Olson presents $25.7 million budget for schools
Published on January 9th, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - You could say that Dr. Les Olson's initiation as Stoneham School Superintendent is complete, now that he has faced his inaugural budget development for the school system that continues to operate amid the tightest of financial constraints.
Olson took his first swipe at Stoneham's fiscal 2009 school budget and presented his draft to the School Committee last week.
"I'm pleased to present to the School Committee for its consideration, my recommended budget for the 2008-09 school year," Olson said on Thursday at the Middle School where the committee convened.
With that, Olson rolled out a draft 2009 budget totaling $25,717,042 which represents an 8.8 percent increase over the current year's budget. According to Olson, in recent years, the school budget has averaged a 3.9 percent increase over the prior year, yet in the current financial climate, he said this 8.8 percent increase still represents a largely level funded budget.
The level of service of opening school doors in September with existing programs and staff, Olson said, requires an additional $1.8 million, or a 7.8 percent increase. In addition, the FY09 budget calls for $225,000 in restoration expenses.
"I would love to be able to sit here tonight and tell you that the budget meets the desired School Committee and administration goals of restoring elementary reading, fine arts, and physical education programs, of restoring elementary and middle school health education curriculum, of restoring middle school academic teams and electives, of expanding the high school teams, and perhaps even eliminating the athletic fees," Olson said.
But the cost of those restorations would require a 13 percent total budget increase.
"It's clear that the town finances this year would not allow us to consider those restorations, so I'm not even bringing those forward."
Stoneham's Finance and Advisory Board is projecting a $1.4 million increase in town revenue for FY09.
"Our level services alone would outstrip the town's revenue increase for next year," Olson said.
Town Administration David Ragucci is currently developing two budgets, Olson explained, one with and one without trash fee revenues. Olson has been in discussion with Ragucci regarding the school department's allocation of trash fee money should the town go with that budget.
Three areas in particular are expected to once again strain the school budget. Increases in health insurance and utilities, as well as contracted and step increases for existing staff, represent 4.2 percent of the total budget increase for next year. In addition, contractual cost of living increases and additional special education costs comprise another significant portion of the increase.
Other changes to next year's budget include, for the first time in many years, a built-in contingency for special education. Previously, Stoneham has budgeted only for known special education out of district placements. However, each year in recent history has shown that inevitable additional placement costs have needed to be covered. Olson initiated an expense freeze effective December 21 to cover increases to underfunded line items in the current year's budget. He also said that $45,000 of technology replacement must be considered, and of critical need is restoration of two custodians.
"I know it's unusual for a superintendent to talk of (custodial restoration) before educational restoration, but we are seriously approaching the point where we cannot assure the health and safety of building occupants in the appropriate manner given the level of staffing that we have." He pointed out that Stoneham schools currently have eight fewer custodians than in 2003.
The K-5 after school child care program is looking to raise its price from $18 to 20 per day for next year, a figure felt by administrators to still be in line with other school districts and similar programs.
As plans develop more thoroughly, the Superintendent expects to present internal program changes at upcoming School Committee meetings. One area in particular being researched is developing more in-house special education programs to lessen the town's reliance on expensive outside programs.
Despite the budget challenges, Olson stated that Stoneham students, particularly high school students, are making good progress both academically and athletically. Stoneham High School students ranked in the top one-third of the state in 2007 English language arts and math MCAS scores, and a high percent of graduates go on to four-year colleges.
"Students are achieving at a high level given the lack of resources we currently have."
But Stoneham schools do need to perform better in the earlier grades. Stoneham third graders scored in the lower half of the state for MCAS scores in 2007. Student/teacher ratios continue to be higher than three-quarters of Massachusetts school districts, and Stoneham is in the bottom one-quarter of per pupil expenditures and percentage of the town budget spent on education.
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