School Officials Seek 4.5% Increase For FY13

officials started the week requesting a 4.9% budget increase for FY13 during their presentation at this week's selectmen's meeting. However, on advice from Town Administrator Bill Gustus, that request was modified down to 4.5% by Tuesday night's school committee meeting.

During Monday's presentation, Superintendent Thomas W. Jefferson noted that the district faces several challenges this year, including the loss of a $191,000 federal jobs grant, in-district services for students with special needs, and a  required 3% cost of living increase for the third and final year of the current contract.

Overall, the district expects to lower its special education out of district tuitions by just over 30%, along with a 16.5% drop in the out of district transportation cost. However, these changes also come with new staff needs within the district, and this year's requested budget saw a 6.6% increase ($1.08 million) when just factoring in salaries. Otherwise, school expenses were down 12.8%, or by about $365,000. The total requested FY 13 school budget comes out to $20,011,667, while last year's was $19,294,824.

For the district's elementary school level, Jefferson listed priorities such as strengthening tutorial services, adjusting staff to keep up with year-by-year enrollment shifts, and maintaining regular class sizes. To accomplish this, the district is requesting an additional part time tutor at each of the two elementary schools.

At the middle school, the district is requesting a new grade 5 teacher and a new grade 6 teacher to help reduce class size and to offer additional math instruction - both of which are among the school's priorities. Under the requested budget, the middle school would also hire a new full-time special education professional to support in-house programs.

For the high school, Jefferson reported that some challenges include maintaining current elective offerings and programs such as art and athletics, expanding on the AP program, bringing the new classrooms into operation next year, and implementing the program to support in-district special education students. A full-time severe special education teacher would be added at the high school level as well.

The superintendent also noted that while the high school is expected to feature added classroom space next year, it did not see the need to expand beyond its current staffing levels. The new space's furniture and equipment needs will also be met under the building project's budget, not the school budget he added.

Also, the district is also requesting a half-time desktop support position that would report to the director of technology for various computer tasks from the town and school offices.

Finally, Jefferson also pointed out that even with these added budget items, Lynnfield would still spend considerably less per pupil than the state average as well as many nearby towns. Looking ahead, he also cited an improving state revenue forecast and the fact that contracts will be up for negotiation next year as future items, and reported that with the largest classes currently at the middle school, the district's enrollment are not expected to increase substantially looking ahead about a decade.

After Monday's presentation, Gustus advised school officials that the largest budget increase he and the selectmen would likely support is 4.5%, which would be $74,577 less than the current request with the differences to be worked out between school committee members and selectmen.

With that in mind, Jefferson reported at Tuesday night's school committee meeting that the district has indeed revised its request down to a 4.5% increase. To achieve the needed savings, Jefferson added that the district expects to move a current part-time professional at the preschool to a different, currently open position at the elementary school level. Most of the other savings would come from trimming $25,000 from the special education out of district tuition budget item.

"I think this is a conservative budget that still has some flexibility in it," said Jefferson.

School officials also indicated that the upcoming School Committee meeting on March 13 will also serve as a public budget hearing for the current process.