Mayor weighs request for added school budget funds

Now that members have been presented with Superintendent Philip Thornton’s proposed budget of $167,016,695 for fiscal year 2018, the School Committee will vote on it on April 12. It will then be sent to Mayor Scott Avedisian. The mayor will forward his budget to the City Council in May.

Avedisian said Monday that he’s in the process of completing the last four departmental reviews – Public Works, Recreation, Sewer Authority, and Water Department – and that he has met with Thornton and School Committee Chair Beth Furtado.

“Our discussions have centered around their requested increases and what the increase would fund. We have discussed pros and cons of budgeting with a contract resolution and without a contract resolution,” he said. “We should know more by the end of the week.”

State aid will be determined upon approval of the state budget expected in June.

School administrators discussed the budget at length at a special School Committee meeting on Thursday night, mulling over salary increases, class offerings and improvements to Internet and classroom technologies. The proposed budget requests more funding from the city and could add technologies to classrooms if approved.

The budget requests a 4 percent increase in funding from the city: $124,263,717 from last year’s $119,482,464. Another $39,154,645 would come from the governor’s proposed budget.

Last year, Chromebooks were purchased for grades 6 to 9, and this year’s budget seeks to buy the devices for incoming 7th graders, 10th and 11th graders at a cost of $511,300.

In addition, improvements to wi-fi were discussed. An expense of $630,800 is slated to install in high schools Modern Classrooms and standardizing instructional technology equipment, including smart TVs, document cameras and promethium educational devices. School Technology Director Doug Alexander said between 140 and 150 promethean boards, about 75 per school, would be installed in the high schools.

Salary costs are projected to increase by a net of $1,858,971 from last year. Set aside is $2,350,940 for the possibility of teacher raises pending a contract settlement. No staff reductions are planned, but the budget notes there may be a need to re-purpose certain positions to meet student needs. However, an additional need of $4 million in funding could lead to a need to reduce staff or programs if those funds are unavailable, it adds.

In terms of staffing, the district had been struggling to fill two full-time school psychologist positions, noted Special Education Director Jennifer Connolly.

“We were recently making great progress in this area. We just hired someone this week, and I had two interviews today. But because of these two vacancies that we haven’t been able to fill, we’ve had to contract out with an agency,” she said.

Next year, Secondary Director Bob Littlefield said, schools want to expand Advanced Placement offerings for seniors and language to juniors. English, psychology and computer science classes could be added.

“We’re making efforts not only to expand our offerings but expand our participation to encourage more students to take on that challenge of advanced placement courses,” he said. “With that comes the requirement to make sure our teachers our prepared, that they’ve got the materials but that they also have the training that’s necessary to prepare an Advanced Placement curriculum.”

Although funding for them did not fit into this year’s budget, Human Resources Director Katherine Duncanson said more substitute teachers would be necessary in the future and pitched the idea of hiring a permanent substitute in buildings. The district and state both have a “shortage of qualified individuals to fill classroom vacancies,” she noted.

“A permanent building substitute would allow the district to guarantee a substitute to a building for the entire school year, which gives that building much more flexibility and gives that substitute teacher stability throughout the year,” she said. “It is a pretty substantial cost and right now we don’t have the bodies to do it.”

Duncanson said that though the cost of a permanent substitute would be the equivalent of a teacher’s salary, it would provide both the building and individual with stability. It would be easier to hire a substitute if they could guarantee employment for a year, she added.