Friday, January 25, 2008
Fosters
ROCHESTER — School Board members received a broad overview Thursday night of a proposed $52 million operating budget for next school year that included “wish lists” from department heads.
It’s unlikely the board will consider all of the extra requests made by principals and other department heads, as it causes the overall operating budget to increase by 6.3 percent over the current budget.
Without those additional requests for staff, equipment and programs, the $52,415,881 operating budget is a 5.4 percent increase over the current budget of $49,747,019.
A great majority of that increase is due to salary increases, including about $1.1 million more in cost of living and merit raises for teachers. The district is currently in the second year of a three-year contract with the Rochester Federation of Teachers.
Other increases include a jump in health insurance, other benefits, textbooks, fuel, transportation and new equipment.
Along with the $52 million proposed budget, an additional $1,555,000 has been budgeted for Capital Improvement Program projects, including for health and safety, facilities, equipment and athletics. A $1,650,000 food services budget also has been proposed.
On the revenue side, Business Administrator Linda Casey said there has been a slight decline in Medicare reimbursements and state building aid. The building aid could, however, increase as Casey has just submitted an application for the Hillsdale Road athletic fields project.
Debt service will be reduced by $1 million by 2012, which could allow the district to plan for the funding and construction of a new school. The new facility has been discussed as an option for more than a year now, as elementary schools are overcrowded.
School district administrators are only recommending $277,906 worth of additional new personnel and staffing changes be budgeted for the 2008-2009 school year. Principals and department heads originally asked for a total of $409,607 in staffing changes or new personnel.
Four new positions included in the administrators’ recommendation include a full-time dean of instruction for the Middle School, an additional full-time English teacher, one part-time Spanish teacher and one part-time math teacher at Spaulding High School and a full-time speech pathologist.
The dean of instruction would handle teacher evaluations, thus freeing up administrators to focus on other tasks, and assist teachers in advancing professionally.
“Basically we need someone to help our teachers to be better teachers,” Principal Valerie McKenney said, also noting providing that teacher support should translate into student success as well.
The Middle School also has asked the School Board to consider providing stipends to academic team leaders so that McKenney can meet with these teachers for leadership training. School district administrators have not listed this request of $8,333 in stipends as a priority, however.
Spaulding Principal John Shea said that the additional math, Spanish and English teachers are needed to reduce class sizes, many of which are exceeding 25 students, and in some cases 30 students, per class. Reducing class sizes will ultimately improve the quality of education, Shea added.
Board member John Connelly said he favored capping classroom sizes, which he said the board should investigate further.
“We need to take a look at (that), but in the end we have a big budget here,” he added.
Shea, like the other department heads who pleaded their cause Thursday night for new learning tools, said he understands the board has hard decisions to make in the weeks ahead.
Other requests by the high school — also recommended by school district administrators — included reconfiguring office space and the school basement for maximum use, creating more permanent exhibits in the hallways, buying a new cabinet for storing chemicals for the science department and purchasing more Smartboards for the math department and other classrooms, all for a total of $79,600.
The Special Education Department has requested the speech pathologist because the district currently contracts that service along with other related services currently at $93,000 a year. The department has budgeted for that position at $58,660.
The School Board will now scrutinize the proposed budget in earnest at the committee level. The Budget Committee will discuss its portion of the budget at 6 p.m. Monday, while the Instruction Committee will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday. Both meetings will be held in the School Department Board Room.