Level-funded budget could spell trouble
Published on January 24th, 2007
Despite several years of cuts already sustained, the School Committee is once again gearing up for another difficult budget year. The FY2008 budget season is looming, and all items are again on the table for consideration to cut in light of the Town Administrator's recent allocation to the School Committee of a 2008 budget of $22,889,162, which maintains the same level of funding as the current year with no trash fee monies included.
Last Thursday, School Committee Chairman Kristin Russo called for Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly and Business Manager Anthony DeCologero to begin giving the School Committee some hard numbers to work with.
School Committee Vice Chairman Maureen Soley explained that while the Town Administrator's budget figure proposal is called a level funded budget, it will not necessarily cover the school program which is not level funded since it has endured increases in costs but not in funding.
Resident Marissa Raczkowski asked the School Committee to not begin inside the classroom in looking to make cuts to meet the Town Administrator's budget number.
"We cannot lose another teacher or squeeze more kids in a classroom...I don't want to hear that the Middle School is on the table again. I don't want to hear that accreditation is at risk again."
While School Committee members were empathetic to these concerns, they stated that inside or outside the classroom there is nowhere left to cut.
"Anything is devastating at this point," said committee member Cheryl Walsh.
Walsh also addressed the perception of some residents that the School Committee cries wolf when it comes to potential cuts while the school budget is in development and in the end does not make all the cuts that were threatened.
"When you see things reappear, it's because we worked very hard with what little we get...I cannot sit on this board in good conscience and not give something back."
Russo reminded all that the budget figure given to the School Committee was a starting point.
"This number will only change if there is a debt exclusion, an override or a trash fee."
The public is invited to attend a January 30 informational meeting at the Town Hall Banquet Room where a presentation and discussion with the Board of Selectmen, Finance Board and School Committee will take place regarding developing an operational budget template and review of long range planning.
In other news, it will not be a good time for Central School teachers and staff if a returning camp rental customer gets its way this summer.
Camp Good Times is a special education summer program that has rented space from the Stoneham public schools during the months of July and August for several years, but according to Central School teacher Maureen McArdle, experience shows it is no fun coming back into a building where the camp has made itself at home.
"The devastation to our building due to having Camp Good Times has been astronomical to faculty, to staff, and to materials."
McArdle charged that in the past when Camp Good Times rented space in the Central School building, staff was delayed in coming back to the building to ready classrooms for the new school year, items were found broken, and materials were lost. Furthermore, while the camp took over the first two floors of the school building, Stoneham summer school Kindergarteners and preschoolers were relegated to the third floor, a space McArdle said "was not at all applicable to having young ones up there."
"We were given an assurance that Camp Good Times would not come back to Central School. It would rotate in the system ... in each of the elementary schools," so that Central School would not have to deal with the inconvenience for another six years.
"All the things we were told we cannot do to our building (adhering tape to walls and floors, for example) they came in and did...and our school looked like a shambles."
McArdle warned the School Committee of the Central School staff reaction once it learns that consideration is being made for use of Central School again by the camp.
"They were promised by Dr. Connelly that this would not happen."
Last summer, Camp Good Times rented the Robin Hood School for its summer program, where teachers and staff were fortunate to have storage space for their materials, and reportedly did not sustain the same level of damage as Central School had previously. However, because of a problem with the HVAC system, the utility bill for the period of use was two times higher than projected, nearly $20,000 a month for July and August.
Camp Good Times has expressed willingness to negotiate assumption of a higher share in the operating costs, since Stoneham's new facilities and central location to the towns the camp serves is very attractive. However, the use of an air conditioned Robin Hood school last year proved cost prohibitive to continue that. Yet, South and Colonial Park schools at first glance appear too small to house both the camp and Stoneham's summer school.
The School Committee said it will continue to look into this issue and possibly solutions such as using two separate buildings to house the camp and the summer school.
Awards
The School Building Committee recently received kudos for its work on renovating and rebuilding Stoneham's elementary Schools.
The Stoneham Beautification Committee conferred its 2006 "Style of Stoneham" award upon the building committee for the outstanding job it did overseeing the rebuilding of South and Central elementary schools, as well as renovation to the Robin Hood and Colonial Park schools.
"It was truly a heartfelt award that somebody really noticed the buildings we did," said School Committee member Marie Christie who, along with fellow School Committee member Maureen Soley, served on the School Building Committee for the past seven years.
Other awards were handed out during last week's School Committee meeting as well. The Massachusetts Association of School Committees accepted all three of Stoneham's nominations for individuals who have shown a commitment to public education in Stoneham.
The MASC has an annual program in place that allows local school superintendents and school committees to nominate people they consider worthy of recognition due to contributions made to students and the educational system as a whole in a sustained voluntary and meaningful manner.
School Committee Chairman Kristin Russo presented the first award for Community Leader for Public Education to resident and long time Finance Board member John Warren. Warren's "relentless efforts to personally understand the (state's) Chapter 70 formula," that has resulted in inequitable funding to Stoneham and similar communities, has brought the problem to light at the local and state levels.
In fact, Russo said, Warren's research and conclusion that the chapter 70 formula is flawed and inequitable to Stoneham and like towns "is now accepted as fact." The Outstanding School Partnership Award was then presented to StonehamBank. Under the leadership of bank president Janice Houghton, StonehamBank has continually donated financial resources and employee time to the betterment of the Stoneham Public Schools.
"Each year, StonehamBank willingly steps forward to support all of our six public school buildings," Russo said, calling such support tremendously valued particularly over the past several years as Stoneham schools have faced serious financial difficulties.
In addition to adopting the Central School in the School Committee's Adopt-A-School-Program, StonehamBank has helped finance the boys soccer team championship rings and the high school state championship street signs around town. It also sends employee volunteers to help with activities and even participate in the Central School Real Aloud program.
"StonehamBank has truly become the symbol and role model for how other businesses can and should support local schools."
Finally, the MASC Friend of Public Education Award went to resident Susan O'Neil for her work as an active parent within the school system in general and her development of the town's Chapter 70 committee.
O'Neil was credited with organizing a large delegation of Stoneham citizens to descend upon the State House in an effort to speak on behalf of and bring awareness to the inequibility of Chapter 70 funding to towns like Stoneham.
Her constant involvement in PTO and the system's United Council has not gone unnoticed. In addition, O'Neil does not mind getting her hands dirty as she helped organize the first ever Extreme Makeover of the Middle School, which entailed cleaning, painting and refurbishing parts of the 55-year old middle school building.
Superintendent Search
The search for a new school superintendent to replace outgoing superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly continues as the third of four focus groups took place with the public last week. The School Committee asked the public in attendance at Thursday night's meeting to advise what attributes it would like to see in the next person to take over the reins of town's public school system. Knowledge of curriculum and state mandates, a sense of discipline with students, strong relationship with state and local officials, and a solid financial background were some of the attributes suggested for the next superintendent.
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