School budget escalates to a 5.5 percent increase
Published on February 3rd, 1999
STONEHAM, MA - The School Committee voted to up the ante for education in Stoneham last week when it incorporated seven new items into its original draft of the fiscal year 2000 budget, adding another $262,128 and bringing the total increase to 5.5 percent over the current year.
The Draft I budget was presented at a summit meeting last month to a number of town officials and was detailed by Superintendent Joseph Connelly. In it, he explained, were figures which would allow the School Department to offer the same services as the schools offered this year. This "base-level budget" totalled $17,521,306, a 3.96 percent increase over the fiscal year 1999 budget and included 2.7 new positions which, he said, were enrollment driven.
"It (this figure) will not allow us to do the things we need to do next year," School Committee Chairman Steven Gucciardi told the gathering of school personnel at the committee's meeting on Thursday. "We need to take a position now, not later."
Connelly provided committee members with a list of needs in the School Department which had been prioritized after the superintendent interviewed all principals and department heads.
"In looking at the overall picture, I think the staff put the instructional needs and the health and emergency needs as far as nurses ahead of the clerical needs," Connelly told School Committee member Marie Christie after being asked about the placement of secretaries near the bottom of the prioritized list.
The list included 13.35 positions which the School Department feels are necessary to provide the type of education students should be getting in Stoneham schools.
From the list, the School Committee chose to address the following needs by incorporating the costs into its budget:
<LI>$92,411 for 2.75 reading specialists<BR><LI>$33,604 for 1 MCAS directed study teacher<BR><LI>$41,040 for 2 technology aides<BR><LI>$20,162 for a .6 World Language teacher<BR><LI>$22,278 for 2 teaching assistants<BR><LI>$25,000 for 1 full-time nurse<BR><LI>$27,633 for 1 custodian
Excluded for the time being are 1.5 secretarial positions, a teacher's assistant for special education, and an elementary school teacher's assistant.
Of the utmost importance to School Committee members were the reading specialists which were excluded from school budgets in the past couple of years. With the MCAS scores now in the hands of school administrators, Connelly said that the lack of such instructors has had some impact on learning in Stoneham.
The MCAS directed study teacher, High School Principal Thomas Ryan explained, would work with high schoolers who had trouble with the MCAS exams and need extra support in order to pass the 10th grade exam.
Also deemed an immediate need was an additional school nurse. Connelly stated that the current staff includes only three nurses for the school system's 2,800 students.
In custodial staff, the committee voted to replace two part-time positions which had been cut in the current school year's budget. Middle School Principal James Andreottola deemed the current lack of staffing "a morale issue."
Gucciardi re-emphasized the importance for more state funding, an item which has been much talked about in school and governmental circles in Stoneham recently.
"Stoneham is being held hostage to a formula that, for the past four or five years, has kept us on auto pilot," he said of Chapter 70 funding. "We can't compete and can't survive if that formula continues to discriminate against us.
"We're beating the odds and we ought to be rewarded for that, not punished."
Connelly said that the current proposed increase of 5.5 percent is a "very responsible and sensitive budget to the town's needs" and compared the figure to surrounding towns which have been in the 7 to 10 percent increase range in recent years.
The School Committee expects to have its final budget figure completed by the end of the month.
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