Schools propose level funded budget for fiscal year 2012

Date: 4/11/2011

April 11, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW — The East Longmeadow School Department will have a level service budget in fiscal year 2012 (FY12).

With this budget, the department will be able to retain all of the staff currently on the payroll, ensuring class sizes and services will remain the same.

"It's absolutely imperative to have a level service budget," East Longmeadow Superintendent Gordon Smith said. "We have challenges that we're working on and we're looking to support all students as they try for consistent yearly progress. Cuts of any kind impact the students as they try to meet even greater challenges."

As part of the FY12 proposed municipal budget, which was presented to the town by the Appropriations Committee on April 4, the School Department will see a $1 million increase in its budget from FY11.

In order to operate with level services, the department has a projected budget of $25.3 million. An additional $181,996 is proposed as part of a separate "need budget" for additional services the district has deemed necessary and the School Committee will be allotted its usual total of $4,200, rounding out the total school budget to $25.5 million.

"The needs budget takes a look at out current challenges and what schools are asked to do in this day and age," Smith said. "It tries to support those challenges the schools face while still realizing we are not in a very strong economy right now."

Among the proposals supported by the needs budget is two new positions. The first of those positions is an academic coach.

"The academic coach or interventionist would help our teachers learn to use assessment data while finding other strategies we could use as the landscape of education keeps changing," Smith explained.

The other position is an adjustment counselor, which Smith said is often confused with a guidance counselor.

"A guidance counselor aids students in their academic and career planning and follows certain curriculum in order to do so," Smith said. "An adjustment counselor continues to help the student in their academic path and starts to look at the emotional piece of the puzzle and how it affects learning.

"It adds a component that more and more schools are using. If a student is facing social or emotional challenges ... those are situations that can impact a student's learning," he continued.

The school department appears to be safe from deep cuts in Chapter 70 state aid that has hurt other towns in the Commonwealth. The Chapter 70 funds for the schools is expected to drop by only $1,271, a decrease of a fraction of one percent from last year's $8.7 million allocation.

"If the governor's budget holds up, we will be in a good position," Smith said. "We're waiting for [the budget] to go through the House and we'll have to see what the Senate does with it, but if the numbers stay as they are, we are in a good place and I think the town feels that's a big plus."