Doyle presents budget proposal to School Committee

Date: 2/21/2011

Feb. 21, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

LONGMEADOW — Longmeadow Public Schools Superintendent Marie Doyle presented a proposed fiscal year 2012 (FY12) budget to the School Committee on Feb. 14 with a larger budget than last year.

The district's proposed budget of $32,340,092 is $671,330 more than the FY11 budget of $31,668,762.

With these projections, the district will be able to maintain current staffing levels. The budget for staffing proposed to the School Committee increased slightly from FY11, from $18,891,964 to $18,897,113. While it means an increase of only $5,169, it is a very positive sign, according to School Committee Chair Armand Wray.

"I think the most important thing is there will not be cuts in staff," Wray said. "We are fortunate to appear to have a level service budget."

Wray did say that some of the staff would be "redeployed" throughout the district as needed.

State Rep. Brian Ashe, whose children attend Longmeadow schools, was in attendance for the presentation.

"I thought it was a great opportunity having Rep. Ashe in attendance," Wray said. "It really goes above and beyond expectations. In the past, elected delegations have not come and voiced their opinions."

Wray said he and Ashe were in agreement that the proposed budget surpassed expectations, especially in the wake of Gov. Deval Patrick's announcement that he planned to propose Chapter 70 state aid funding be cut.

"As Rep. Ashe said, it came in better than we originally thought," Wray said. "We're not in a bad situation."

Included in the proposed budget presented by Doyle, who recently received the Massachusetts Computer Using Educators Administrator's Award for Technology Leadership, was a 44.6 percent increase in funds allocated to school technology. An additional $242,167 will be added to the FY12 budget, should the proposal remain in its current form.

Four of the district's six schools — Blueberry Hill Elementary, Glenbrook Middle School, Williams Middle School and Longmeadow High School — will see increases in their budgets, while the budgets at Center School and Wolf Swamp Road School will be cut slightly. No change in the schools' budgets, positive or negative, is projected to be more than 4 percent.

The majority of the funding for the school budget — $29,719,369 — is anticipated to come from the town's general fund. Regular and special education grants from the state and federal government will be lower in FY12 than in FY11. Special education grants will drop from $1,162,739 to $757,859. Regular education grants will slip from $321,958 to $275,113.06.

Wray admitted that Longmeadow was ahead of schedule in comparison to other districts and cautioned that the proposed budget could still undergo changes.

Along with the numbers, Doyle laid out the district's proposed action plan in response to the District and Community Partners report.

"I thought the administration did a great job in putting this together," Wray said. "Really, it wasn't just a budget. They were putting together a strategic plan on how to best serve the district and the community."

Among the changes proposed were:

• Eliminating six paraprofessional positions and using the funds to add three reading tutors, one for each elementary school;

• Consulting services for speech and language pathology will be reduced, resulting in two speech and language assistants being added; and

• Consulting services for behavior services will be reduced and a behavioral specialist will be hired.

The addition of the reading tutors is part of the district's plan to "prioritize early intervention." Three math support positions will also be created — one for Center School, one for Wolf Swamp and one for Blueberry — and math and reading educational software will be purchased. Doyle also proposed the formation of a literacy committee and a math committee.

Funding for the three added math positions and one reading position will come from the district's alotment of funds from the federal government's Education Jobs Fund, which will also be used to implement the GRADE assessment tool to gauge student progress in the middle schools.

Money from the Education Job Fund will also support elementary and middle school enrichment programs for science, technology, engineering and math and the hiring of a library assistant in the high school.