By GAIL LOWE
WAKEFIELD — During the business portion of Tuesday’s school board meeting, Business Administrator Michael Pfifferling said that the district’s deficit, after taking offsets from revolving and grant funds, is anticipated to fall between $160,000 and $190,000.
Special Education tuition and related transportation costs are higher than was projected, he said.
In a related matter but not mentioned at the meeting, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stephen K. Zrike said that Dr. Sandra Halloran, hired to assist former interim Superintendent of Schools Dr. Garrry Murphy, has continued to assist Dr. Zrike as a subcontractor/consultant through the Special Education Department during Fiscal Year 2014-2015.
Zrike pointed out that Halloran is not salaried and is not working in the same capacity that she served when Dr. Murphy was on staff.
“She has been paid through a federal Special Education grant explicitly targeted for Special Education program development,” he said. “She plans our SPED budget, assesses SPED program quality and revisions our continuum of services in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.”
Zrike added that this is work that Halloran began in the district during her tenure and her expertise is “incredibly valuable” as the district continues to enhance services to students.
“As a contractor, Dr. Halloran is paid an hourly rate of $65 and she has worked nine days since September on an as-needed per diem basis,” said Zrike.
“As a district, we have a number of consultants who work with us who perform various duties and functions throughout the year. We do not know at this time who our consultants will be for the 2015-2016 school year.”
In the salaries category, Pfifferling said there was a surplus at the moment but that $45,000 in raises would have to be accounted for soon. This would not leave the district with a negative balance, however.
When speaking about personnel matters, Pfifferling said one full-time ISP employee had resigned at the high school. This same employee, however, moved over to post-graduate studies at the high school when the position became open.
Two other ISP employees were assigned, one at the high school and one at the Dolbeare School.
On another financial matter, school board members approved a donation of $2,000 from the Wakefield Educational Foundation for the METCO program’s 45th year anniversary celebration funds to be used at the discretion of the Advisory Council. Another donation of $75 from Lueders Environmental, Inc. was approved for the district to use as deemed appropriate.
