This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

School Committee Weighs FY '13 Budget

Also, committee member Michael Craffey announces he will not seek re-election.

Speaking to members of the Lynnfield School Committee this week, Superintendent Thomas W. Jefferson specifically addressed challenges, priorities, and recommendations for the preschool and elementary, middle school, high school, and special education curriculums.  For FY 2013, the school district is preparing a $19,541,667 budget, seeking a 4.9 percent increase from FY 2012. 

At the preschool and elementary level, one of Jefferson’s priorities is to strengthen and expand tutorial supports for at-risk students.

At the middle school, district officials are looking to add two new positions. There will also be two new special education positions added.  “We’ve got two new special education positions to help us address kids that have historically been placed out of district,” Jefferson said. 

Find out what's happening in Lynnfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

One of the priorities at the middle school is to address class size concerns.  Another middle school priority is to improve math learning for grades 5 and 6.

For the high school, Jefferson advocated for the creation of a Differentiated Learning Program.  This initiative would educate in-district students who might potentially leave the district.  The Superintendent also suggests that the high school should maintain its current staffing level.

Find out what's happening in Lynnfieldwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Despite requesting more positions, the Superintendent maintained that the value of an education at Lynnfield schools is better than the state average. 

During his presentation, Jefferson explained that Lynnfield spends less money per student compared to state and local averages.  During FY 2010, Lynnfield spent approximately $11,000 per student.  The state average for FY 2010 was $13,000 per student.  “With this level of funding, we’re still significantly below the state average and all of the surrounding towns,” Jefferson said. 

School committee member Michael Craffey disagreed with certain aspects of the proposed FY 2013 budget.

Craffey argued that the elementary school reading coordinator position should be eliminated.  “The reading coordinator is currently making over $80,000 a year and those resources could be allocated to other parts of the budget,” Craffey said.

Summer Street School principal Jane Tremblay explained that the position that Craffey referred to is a full-time certified reading teacher who helps struggling students in grades 3 and 4.  Tremblay added that reading tutors help students in grades 1 and 2.  “I would advocate that one of the reasons why we’ve had the success that we’ve had is because of the resources that we’ve been able to put into place,” Tremblay said.  Craffey credited language arts/social studies curriculum specialist Maureen Fennessy with the success of elementary students in reading. 

Committee member James Fagan agreed with Tremblay regarding the importance of having a collaborative approach in helping students who experience difficulty with reading.  “I think as a committee we have to trust our administrators to staff the way that they feel is appropriate.  It’s just hard to argue with the results in my opinion,” Fagan said.   

Craffey also questioned the Superintendent about class size issues at the 7th and 8th grade level.  Craffey argued that higher class sizes have led to poor student performance on the MCAS exam. 

For 8th grade MCAS results, Craffey said that 14 percent of Lynnfield students failed the math portion of the exam. “Those levels are unacceptable.  We can’t maintain these large class sizes,” he said.  Both Jefferson and committee member Tim Doyle maintained that although the class sizes for 7th and 8th grade are not ideal, the school district has to work within a budget and with its available resources.  “In an ideal world we’d ask for much more.  I think the initial approach that we’ve taken at the middle school is probably the most appropriate,” Doyle said.

Before the conclusion of this week's meeting, Craffey announced that he will not seek re-election to the school committee after his current term ends at the end of this academic year.

In other school committee news, members of the committee unanimously approved the middle school Pioneer Singers trip to New York.

The committee will vote on whether or not to approve the High School Program of Studies for the 2012-2013 academic year during their next meeting which will be held on January 31 at the High School Media Center at 7 p.m.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?