The Jefferson School Committee trimmed the town’s K-12 education budget slightly April 28, but the numbers still drew several split votes from the Jefferson Budget Committee.
The school committee voted in favor of a $5,173,053 overall budget for the 2014 to 2015 school year, an increase of $235,656 or 4.77 percent over the current year. The total is down from a $275,323 or 5.58 percent increase they approved earlier this month.
The revised figures represent a $3,331,280 local share, an increase of $140,326 or 4.39 percent over the current year.
The budget committee voted 3 to 6 on recommending the budget as a whole.
The school committee’s changes incorporated a reduction of three private school students, an additional public school student, and a $6,000 reduction in a bus fuel line.
The budget includes $85,000 to go toward the purchase of two new buses, and the appropriation of a $40,169 reimbursement from a bus purchase this year to a school bus reserve fund.
As it did with the school committee’s previous discussions, the bulk of the budget committee’s discussion focused on the topics of staffing and test scores.
The school committee previously voted to include an additional second grade teacher and restoring “specials” art, gym, and music from half-time to 0.8, but voted not to add an additional middle-level teacher.
According to AOS 93 Superintendent Steve Bailey, adding the second grade teacher was found to be the “best educational decision.”
Responding to a question from budget committee member Peter Brush, Jefferson Village School Principal Peter Gallace said whether or not adding an additional teacher or an ed tech to a given grade depends on the students’ age, the size of the class, the noise level of the classroom, and the students’ proficiency and ability to focus.
Gallace said he looked at how the current first-graders (next year’s second-graders) are performing, and despite having an experienced teacher and an ed tech now, they did not make the progress they should have made.
If the students’ progress is not addressed in second grade, the gap could widen, he said.
School committee member Shawn St. Cyr said his committee kept the additional second grade teacher in the budget because of the class’s size and dynamic, and removed the additional middle level teacher because resources other than another teacher could be effective there.
The older students can work more independently with small groups, but 45 minutes of reading time in the expected class of 23 second-graders gives the teacher only about two minutes of time to spend with each student, St. Cyr said.
Budget committee members were at least vocally less concerned about the dollar figure in the regular instruction budget than they were about how Gallace, Bailey, and the school committee were planning to allocate resources the budget could fund.
Budget committee member Lawrence Grimard said the school’s recent performance on the New England Common Assessment Program, or NECAP, test is “begging for evaluation” and asked for plans on how the scores would be addressed.
Gallace said the staff is using a response to intervention program to try out new strategies to get students up to speed, and uses small group and individual instruction to assist the students if needed.
School committee member Maria Solorzano agreed with Grimard that efforts in the school need to be evaluated, but said she supported the additional second grade teacher to cement a strong foundation for Jefferson students early in their educational career.
“They need a strong foundation in the beginning, otherwise it snowballs,” she said.
The budget committee was split on whether adding more teachers would be beneficial.
Grimard floated the ideas of targeted instruction and tutoring for the students. “I’m not convinced adding teachers is going to correct the deficiency,” he said.
Budget committee member Darin Walker said he would not support the regular instruction budget with the increased specials included, but might if those funds were shifted to add a second additional teacher, or two ed techs, said budget committee member Wayne Parlin.
“If they get a little less crayon time, so be it,” said budget committee member Michael Sprague.
The discussion on the teachers and test scores grew tense with some.
“It really upsets me that people think we aren’t working hard here,” Gallace said.
School committee member Forrest Bryant said he was “very frustrated” to be rehashing discussions his committee already had in earlier meetings – meetings that only a couple of budget committee members attended, he said.
St. Cyr echoed Bryant’s concerns over budget committee participation earlier in the process.
“Just vote on it. If you don’t like it, vote it down,” he said.
Later in the evening, they did: the budget committee voted 3 to 6 on the $2,015,786 regular instruction category.
The school committee, which voted on the amended budget in its entirety, approved it unanimously.
The budget committee voted on each budget article separately:
Regular instruction, $2,015,786, 3 to 6
Special education, $752,911, 5 to 4
Career and technical education, $13,082, 9 to 0
Other instruction, $28,738, 9 to 0
Student and staff support, $169,528, 7 to 2
System administration, $112,222, 7 to 2
School administration, $157,017, 4-5
Transportation and buses, $455,782, 7-2
Facilities maintenance, $287,309, 5 to 4
Debt service and other commitments, $1,161,818, 9 to 0
All other expenditures, $18,859, 7 to 2
Food service program, $10,289, 9 to 0
Local share of adult education, $8,872, 8 to 1
Though the budget committee voted only 3 to 6 in favor of the budget as a whole, all nine members present voted in favor of appropriating the $2,733,953 the state requires of the town in order to receive full state subsidy.
The education budget meeting will be held Tuesday, May 27 at 6 p.m. at Jefferson Village School, and a validation referendum will be held Tuesday, June 10.
