Published in the April 13, 2017 edition
By DAN TOMASELLO
NORTH READING — There are no easy solutions to closing the school department’s fiscal year 2018 budget gap, Superintendent of Schools Jon Bernard told 45 attendees during the School Committee’s public hearing on Monday.
The school department is currently debating two different spending plans for FY’18. The recommended budget totals $29,999,968, representing a 5.1 percent increase ($1,453,826) over the current fiscal year budget of $28,546,142. The level services budget totals $29,815,180, representing a 4.4 percent increase ($1,269,038) over the FY’17 budget.
The current school budget gap is between $453,067 and $637,855, depending on whether the School Committee adopts a 5.1 percent recommended budget or a 4.4 percent level services budget.
Bernard said the FY’18 school budget was discussed during a recent School Committee workshop and Finance Planning Team meeting.
“There is a very good and constructive working relationship between the school department and the town,” said Bernard. “I want to thank Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto for his efforts along with the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Planning Team to try and resolve a pretty significant budget gap from either the recommended budget or the level services budget.”
Finance Director Michael Connelly gave an overview of the proposed spending plans. He said the proposed 4.4 level services budget includes 2.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions, totaling $123,576. Connelly said the level services positions are needed due to higher kindergarten enrollment for next year.
The Batchelder School has requested a 1.0 FTE full day kindergarten teacher ($63,720) and a 1.0 FTE full day kindergarten paraprofessional ($27,996). Connelly said adding the two positions will ensure full day kindergarten classes will have around 17 students. If the positions are not added, he said kindergarten classes will have 25 or 26 students.
Additionally, the Little School is requesting a .50 FTE half-day kindergarten teacher, totaling $31,860. Connelly noted the half-day kindergarten teacher could potentially be eliminated from the FY’18 budget during the School Committee’s budget workshop on Monday, April 24.
School Committee member Mel Webster stressed during the meeting “level services doesn’t mean level spending.”
“Our goal as a school district is to offer full day K to every family who wants it,” said Webster. “If we have 50 students this year and are going to have 100 students next year, that means we are going to have to hire two, three or four people to offer the same level of services. We are not going to put 25 or 30 students in a kindergarten class. We have to hire additional staff in order to provide the same level of services.”
In addition to the level services positions, the school department is requesting 2.9 FTE positions as part of the school system’s recommended budget. The NRPS 2021 strategic plan positions total $184,788.
North Reading High School is requesting a 1.0 FTE academic teacher, totaling $63,720. Connelly said the academic teacher would address large math and science classes at NRHS.
“Currently, 40 percent of the core course offerings in these two departments have 28 or more students,” said Connelly.
The elementary schools are requesting a 1.0 FTE team chairperson for $63,720. Connelly said the position would allow the school system to “provide additional support to students with special needs.”
Webster said he opposes eliminating the high school academic teacher and team chairperson positions from the FY’18 school budget.
Additionally, the Batchelder School is requesting a 0.4 school psychologist ($25,488). The Little School is requesting a 0.5 reading teacher ($31,860).
During a recent budget workshop, Connelly said the School Committee examined a series of potential reductions, which would lower the budget gap to $338,067. The proposed reductions include eliminating the NRPS 2021 positions and implementing a hybrid kindergarten program at the Hood School instead of hiring a .50 FTE kindergarten teacher for the Little School. The other reductions would come from reducing line items, offsets and expense budgets.
Connelly said the School Committee has not taken any votes on the proposed reductions. The school board is scheduled to discuss the matter on Monday, April 24.
School Committee Chairman Cliff Bowers, who is not running for re-election next month, said this budget season is “very frustrating.”
“This is my ninth budget hearing,” said Bowers. “And they have all been the same. We never have enough money, and we always end up with less staffing and less components than we would like to have.”
Reaction
Marci Bailey, 21 Duane Dr., asked Bernard what are school officials considering to close the budget gap.
While Bernard declined discussing specifics about closing the budget gap, he acknowledged the situation is grim.
“I have spent countless hours with a good number of people working to identify reductions we could make that would minimize the impact in the classroom, and would minimize the impact to personnel,” said Bernard. “I am at a place now where I can no longer see not affecting those two things. The budget is largely made up of salaries, and those salaries translate to people and jobs.”
“We have had a shoestring operating budget for a number of years,” Bernard continued. “I have enacted a spending freeze every year since I became superintendent three years ago. Our operating budget starts July 1, and I am sitting with the administrative council in October or maybe November, and asking them to freeze their expenditures because I don’t know what the future might hold. We have come to expect it. We are really operating our schools on a four month budget. If we didn’t have the support of parent associations and the community to help bridge the gap, we would really be in trouble. Everybody is important and everybody plays a role, but we have to close the gap. It’s painful and unfortunate. We have come so far and made some great strides educationally. The thought of regressing is really disconcerting. The next conversation I will likely be having with the School Committee is identifying personnel to close the gap. I don’t see any way to avoid that, and I am sorry about it.”
Bailey encouraged the meeting’s attendees to reach out to State Representative Brad Jones (R-North Reading) and State Senator Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) to express their concern about the lack of Chapter 70 education aid the town is receiving in FY’18.
“This is unacceptable,” said Bailey.
School Committee Vice Chairman Jerry Venezia agreed.
“I think 90 percent of the school districts in this state have the exact same problems as we have,” said Venezia. “Every one of those school districts is represented by a state representative and a state senator. It should be the absolute number one priority of every single one of them, but they don’t do anything about it.”
Haverhill Street resident Heather LaVerdiere asked about the school department seeking requests for proposals for custodian services, which appeared in a legal advertisement in last week’s Transcript. There were half a dozen custodians at the meeting.
“I want to express my concern for all the facility management people,” said LaVerdiere. “I want to thank them for all of the hard work they do and I am concerned about their jobs. What is going on with their jobs?”
Venezia said school officials “have the responsibility to look for opportunities to try and save money.”
“Just because we are looking at these opportunities doesn’t mean we are going to do it,” said Venezia. “I appreciate these guys as much as anybody. I worked with these guys on the Batchelder School project and the secondary schools’ project. I think they do great work, but that is not the issue. We have exhausted every single revolving account that we have available. We can’t raise our fees anymore and at some point, we have to explore other options. There would have to be significant savings for us to even consider this. Quite frankly, when you outsource these things, there may be a monetary savings but you are not going to get the quality of work and the pride in the work these guys give you every single day. We are fast approaching desperate times.”
Bernard agreed with Venezia’s point of view.
“I take full responsibility for this decision,” said Bernard. “I came to the School Committee and expressed my deep concern as the budget development process unfolded. I was trying to think outside of the box. The administrative team has spent countless hours looking for revenues that we felt might help in trying to close the budget gap. I made the request to the School Committee to put out requests for proposals, and there was a certain level of reluctance to do that. We are trying to gather data to see if there are any cost savings potential, and we will not know that until early May.”
Bernard said he has a “tremendous amount of respect” for school custodians.
“They do a very good job, but the reality is this was driven by the financial situation and nothing else,” said Bernard.
Deanna Castro, 9 Bridle Way, asked if unfunded mandates continue to have a negative impact on the school department’s resources.
Connelly said unfunded mandates “have certainly been a challenge” for the school department. Webster said the state needs to implement recommendations from the Massachusetts Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC), which issued a report in the fall of 2015 that proposed overhauling the Chapter 70 education aid formula.
“(Chapter 70) is broken right now,” said Webster.
School Committee candidates Scott Buckley and Laina Simone both weighed-in on the FY’18 school budget. Buckley expressed his support for the special education team chairperson position.
“The team chairperson would be able to save costs,” said Buckley.
Pupil Personnel Services (PPS) Director Cynthia Conant said the special education department implemented a program this year that allowed eight students to remain in the district. She said the program saved the school department $350,000.
Simone noted a state senator has filed legislation that includes “restructuring Chapter 70 aid” in addition to placing a moratorium on state standardized testing. She also said the state is underfunding public education by $2 billion.
