School Committee Unanimously Approves 4.5 Percent Budget Increase

The Lynnfield School Committee unanimously voted to approve a 4.5 percent budget increase for the FY 2012 school budget.  This budget would total $18,631,091.

School committee members also voted on a new policy for their online policy manual concerning admission of transfer students.

Update For Current Fiscal Year Budget

Appearing before school committee members this week was Tom Geary, the Director of Finance for the school district.  Geary presented an update of where the school budget stands with three-quarters of the year complete.

Geary recapped the current $17.8 million fiscal year budget which includes salaries, expenses, and revenue off-sets.

Geary noted that the district has a budget surplus of $54,000.

“I’m hopeful for more than that as things shake loose in the next three months.  I’d like to think that’s a conservative estimate, but that’s what I’m going with for now,” Geary explained.

Spending Discrepancies Cited Between Schools

Committee member Michael Craffey expressed concern about the discrepancy between the middle school and high school for per student spending.  Craffey explained that the middle school is underfunded compared to the high school.  He researched what is spent on classroom teachers at the high school, middle school, and elementary schools and how many students are at each level.

Craffey said that large class sizes at the middle school present learning challenges for students.  He also stated that several classes have over 30 students and some gym classes have more than 90 students.

“We haven’t adjusted our budget to meet those class size needs,” Craffey noted, “We really have a need at the middle school to address the math and science and I think we have a funding issue there.”

Superintendent Robert Hassett explained why funding for the high school exceeds that of the middle school.  Hassett said that the high school has a substantially different model of special education teaching than the middle school.

Hassett noted that there are three levels of servicing special education students at the high school.  There are life skills teachers, a Center for Independent Learning, and a student support program.  Hassett maintained that it is typical in Massachusetts for public high schools to receive more funding than public middle schools. 

Hassett also acknowledged that the MCAS exam is a factor in terms of funding for the high school.  In order to graduate from a public high school in Massachusetts, students must pass the MCAS exam; however, middle school students do not need to pass the MCAS exam to enter high school.  According to Hassett the current school administration has prioritized keeping class sizes small at the high school level, in particular in grades 9 and 10.   

“We’ve had phenomenal success.  We’ve typically been having 100 percent of our kids walk across that stage because they have the certificate of competency,” Hassett explained.

Budget To Prompt Changes In Town Busing Policy

After examining school busing policies of area towns, School Committee Chair, Dorothy Presser, outlined the conclusions of the committees’ findings.

“We believe it’s time for us to go to state guidelines for what’s required for busing.  Currently we’re more generous than that,” Presser said.

Presser explained that students in grades K-6 who live more than two miles from a school would be transported for free.  Students who live within two miles of a school would be required to pay a fee.  Lastly, students in grades 7-12 would be required to pay a school busing fee regardless of where they live.  These guidelines would be in line with state busing regulations.

Members Receive Update On Science Curriculum

The committee also heard updates from science department leaders.

Liz Kinzly, Science Department Head at Lynnfield Middle School, spoke about ongoing collaboration between the elementary schools and middle school science departments.

“We’ve found that the gaps that we have seen before in terms of our MCAS scores in the fifth grade are starting to be taken care of based on some of the new materials that they’re getting at that elementary school,” said Kinzly. 

LHS Science Department Head, Scott Gordon shared technological improvements that have occurred over the past year in the science curriculum.  “The department is in the midst of a complete rewrite of all of our curricula at this point,” Gordon pointed out.

Gordon also acknowledged chemistry teacher Dr. Karen O’Neil, who was selected as the 2010 Massachusetts teacher of the year from the New England Institute of Chemists Secondary School Chemistry Teacher Award.  One award for each state in New England is given each year.