for more staffing that could assist in class
size efforts, additional textbooks and materials beyond the two subjects
previously discussed, changing the per pupil allocation, any new educational initiatives or
professional development. The one area
they have held harmless and not touched in three years is charter
maintenance. This account continues to
be level-funded, so as not to defer necessary maintenance, which will only
inevitably become a larger capital problem.
The $4.8 million gap does
not allow them to reach maintenance of effort level. Since the Override, when they said they would
need annual increases of 5-6% in order to maintain program, they have instead
seen increases of 2.1% in FY04, 3.8% in FY05 and 4.2% in FY06. In order to manage during this time period
and achieve efficiencies they have done the following:
·
reorganized the
·
reduced an
assistant superintendent
·
consolidated bus
routes
·
collaborated
with other communities in the purchasing process for furniture, supplies and
professional development
·
consolidated
special education programs
·
pursued all
avenues for state, federal and utility reimbursements, as well as grant funding
·
collaborated
with the City on maintenance and repair requests and purchasing through their
management software
·
participated in
the Medicaid Reimbursement Program
·
developed
environmental programs to reduce paper usage
·
successfully
completed annual audits
These efficiencies have
helped them close the gap slightly over the past few years, as has the
additional funding from the Circuit Breaker legislation. However, this year they are faced with having
to close a $4.8 million gap and there are little, if any, efficiencies left.
The proposal calls for the
reduction of 14.6 full-time equivalencies (FTEs) in the areas of operations
& support, which will include administrative personnel at the
In terms of staffing at the
elementary schools, they will eliminate 32 FTEs in aides and 9.7 FTEs in
teachers. In an effort to determine how
many classes would be needed to ensure that no class would exceed 25 students,
he directed his staff to review this scenario.
It was determined that 249 classes would meet this goal. Today there are 244. The budget he is presenting funds 235. The
average class size in the elementary level this year is 20.3. If this budget passes, it will be 21.2. While that may not seem like a large
increase, it means a lot to those children and teachers who are in the 1% of
the classroom that are now at 25 or more and the 4% which will be at that level
next year. In addition, they are looking
at reducing the library media program at the elementary level by half (6.9
FTEs). This was an extremely difficult
decision given the myriad roles these staff members play in a school and the
vital importance of their work. There
will be a reduction in specialists in the areas of music, art, and physical
education in correspondence to the reduced number of classrooms, but this will
not represent a diminution in the program itself. The total reductions at the elementary level equal
51 FTEs or $1,630,935.
In terms of staffing at the
middle schools, there will be 12 FTEs reduction in aides and 9.4 FTEs in
teachers, which will impact some electives as well as team size. The current average team size is 89 and with
this budget it will be at 90-92.
Specialists positions in reading, guidance and health will be reduced by
5.5 FTEs. A .5 cut will be taken in the
Assistant Principal position at Oak Hill and there will be a $20,000 reduction
in athletics, which has yet to be determined how that will play out. The total reductions at the middle school
level equal 27.4 FTEs or $1,107,990.
In terms of staffing at the
high schools, they will be reducing aides by 10 FTEs, teachers by 10.1 FTEs, as
well as conducting transfers of staff to accommodate the redistricting plan to equalize
the high schools. A reduction of .7 FTEs
will eliminate the department head positions in the smaller but no less
important areas of art, music and business, and there is an $80,000 reduction
in athletics. The total reduction at the
high school level equal 20.8 FTEs or $887,738.
As a result of these
reductions, they anticipate that they will have to pay $403,725 in unemployment
costs, yet will save $553,911 in health insurance benefits, $57,675 in Medicare
costs, and $16,472 in dental costs. Taking
all these reductions and increases together, the bottom line is a $5,500,000
net budget increase and a reduction of 78.5 FTEs.
Of the $12,254 per pupil
expenditure cost, the majority of it goes toward regular instruction ($5,782)
and special education instruction ($2,379), as it should. He pointed out that administration costs only
amount to $378 (3%).
At this time he wanted to
point out some of the strengths of the system beginning with the literacy
initiative. With the help of the
Override, they were able to bring this very successful program into the
schools. It has taken hold and is making
a big difference for students, with improvements showing in the scores in grade
4 English Language Arts on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System
(MCAS) exam. He also paid tribute to
Another strength of the
system is its continued ability to attract people for employment. Each year they receive approximately 5,000
applications for teaching positions and strive to hire the best and
brightest. The mix of the less
experienced but talented staff with the more experienced and seasoned teachers
produce an energy that keeps the system strong.
Expectations are high, but the rewards are tremendous for staff to
achieve professional growth. This year
35 teachers have participated in the leadership seminar they are offering as
part of their goal to seek future leaders of the system from within their own
ranks.
In the area of curriculum,
they are getting continually closer to a standards based program that is in
alignment with the State Frameworks.
They have an ongoing curriculum review cycle to constantly monitor their
programs and practices. Two areas he
would like to mention as models are the Volunteer Math Program at the
elementary level and the Smaller Learning Communities initiative at the high
schools.
In the Operations area, they
completed 5,409 work orders this past summer with a reduced maintenance staff
and increased space. Every building has
a school-based environmental team trained to address issues before they become
problematic. As a result of the overall
financing program put in place around the high school projects, they will begin
to see increased funding for capital improvements for other buildings in
FY07. They will also be conducting an
updated and comprehensive study of the elementary facilities.
Finally, he would like to
talk about the overall management of the system. There are over 11,000 students and 2,000
employees in the school system in 22 buildings.
This is a very large operation and he believes it is well managed. In the past seven years they have not faced
an end-of-the-year operating deficit.
The budget has been managed despite strains on resources. Every audit has come back with commendations
and recommendations, which are acted on quickly and appropriately. Staff work extremely hard and continue to do
so with less support. They continue to
look for ways to do things better for less, but at some point the reality that
they are at the breaking point will be reached and he feels they are very
close.
He concluded by once again
thanking the staff for their countless number of hours working on this document
and to the Committee for providing clear budget guidelines and directives that
helped them think in new ways. Now
everyone must work together to produce a final outcome that will be in the best
interest of the students.
Anne Larner thanked the
Superintendent for his presentation and then outlined the upcoming budget
meetings. It is likely to be a long
budget process that will not end with the vote of the Committee. The bottom line will really be determined
by the amount of state aid
that becomes available to the community.
She encouraged the public to stay involved throughout the process.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at
8:15 p.m.