Action in Brief
2/13/06 School Committee Meeting
·
The Committee discussed
the projected $878,155 FY06 budget deficit, resulting from a 45% increase in
utility costs. The Mayor has generously
allocated $280,000 toward reducing this deficit and the school system had set
aside $153,870 in
reserve for anticipated cost increases in this area, leaving a deficit balance
of $444,285. Three options were outlined
for reducing this deficit at levels of $200,000, $300,000 and $444,285. The Committee felt that eliminating the
deficit entirely would have dire consequences on the system in that it would
impact personnel and, thereby, direct services for students. The Committee voted to reduce the deficit by
$300,000 asking the administration to review the areas under each level so as
to have the least impact on staffing and necessary supplies for the
classroom. It was hoped that free cash
may be available later in the year to cover the remaining balance. The Mayor committed to reviewing the free
cash pool in early April after the snow season and to allocating more money if
possible. If more is available, some of
the freezes to accounts could be lifted in the spring.
·
The Committee
heard a report on the impact of the reduction of 26.3 aides in the current
budget. Principals and staff are
examining practices and revising schedules through a variety of strategies,
such as deploying aides more broadly, eliminating most one-to-one situations
and assigning them to two or more students, and creating teams to work on rotating
schedules. Several principals talked
about the tightness of the schedule and the fact that they have less
flexibility.
·
A report was
presented on MCAS results and bridging the achievement gap showing that Newton
continues to perform very well, but that there are certain areas of concern,
such as grade 4 and 7 English Language Arts and grade 8 mathematics, where
performance mirrored declines at the state level. In 2005 the district performance met Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP) targets in aggregate and for most subgroups. However, this was not so in mathematics for
English Language Arts (ELA) in the low income and special education
subgroups. While this is not a unique
phenomenon in K-12 school systems, it remains a troubling and perplexing
problem which they continue to attempt to address in a variety of ways, such as
more consistent curriculum, tutorials, small groupings, support before and
after school, and being more proactive in earlier grades.
·
The Committee
selected Ellen Light, an architect, to serve as their representative to the
Design Review Committee, filling the vacancy left by the resignation of
architect Lisa Monahan. It was noted
that there were two strong candidates for this position, the other being Neil Hodes, an experienced project manager. The Committee voted 5-2 in favor of Ms. Light
because the Building Commissioner had suggested that the Committee fill the
vacancy with another architect and because Ms. Light had served as a member of
the Newton North High School Task Force and thus was very familiar with the
project. It was noted that Mr. Hodes would be an excellent choice as a non-voting or
alternate member of the Design Review Committee if the DRC wished to create
such a position. He would then be
available if other
openings arise on this Committee. The
Chair agreed to pass this suggestion along to DRC.
·
The discussion
of the report on comparative costs of Special Education, which was prepared by
Sandy Guryan and Margie Daniels, was postponed to February 27, as