NEWTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE

MINUTES OF BUDGET MEETING – MARCH 16, 2005

EDUCATION CENTER, FRAZIER ROOM, 7:00 P.M.

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, Newton South High School

CALL TO ORDER

Chairperson Anne Larner called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. She announced that given the challenge of this year’s budget, the Committee will allow a half hour of public comment this evening, which is not their usual practice at special budget meetings, and will take students’ comments first.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Genevieve Resnick and Amanda Derby, Day Middle School students, performed a skit talking about the importance of the Daytime newspaper in terms of both the education in journalism that it provides students, as well as its excellence as a form of communication to the community. They also noted the fact that it has received numerous awards. They hope that this opportunity will remain in place for future students.

Adam London, Day student, presented the Committee with copies of the March edition of the Daytime and talked about the importance of this newspaper to the school and the community at large. He has learned more working on this paper than in any of his classes and it has opened the window of journalism to him, which he will continue to explore. He feels he has done better on tests as a result of the skills he has acquired from serving on the newspaper staff. There are 112 students involved in this program this year and equal numbers who wish to participate next year. He urged them to do whatever they can to preserve the Daytime.

Melissa Geary, Day student, spoke about how working on the Daytime has made a difference in her school career, by honing her writing and editing skills. It has been a tremendous learning experience.

Lori Lass, Zervas Elementary School parent, stated that their school has no cafeteria or auditorium and the library is in a modular unit. They have heating issues and classrooms are below state guidelines for adequate space. While they have the smallest school in the district, the population continues to increase and class sizes are growing. Last year’s kindergarten projections were off by 30% and if this occurs again this year the situation will be disastrous. The school is over-crowded and under-maintained. Six weeks ago the boiler leaked fumes throughout the school resulting in an evacuation of the building. The budget cuts will only exacerbate the problem, as they will lose a classroom teacher and only have a part-time librarian. Half of the grades at Zervas will be the largest elementary classes in the City and this is unacceptable. She urged the Committee to consider square footage per student and not just class size in their deliberations.

Kathryn DeNitto, Zervas parent, mentioned the issue of stability at their school. In the past six years there have been three principals and they will be welcoming a fourth in the fall. The interim principal has been a tremendous asset to the school, but they will be losing her knowledge and expertise. The librarian has been instrumental in maintaining continuity through these challenging times. The literacy program, creative arts, and technology are three areas where her skills have been deeply felt. The school needs to retain her full-time status to help with the transition to a new principal next year.

Elaine Whalen, Zervas parent, asked the Committee to be creative in how the limited funding will be spent in the system. For instance, the kindergarten model at their school is very successful and they would like to see it used next year for first grade. In this scenario, an additional teacher spends the afternoon with half the class two days each week. Combination K-1 classrooms are another option to consider.

Lorraine Field, teacher at Horace Mann Elementary School, offered her voice in support of retaining full-time librarians. The role of the librarian has changed dramatically. Students are learning in an age where technology is an integral part of their everyday lives. As part of Newton’s commitment to education, they have wisely invested a great deal of money in this area over the last decade. Teachers depend on the librarians to help them learn to use and incorporate a myriad of these tools into the classroom, so that they can take full advantage of this investment in order to equip students with the skills they need to be successful.

Anne Scigliano, music teacher at Mason-Rice Elementary School, spoke about the cuts in the music program and the impact this will have on students. The proposal calls for the half hour recorder class to be eliminated and absorbed into the half hour of general vocal class. A half hour class divided into two 15 minute segments for learning a song or analyzing a piece of music and the playing of an instrument does justice to neither. This is simply not enough time, especially when the configuration of the classroom changes depending on what is being taught. When playing an instrument, students require chairs and music stands and the teacher works from an overhead. A general voice class requires open space and often movement. These cannot both be accomplished in a half hour class. Even if voice were offered one week and recorder the next, children cannot master an instrument when lessons are only one half hour every other week. The state and national standards in music education require all students to learn how to read music by the end of 4^th grade and this program is the method used to accomplish that standard. This is not an extracurricular activity, but an essential part of the curriculum and research indicates that there is a direct correlation between music, math fluency, and increased literacy.

Tony Byers, kindergarten teacher at Williams Elementary School, spoke on behalf of the staff in support of retaining the librarians full-time. Their librarian provides direct service to students in both literacy and technology and helps staff integrate technology into the curriculum. She teaches word-processing, databases, spreadsheets, and the use of software programs. She helps children learn how to develop presentations to showcase their work and is involved in specific projects in different grade levels. Her service learning grant proposal was just accepted to implement a literacy project for grades 4 and 5 and she is involved in two major systemwide grants. In addition to all of this, she develops and maintains the collection and matches it with students’ interests. She works with the Information Technology (IT) specialist in providing professional development for staff and helps with web pages, trouble-shooting computer issues, and managing the technology and equipment budget. She has been instrumental in the implementation of the new progress report. Finally, she is actively involved in planning and implementing school events, such as the Brown vs. Board of Education project held last spring, and the annual multicultural literature program. Without a full-time librarian, the quality of the program will be compromised and students will suffer most.

David Yavin, Underwood Elementary School parent and Chairperson of the Citywide Class Size Action Committee, is dismayed by the fiscal realities they face and the manner in which the administration is dealing with the situation. While the average class size may be slowly increasing, some of the actual classrooms themselves are exploding. Over 900 elementary school children will be put at a serious learning disadvantage because of this issue. They should not have to be weighing these types of decisions and instead should be looking to cut other municipal functions and make education the priority. This is an opportunity for the Mayor, who has the reputation of caring about education, to do something concrete about the situation.

Jason Gilbert, Day parent, has two children on the Daytime staff, which is in contention for another Gold Crown award this year for excellence in journalism. Some of the students are currently in Manhattan attending the Columbia University School of Journalism convention. Day is the only middle school in the country invited to attend this conference. The Daytime puts into action the core values of the system and offers real life learning opportunities. The students were given press passes onto the floor of the Democratic National Convention this past summer. The program is inclusive of students of all abilities, including those with learning and physical handicaps. There is a niche for everyone -- whether it be reporting, advertising/sales, photography or computer layout. Fundraising covers the majority of costs associated with producing the paper, with the exception of a .5 full time equivalency (FTE) teaching position, which is what is at stake in this budget. However, the system reaps a great benefit for this position. Not only must they preserve the newspaper, but it is time to change the way it is staffed because it cannot be overseen by a staff member with full-time teaching responsibilities and they should not have to face fighting for this every year.

Lori Alexander, Zervas parent, is concerned about the staffing cuts, particularly the librarians. Zervas is not only going to transition to a new principal, but there are a lot of young staff in their school that need the guidance and support of people like the librarian. She is troubled that schools are being pitted against one another to fight for scarce resources and suggested the School Committee allow parents to work with them to come up with some creative solutions and think “outside the box.”

Alderman Jay Harney spoke in support of the Daytime, which teaches students everything from critical thinking and reading and writing skills, to business, sales, math, statistics and computers. It provides a forum for artistic expression and involves over 10% of the school population as participants and 100% as readers of the newspaper. Students learn team work and develop a great deal of self-confidence. He has no doubt that there will be a newspaper at Day next year, but the question is whether it will be the caliber of what is now in place.

Tammerah Martin, Bowen Elementary School parent, is concerned that her daughter will be spending a second year in a large class when she enters first grade in the fall. If the numbers fall as indicated, Bowen will have 47% of classes with 25 or more children. All schools should share this burden because only then will the community understand the necessity of the need for more funding.

Susan Flicop, Bowen parent, is distressed that at the last meeting there was discussion for over an-hour-and-a-half regarding seven librarian positions and very little time discussing 10 teachers and 32 aides. These are the frontline people in terms of the education of students and without them there is no learning. Newton has been diligent around the issue of class size but they seem to be backing off from this priority. There are other programs in the budget that she would reluctantly trade off to retain more teachers, such as Understanding Our Differences or the mentor program. In the short-term, she urged them to look at every line item to see where they might cut something in order to save as many teachers and support staff as possible, and long-term they must explore ideas for increasing the overall amount of money available.

Jeffrey O’Neil, music teacher at Underwood, talked about how the music program in Newton has flourished and children are learning things in the elementary schools program that he did not learn until his high school career. He quoted from Plato about the importance of music education.

FY06 BUDGET DISCUSSION

Anne Larner announced that she and Susie Heyman have been working with the Education Collaborative (EDCO) on an April 1^st legislative forum, in which they will put forward a concerted effort for increased State aid, 100% funding of the Circuit Breaker legislation, and some other financial remedies to try to help all of the communities in the area. Newton is not alone in this regard and there are similar situations occurring across the Commonwealth.

Curriculum & Instruction

Information Technology

Marc Laredo would like to better understand the interplay between the technology specialists, literacy specialists, and librarians.

Fran Zilonis, Director of Information Technology, explained that there are 4.7 FTE instructional technology specialists at the elementary level, 4.0 at the middle schools, 1.2 at Newton North, and 1.5 at Newton South. There are three administrative technology specialists, who manage all of the work related to the Student Management Information (SMS) database, Circuit Breaker legislation reports, and all of the mandates required by the Department of Education (DOE). The quarterly DOE report involves all 11,200 students, with 54 different data elements for each child. An additional position handles Pentamation and the conversation to the new Finance Plus system. There are two specialists that oversee the entire network for the whole system, two who do maintenance and repairs, the Manager of Information Systems, and one secretary.

The elementary instructional technology specialists and library/media specialists share pieces of technology instruction to students, training of teachers, curriculum planning & development, co-teaching and modeling lessons, and maintaining computers. The things that are unique to the librarians are their specific instruction to classes, planning with teachers to integrate the technology into the classroom, overseeing the automation system in the library, and helping students learn to access databases. The librarians play a leadership role in the development of curriculum and in helping teachers find constructive ways to teach with the available tools. They enrich the work of teachers by making sure students know how to do research. The way the instructional technology specialists help students is by role modeling and assisting teachers as new projects are incorporated into the curriculum. They demonstrate the new technology to the teachers and the librarians and then the librarians carry on the work in their buildings. Their role also intermingles with the literacy specialists in their work to develop a love of reading in children. They are well versed in the materials that are available to help teachers and literacy specialists select appropriately for their needs. While there are similarities and differences among the three roles, they are intertwined and all work to support children in the learning process.

Patty Kellogg wondered if the librarians could learn more of what the technology specialists do and rather than cut those positions, actually increase their time and let them take over that role.

Fran Zilonis does not believe that is the best approach at this time because of the depth and breadth of knowledge that the instructional technology specialists have. Given the number of classrooms in the system, she would not advise eliminating people who have the expertise in working with teachers to integrate technology.

Patty Kellogg commented that they could impart their knowledge to the librarians and while the resulting program may not be as thorough, it certainly would be more efficient and perhaps adequate.

Fran Zilonis stated that they spent a great deal of time reviewing their program and wrestling with these kinds of options and this would not be a recommendation she would make.

Susie Heyman talked about the desire to add back something to the cuts in the library media specialists, although it is unlikely they could add back in full. She asked if there is an amount that could be restored that would be meaningful to the program.

Fran Zilonis would be grateful for any add-backs and has prepared a series of options that would show how they could utilize the funding in increments.

Susie Heyman asked about the possibility of keeping the libraries open even without a librarian present.

Fran Zilonis would not recommend this because, from her past experience in these situations in other systems, materials that are taken out are often not all returned.

Susie Heyman asked if they could utilize volunteers in the libraries for supervision purposes.

Fran Zilonis explained that one of the problems with volunteers is that they are not employees of the system and, therefore, there is no oversight. Many are very responsible, but there are always circumstances where people do not show up or decide not to volunteer any longer and it becomes problematic.

Reenie Murphy noted that without a full-time person in every school to oversee all the hardware, they already cannot service every need. She asked if there is a standard around staffing in this area.

Fran Zilonis stated that according to the State there should be one technology specialist for every 50-60 teachers and they are far below that level.

Dori Zaleznik asked if the staffing being proposed will be sufficient to run the libraries.

Fran Zilonis stated that it is not what they would recommend under a different financial situation, but it is the best plan they could develop. The larger schools (Countryside, Franklin, Mason-Rice and Memorial-Spaulding) will have three days of library service. The next level (Angier, Bowen, Burr, Cabot, Horace Mann, Peirce and Zervas) will have two-and-a-half days and the smaller schools (Lincoln-Elliot, Ward, Williams and Underwood) will have two days.

Nancy Levine wondered if there is less need for intensive training given the younger teaching staff entering the system who presumably have had a lot of computer experience.

Fran Zilonis stated that unfortunately that is not the case. She is actually involved with a group through the University of Amherst that is looking at this issue, because schools of education are graduating new teachers who not have the technology skills that they need.

Gail Glick commented that since the librarians do the immediate trouble-shooting around technology in their buildings, she wondered if there will be others who can fill that role when they are not available.

Fran Zilonis commented that staff often help out one another but trouble-shooting can involve a great deal of time, which teachers do not have to spare.

Gail Glick asked if the information technology specialists could be deployed for this purpose.

Fran Zilonis stated that troubleshooting is not their main role, so if it changes to that then they would lose the integration piece. These are decisions that will have to be made depending on the final outcome of the budget.

Marc Laredo is troubled that libraries will be closed while they are not taking any cuts in the information technologist positions. He asked how the number of staff in this area compares to four years ago.

Sandra Guryan, Assistant Superintendent for Business, Finance & Planning, stated that the reorganization at the Education Center changed the job descriptions and the way the administrative technology department operated. She believes the net staffing change was zero, but prior to that time the override allowed for some administrative technology positions to be added because of the growth of the network. She will review this and get the information for the Committee.

Fran Zilonis added that the instructional technology specialist up until last year was split between the two high schools. When this person retired, they made the decisions to have a full-time position at both schools because of all the equipment that has been put in place in these buildings and the need teachers expressed for this support.

Susie Heyman referred to a report on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation that spoke of the funding from the federal government barely covering the additional reporting mandates under this program. The work and complexity of what is involved has added a great deal more responsibility to staff.

Literacy

Anne Larner asked about the impact of the cut to the literacy program at the middle schools and the expectations for the program in general.

Greg Hurray, English Coordinator, stated that the elementary literacy program is a model for what they would like to do at the middle schools, which currently has a solid program but has room to grow and improve. They are not as well aligned with the Frameworks and recommendations of the major reading organizations as they would like to be. In addition, they want to address the number of students at this level who have not achieved proficiency in reading and writing. The first step is to reorient English teachers to think of themselves not only as teachers of literature and composition, but also of reading. Once that is accomplished they will move on to teachers in other core subjects. They have been working on this training for several years and have made great strides. To improve student performance at this level, they need to differentiate the instruction more than what is currently in place. However, the cuts to this budget will have a serious impact on their efforts. They will still move forward with an examination of the reading services and instruction and have recently applied for DOE grant for this purpose. The literacy specialist has spearheaded a number of initiatives, such as the training of teachers in the use of various assessment tools. They have also collected, compared, and interpreted data on students and then worked with teachers around implications for improving instruction based on this data. This will be a difficult piece to replicate without their services. The literacy specialists work with some of the most neediest students at risk of failing the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. They also supervise the middle school publications. They are still in discussions about how they are going to meet the needs of the students who are below grade level, which will be their first priority. He is going to attempt to do a better job at training the English Dept. staff on the use of assessment tools, as well as looking at other assessments that can provide information in a less time-consuming manner. He does not know how they are going to address the issue of the professional development piece that has been provided by the specialists and will probably have to rely more on the expertise of individual staff members. In terms of the publications, they are an essential ingredient in the schools. They may have to consider offering a stipend to staff or rely on their good will to keep these functioning.

Reenie Murphy asked if the services provided by the literacy specialists are consistent at each school.

Greg Hurray responded that they are coming from four different traditions, so the experiences might be slightly different at each school. They have worked hard at defining and sharpening the roles and he would like to see greater uniformity, which is what they are moving toward.

Marc Laredo commented on the situation with the Daytime, where it is apparent that the literacy specialist is doing something different in this building. He asked if there are any strategies they can consider to be sure that the newspaper continues and remains as excellent as its current status.

Jeff Young stated that they are working hard to retain the Daytime by exploring some possibilities.

Professional Development

Dori Zaleznik asked about professional development and wondered if there is a way to move some of that from the school year to the summer. They have heard from some principals that it can be disruptive when teachers are out of the building and have to be replaced by substitutes. She wondered if there is a way to calculate the costs for the way they are currently doing professional development compared to what it would cost to shift some of that to the summer, because it could save some money.

Jeff Young agreed that this is something they can explore, but in addition to the cost factor they also have to consider the impact on having it go from an ongoing process to something that occurs in a specific timeframe once a year.

Carolyn Wyatt added that summer professional development is contractually mandated to be funded in a particular way.

Marc Laredo noted that even if they did away with offering teachers professional development during the school day, it would still be available on an ongoing basis on Thursday afternoons and early release days. It will also be important to see the costs associated with the hiring of substitutes. It is his understanding that there are times when classes are cancelled at the high school level when a teacher is absent for this purpose and no substitute can be found, which is clearly not beneficial to students.

Susie Heyman mentioned that there is a State standard with regard to the amount of professional development systems should be spending and wondered how Newton rates in this regard.

Carolyn Wyatt stated that the last reporting to the DOE indicated that their spending is high, primarily because a lot of the professional development is delivered by in-house personnel who receive a per diem for this service.

Susie Heyman also noted that many of the new staff are young and not experienced and need to be trained in Newton’s curriculum.

Carolyn Wyatt stated that they try to address this in the mentoring program, where veteran staff provides this support for new teachers. They have been moving toward taking advantage of the in-house expertise for the past few years and have begun to see a difference. Research indicates that on-the-job training is more effective than a several day summer workshop, although summer work is appropriate for certain circumstances.

Gail Glick asked if the mentoring program will be able to compensate for the losses in professional development.

Carolyn Wyatt replied that they have retooled the program so that it can begin to do more of the site-based work and are creating teams in each school for this purpose. This should eventually provide cost savings, as the expertise will not have to come from the hiring of outside consultants.

Marc Laredo understands that professional development is important. However, in the context of cutting classroom teachers priorities have to be set. He asked what amount of grant funding will be available for the summer program for next year.

Jeff Young stated that approximately $68,000 will be available from the NCLB grant, but the $100,000 that was earmarked through Newton’s budget will not be in place.

Marc Laredo asked if there had been consideration of different ways to deliver the mentor program at less cost.

Carolyn Wyatt stated that the DOE requires the mentoring program, so the training must remain. She believes they are delivering it in the most cost-effective manner.

Marc Laredo asked if they had considered looking at different ways of supervision of the program.

Carolyn Wyatt replied that they had not but she could provide that information. It needs to be made clear that this would mean the program would not be what is in place today.

Dori Zaleznik mentioned that many people have questioned whether school-based staff could accomplish some of what is currently being done by administration. Curriculum coordinators were at one point being considered for cuts, but a very persuasive conversation with the principals about the crucial role they play and the amount of direct supervision they do of teachers convinced the Committee that these positions should be retained.

Carolyn Wyatt stated that above the curriculum coordinators are herself and the Assistant Director of Curriculum & Instruction, who runs the mentoring program and monitors, observes, coaches and trains the 255 new teachers currently in the system. This person conducts school visits, leads an advisory committee to help structure peer observation, provides data expertise, and supports the work of the coordinators. For the first three years that she served in her role without an Assistant Director, she had all these responsibilities and it was not productive. She would not recommend eliminating this position.

Jeff Young understands the temptation to want to reduce or eliminate staff that are not in the classroom, which they have done over the past few years in order to keep class sizes down. The position of Assistant Director was part of the reorganization plan, which he reminded people saved over $750,000. Any position can be cut, but the delicate balance they have to wrestle with is solving a problem for one year vs. thinking how that impacts the system long-term.

Marc Laredo agreed with Dori’s comments about the enlightening discussion the Committee had with principals around the importance of the coordinator positions. He asked for clarification regarding the role of the Assistant Director in terms of overseeing teachers, which he thought was the role of principals.

Carolyn Wyatt stated that it is the role of the principals, but there are a range of other things they want new teachers to experience, such as peer observation, differentiating curriculum, etc. and the Assistant Director provides this structured program.

Elementary Schools

Susie Heyman asked about the cut in the elementary music program.

John Michael Gray, Coordinator of Fine Arts, stated that this year there are 15.2 elementary music teacher FTEs and 13.6 for art. The arts program is 60 minutes per class. The music program ranges from 30 minutes for the general program for all grades, with an additional 30 minutes of recorder for grade 3 and 60 minutes for grade 5. There is an optional 30 minute instrumental lesson at grade 4 and an optional 60 minute lesson for bands and orchestra at grade 5. There is a .9 reduction in this budget, which is to be accomplished by tightening the program.

Marc Laredo asked if the program could easily be restored if the .9 were returned in a future year when they are in a better fiscal climate.

John Gray responded in the affirmative. However, if recorder is eliminated, a long-standing tradition in Newton will cease during that time. There will then be that one group of third-grade students who will go forward without having had the pre-instrumental experience of reading music and playing an instrument, so presumably there would be a drop-off in the number of fourth-graders who take instrumental lessons.

There was further discussion with regard to how much of the FTE cut had to do with the number of fewer classes vs. actual programmatic reductions and it was determined that it was .4. As there was a lack of clarification around this issue, it was decided to request the information be put in writing so that they can see what is currently in place this year and what will be available next year.

Judith Malone Neville, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, talked about the charge they received to review the art & music area in order to see if they might be able to shift some funds that would then allow them to restore some FTEs to the library media specialists. John has spoken about the music piece, but in addition they have provided information on the arts as well, which would decrease the amount of time students have for this subject from 60 to 45 minutes. The total overall savings was 1.3 FTE. It will be helpful to go back to the drawing board to outline this information more specifically because it is very complex.

Nancy Levine asked if the physical education program was going to be impacted.

Judy Malone Neville replied that the reductions in this area at the elementary level are based solely on the number of fewer classrooms. However, there is a change at the middle schools.

Susie Heyman commented on the elimination of the Health Education Specialist and what a great loss this will be to the system. Nancy DiMella has served in this role and provided a great service to Newton, especially in her concern for students at risk. The ninth grade curriculum that she put in place will be her legacy. She thanked her for what she has given to the Newton Public Schools and the solid program that she leaves behind.

Jeff Young agreed. These are very difficult choices that have to be made and behind each and every one is a person. In this case, Nancy has provided tremendous guidance to the health curriculum and on a personal note is a wonderful human being who will be sorely missed.

Secondary Schools

Reenie Murphy asked about the cuts to the music and art department heads at the high schools.

John Gray stated that the people will still be in place, but will be taking on additional teaching and the formal administrative piece will no longer be in place. However, some of what these people do may be retained simply by the nature of the people in the positions, but they are going to have to have conversations with the principals about how it will all play out.

Anne Larner asked about the health education program.

Judy Malone Neville mentioned the reduction of a .5 position at Day Middle School, which has been offering more opportunities for students in this area through both the cross team program as well as electives. This will put the program in line with what is occurring at the other three middle schools, but means a reduction in program in that school.

Anne Larner commented that there are pluses to having more consistency among the schools. On the other hand, the uniqueness of the individual buildings allows for different programs to arise, such as the Daytime as one example.

Marc Laredo asked if the cut in physical education will mean larger classes or reduction in offerings.

Judy Malone Neville responded that class sizes will increase slightly.

Marc Laredo asked if they could provide a general overview of the materials that were received tonight regarding the area of curriculum & instruction.

Carolyn Wyatt stated that the first group represents the line items associated with the curriculum revision cycle, where different subjects receive a certain amount of funds based on where they are in the five-year plan.

Sandy Guryan added that she could provide the specific detail behind each of the items if the Committee so desired. As an example, in year one there might be funds for consulting and supplies. Later on in the process funds would be made available to attend conferences related to the subject and further purchasing of materials for the curriculum.

Marc Laredo would appreciate the detailed information, but only for one area, just as an example.

Susie Heyman is having some difficulty in understanding the specifics around the reduction of aides.

Sandy Guryan explained that the information shows where all the aides are located and is coded to the line items in the budget book by school. The confusion may lie in the fact that they have not yet specified where these reductions will occur. The principals have been given the charge of looking at how best to do this in their buildings. For the purpose of completing the budget book, she prepared a theoretical plan that eliminated a certain number in each school, but this is not necessarily how it will be accomplished. In addition, they are dealing with both regular and special education (SPED) aides, which may be making it more complex. There are additional aides in the SPED budget for programmatic needs, so there are pluses and minuses occurring, which is probably making it more difficult to follow.

Anne Larner commented that this sounds like a work in progress, while the budget book had to reflect an accounting for the additions and subtractions at a particular point in time.

Sandy Guryan commented that each year the Committee has been helpful in suggesting ways which might make the budget a more user friendly document. She continues to be open to these suggestions.

Anne Larner thanked her for this and mentioned that she has been very responsive in the past and it has been appreciated.

Career & Technical Education

Susie Heyman noted that this area has remained intact and asked if there may be any places within its budget where reductions could be made to enable them to return some funding to other areas.

Yvonne Spicer, Director of Career & Technical Education, stated that the program is solid but is being run on “bare bones.” Surrounding communities have multiple instructors in their programs, while Newton has only one in each area. If they were to reduce any staffing, the particular program being targeted would be eliminated. There has been a 10-20% increase in enrollment in all of their programs and they are serving 445 students in the exploratory courses. They will soon be faced with the New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC) accreditation review and a program review in 2007, so staff will have to be spending time on preparing for these evaluations.

Judy Malone Neville commented that they are actually feeling the pinch in the opposite direction in this area, because the program is growing and they want to expand. They have been looking to add some courses at Newton South, but they are impeded by the current fiscal situation.

Patty Kellogg attended the Career & Technical Education day presentation and it was obvious that the programs are thriving. There is such a rich diversity of opportunities and she would not want to see it gutted in any way.

General Discussion on Budget

At this point Anne Larner asked if each Committee member could discuss their thoughts about the budget in terms of where they might want to see changes or need for additional information.

Gail Glick would like to see the fine arts cuts restored to the extent possible at the elementary level. She would also like the library cuts to be kept at a level that will allow the program to continue and hopefully find ways of covering some of the responsibilities by deploying staff in a different manner. Her key concern is being able to return teaching positions to the budget.

Reenie Murphy also has class size as the highest priority, particularly in kindergarten and first grade. In addition, she is concerned about having no teacher reserves. In terms of the instructional support staff, as a former employee, she is well aware of the support these people provide and how closely they work with the library media specialists. She would hate to see an already skeletal crew further reduced. She feels there may be room in the unemployment and utilities line items for some savings. She would also suggest reviewing the professional development area for additional reductions. Finally, she suggested taking across the board cuts in some administrative line items such as supplies and materials.

Nancy Levine is very distressed by the library cuts, as this will mean that for some buildings the libraries will be closed three days a week. This will result in large classes no longer having the luxury of breaking up into smaller groups and going to the library for instruction. In terms of the .2 cut in the Director of Environmental Operations’ position, she would suggest restoring that and in turn not utilizing outside consulting services any longer in this area, since the person has most likely obtained the expertise at this point.

Marc Laredo stated that despite the problems they face in this budget Newton still has an excellent system and he does not want people to lose sight of that fact. In terms of restorations, his first priority would be classroom teachers. He would also like to see the cuts that impact the Daytime and music department restored and some staffing returned for the librarians. He would look to professional development and the special education budget to cover these costs. Finally, it is important to find a way to address funding for facilities with some creative financing because money spent upfront on boilers and windows, etc. will pay for itself in the long run.

Patty Kellogg agreed that they need to focus on addressing the issues with utilities because they are running inefficient systems, which is far costlier to the system. She is concerned about the cuts to the library program and is not totally convinced that they could not pick up some of the work of the information technology specialists. She is pleased to hear that the administration is working on ways to retain the Daytime and suggested the possibility of paying a stipend from an outside source for the advisor. She hopes they can restore the music cuts, as the recorder and chorus are such a rich tradition in Newton. She is concerned about large class sizes, particularly in the schools that have physical constraints. She would like to see the administration budget reviewed for some possible additional savings. She is not as adamant as some others about holding harmless the charter maintenance budget.

Susie Heyman believes they need to focus on a few specific areas to find funds to restore cuts and not try to take bits and pieces from a variety of places. She would also prioritize teaching positions, but also understands the balance of keeping the infrastructure intact in order to support the classes. She does not believe the savings from the .4 reduction in the music program is worth it for what will be lost. She would look to the areas of utilities and unemployment to offset these restorations and would like to have further conversations around the out-of-district tuition account as another possible area to shave.

Dori Zaleznik also wants to preserve teaching positions as much as possible and would suggest looking at inanimate accounts to restore staff. She would also like to see some funding restored to the library media specialists, although it is doubtful that they can retain the full program. She agrees that the cut in the music area does not save them enough to make any sense. She would like to attempt to restore $750,000 to the budget, with the understanding that they are taking a risk and could possible wind up having to freeze all supply accounts mid-year.

Anne Larner stated that there appears to be consensus to look at the non-instructional accounts and take some type of prudent risk. This boils down to a judgment call on the projections and estimates. Personally she would like to review the materials a bit more before choosing a specific dollar target, but agrees that classroom teachers should be the first priority. She is not sure there will be enough funding to get to the next priority of librarians. She is conflicted about this piece because technology is an area where they have not gotten up to speed because they have been diverted from the course numerous times to address other issues. She feels that she has a lot of homework to accomplish over the next several days in reviewing all the backup materials and data. She suggested people do the same and forward any additional questions or concerns they have to her and she will, in turn, summarize those comments and forward them to the administration.

Dori Zaleznik would like to take this opportunity to thank staff for the amount of work they have produced throughout this process. The Committee is being particularly careful this year to understand the implications of their decisions and understands the extra burden this has added to people as they continue to ask for additional information.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 10:40 p.m.