School Committee Meeting Update

By: Erica Plunkett, Chair, Holliston School Committee

The meeting opened with a few general comments from members on upcoming concerts, parent group meetings, notice of the PTSA Auction, Spring Fling, taking place on Friday, April 27 at the Warren Conference Center, and a discussion the Board of Selectmen will be holding on the proposed Casino legislation, Wednesday, February 15, 7:30 pm, at the Adams Middle School.

Dr. Jackson shared information about some parent workshops recently held at the elementary schools, on how parents can help their children become 21st century learners, incorporating the use of technology at home into the new enVision and Reading Street curriculums. As well, there was as a parent workshop at Adams, on helping parents navigate social media, facilitated primarily by high school students. Dr. Ahern also shared an example of how BYOD was already starting to inform instruction, by highlighting a small project in a French class.

The main focus of the evening, however, was Dr. Jackson’s presentation of his recommended FY13 Budget. This is a preliminary budget, which can be found in its entirety on the District website (www.holliston.k12.ma.us), but is summarized below.

As always, Dr. Jackson began with sharing the budget process to date:

-Principals, Directors submitted their budget requests

-New Inititatives/Restoratations/Mandates were presented to the School Committee on January 20th,, without cost assigned, to get a fuller picture of the true educational needs from a District-wide perspective.

-The Business Manager met with the Principals/Directors to develop a run-rate budget

-The Principals/Directors met with the Superintendent to prioritize the needs (New Initiatives, etc.) and assign costs to them.

-The Superintendent prepared a budget for presentation to the School Committee.

The atmosphere in which this budget was developed:

-As always, the Strategic Plan guides the budget

-Emergency Federal Aid is no longer available. That is, monies that were related to the stimulus program, e.g. Ed Jobs money, has been spent in this fiscal year, as mandated.

-Local fees to parents are near maximum levels.

-Preliminary FY13 State Aid figures show an increase in Chapter 70 funding; for Holliston, this means about $233K.

-Student enrollment is basically stable, with small pockets of growth and decline.

Certain assumptions were made as the Superintendent developed his budget:

-Grant funding is expected to continue at FY12 levels.

-Federal stimulus money is gone.

-SPED Circuit Breaker reimbursement (which is reimbursement for extraordinary SPED expenses), is assumed to be at a 70% rate, per the Governor’s budget. Please note that this is a reimbursement and is always a year behind. FY13 Circuit Breaker is for FY12 expenses.

-As always, the Holliston community expects progress and improvements gained to continue, against an already high standard, despite ongoing fiscal challenges.

What’s the good news?

-Efforts by the Administration and the School Committee to control costs have shown much success.

What'sthe bad news?

-Again, federal stimulus money is no longer available.

-There are significant increases in SPED costs and out-of-district placements.

-There is a pent-up demand for New Initiatives and/or Restoration of programs/positions cut in previous years. The past 2-3 years have seen little to no ability to fund any new educational items and in fact, programs and positions have been cut to the point where the District’s ability to service the students has been negatively impacted.

The good news and bad news together will reveal a significantly higher budget recommendation than Dr. Jackson has presented in the past few years.

FY13 Budget Drivers (over which Central Office/School Committee has some influence)- Grouped by item, increased/decreased cost over last year, and what percentage this item is driving the budget up or down:

-Contractual obligations/salaries ($726.1 or +2.64%) -over the past three years, this line item has decreased 25-30%, from an obligation in FY10 of $1.06M

-NEASC Accreditation Costs ($25K or +.09%)

-All other small line-item increases (-$4.2K or -.01%)

-Utilities (-$19.3K or -.07%) -seeing some good savings due to better electric rates and a 20% decrease in KWH usage, with NStar efficiencies put in place over the previous two years

-Contractual Obligations/Contracted Services (-$34.0K or -.12%) - these include cleaning and transportation

-Norfolk Aggie Tuitions (-$42.8K or -.15%)

-Additional Local Revenue (-$59.7K or -.22%) - virtually eliminated bad debt, especially in regard to Kindergarten and Pre-K tuitions

-Additional Circuit Breaker Revenue (-$136.0K or -.50%)

Sub Total:$454,762 +1.65% (please note the that guideline from the Finance Committee is +1/5%)

However, there are two substantial budget drivers over which Central Office/School Committee has little to no influence. For FY13, these are:

1. SPED Tuitions/Summer Programs (+$512K or +1.86%)

(this amount covers residential placement for five children in the District, between move-ins and multi-handicapped children already in District, who require a one-on-one nurse. The School Committee recognizes that taking care of all the children in the District, particularly those who are most vulnerable or medically fragile, is our moral responsibility. There is a cost associated with this responsibility).

2. Loss of Federal Stimulus Funds (+$435.4K or +1.58%)

Sub Total: +947.999K +3.44%

The grand total for allowing the District to present a level-service budget (that is, one that supplies the same level of services as this year- FY12- is:

$454,762 + $947,999 = +$1,402, 761 or + 5.09%

But, as mentioned previously, Dr. Jackson is recommending some New Initiatives/Restorations. Again, these can be found on the District website, so I’m only going to note the ones Dr. Jackson recommends funding. The complete list, including ones he’s not able to recommend funding, are online.

High School Top Priorities:

-Comprehensive Pre-K-12 study of Counseling Services and Staffing Patterns ($25K)

-Additional paraprofessional for the Network Program ($15K)

-Full-Time Athletic Director ($75K)

Middle School:

-Tier 11 Mathematics Intervention Teacher ($61K)- will cover grades 1-6, to address students falling behind in skill acquisition

-Wireless Internet throughout the building ($55K)

Miller School:

-Grade 3 Teacher ($50K)

-Classroom Technology/Mimeos and replacement of 6 year-old Laptop Cart ($48K)

-Student Leadership Team Advisors ($4K)

Placentino:

-Paraprofessional Support for Integrated Pre-K ($45K)

-FTE ESL Teacher/Mandated program ($60K)

-Technology-nComputing Devices ($12K)- will allow the classroom footprint to go back to four computers per class, rather than two

Student Services:

-1.0 FTE SPED Teacher/HHS Basis Program ($61K)

-Refit HHS Network Classroom ($10K)

Finance/Operations:

-Replace Adams Gym floor ($236K)

-Cafeteria Point-of-Sale System ($25K)

Curriculum and Instruction:

-Prepare for new Educator Evaluation System ($10K) - mandated by the State

-Atlas Rubicon licenses for K-5/Curriculum Mapping software ($4K)

In summary:

-HHS New Initiatives/Restorations- $115K

-Adams New Initiatives/Restorations- $116K

-Miller New Initiatives/Restorations- $102K

-Placentino New Initiatives/Restorations- $117K

-Student Services New Initiatives/Restorations- $71K

-Operations and Finance New Initiatives/Restorations- $261K

-Curriculum and Instruction New Initiatives/Restorations- $14K

Grand Total: $796,000

The Final Summary of Dr. Jackson’s Recommended FY13 Budget is:

-Budget Drivers (some influence): $454,762 or +1.65% over last year

-Budget Drivers (little or no influence): $947,999 or +3.44% over last year

-Recommended New Initiatives/Restorations $796,000 or +2.90% over last year

Grand Total: $2,198,761 or +7.99% over last year

-FY13 Recommended Appropriation: $29,723,815

-FY12 Town Meeting Approved Budget: $27,525,054

Recommended Increase: +$2,198,761 or +7.99% over FY12

Next Steps in the Budget Development process:

-February 16- School Committee discussion on FY13 Budget (Budget Sub Committee will meet prior to that. Those individuals are Tom Jones, Lisa Galeaz-Weber, and Erica Plunkett)

-March 1- School Committee Preliminary Vote of FY13 Budget

-March 15- Budget Discussion, if needed.

-March TBD- School Committee presentation of voted FY13 Budget to the Finance Committee

-April 5- Public Hearing on FY13 Budget

-April 26- Budget Discussion, if needed

-May 7- Annual Town Meeting- Please make a note on your calendars NOW!

Next on the agenda, the Policy Sub Committee brought forward an initial reading of Policy JJIF- Athletic Concussion Policy. This first reading serves as a notice to the public that the School Committee is in the process of adopting a new policy and should they wish to comment on it, now is the time. Members of the community should contact any member of the Policy Sub Committee (Kathi Pennypacker, Carol Emmons, and Donald Gray) or Dr. Jackson with any comments or concerns. Please note that this policy is required by the state. Mr. Jones did point out that there is a cost associated with this mandate; namely, if this policy requires a 3% increase in the workload for the Athletic Director/Manager at 8 minutes per athlete, that’s essentially two weeks worth of additional work. This is only one of the reasons that Dr. Jackson is recommending the reinstatement of the Athletic Director position.

The School Committee then voted to gratefully accept the generous donation of 100 pairs of multimedia speakers from a Framingham-based corporation. Dr. Jackson will draft a note of appreciation from the Committee.

Lastly, the Committee voted to approve an overnight field trip request for the Model UN Club to attend a conference at Dartmouth College.

The next School Committee meeting is February 16. Central to the agenda will be discussion around the FY13 Budget, a presentation on the High School Core Values, as part of the NEASC accreditation process, and a second reading of the concussion policy. The next School Committee Office Hours are Thursday, February 9 from 8-9 am at Pejamajo. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Central Office or any member of the School Committee.

DID YOU KNOW...... that in communities like Holliston, where SAT scores are 20% higher than average, property values INCREASED an average of 24% between 2005-2010? In communities where SAT scores were 20% lower than average, property values DECREASED an average of 11% for the same time period.