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Date: 4/9/2015
EAST LONGMEADOW – The proposed fiscal year 2016 (FY16) town budget is $54.2 million, an increase of approximately $700,000 over FY15.
Appropriations Committee Chair Eric Madison told Reminder Publications the town has kept growth to a minimum while addressing “significant needs” in the community.
The Appropriations Committee is recommending a School Department budget of $27.9 million, an increase of about two percent.
Superintendent of Schools Gordon Smith said the district would hire a new severe special needs instructor, increase the hours of a freshman guidance counselor at East Longmeadow High School (ELHS) from part-time to full time, and add a full-time shared math coach between Mapleshade Elementary School and Mountain View School.
Smith said the new special needs instructor would work to help transition elementary special needs students to the middle school.
“Our priority is to hire a new severe special needs instructor who can help make that program viable at the middle school, so we’re now operating where this program is running with students in it from kindergarten to Grade 8,” he added.
For about five years, the School Committee has had budget discussions about adding a shared math coach, Smith said.
“With our academic coaching right now, we have three English language arts coaches or literacy coaches; one at the middle school, one shared between Mapleshade and Mountain View, and one at Meadowbrook [Elementary School],” he added. “We also have one math coach at the middle school.”
At ELHS, the current freshman guidance counselor works 0.6 full-time equivalent (FTE) hours, he noted. The FY16 school budget seeks to increase hours to a full-time position.
“When you have 223 students in the ninth grade class, the guidance program really is geared around full-time,” Smith said. “It makes it a pretty challenging situation for us to meet the needs of our students [with a part-time guidance counselor.]”
Madison said the FY16 budget has really “hit some real concerns in town” by funding positive initiatives.
He added that the town budget, which needs to be approved at Town Meeting, includes a salary for a full-time health agent, increased hours and coverage by the Fire Department, and increased budget lines for animal control.
“The Board of Selectmen, they actually documented a very good case and need for the health inspector,” he added. “There are several reasons; one there are many mandated inspections that are simply not getting done in town because we just don’t have the staffing to do it. We’ve had a tremendous amount of difficulty getting anybody on the part-time basis to do it and then what we were funding wasn’t funding enough time for people on a part-time basis to do what’s mandated of the town to accomplish.”
The entire budget for the Health Department is $123,604, Madison said. The cost for increasing the health agent hours from part-time to full-time would be approximately $40,000.
Fire Chief Paul Morrissette proposed a phased-in process to increase personnel, which would occur during a two-year period, Madison said.
“For the first year, it reflects about a 9 percent increase in the Fire Department budget, which is about $65,500,” Madison explained.
Animal Control would also be increased to bring the department in line with the amount that’s appropriated for the department in other communities. The increase would be about $19,400.
“It would cover some things like coding and equipment,” he added.
The anticipated tax rate for FY16 is $21.43, which is an increase of 71 cents per $1,000 valuation. The FY15 tax rate is $20.72.
“We have in excess of $400,000 in unused levy capacity,” he added. “So, the potential if we were to tax to the full levy capacity, we would have more than a 71 cent per $1,000 increase in the tax rate. We were able to fund all these initiatives that were identified by the various boards and committees, which is important, but at the same time we’re maintaining a modest tax increase.”