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School Committee labors over budget decisions

By Natasha Clark

Reminder Assistant Editor



LONGMEADOW Faced with a bare-boned budget, the Longmeadow School Committee met for over four hours last week to discuss the FY06 budget and the impact a lack of funds will have on the school year.

The evening's topics spawned passionate conversations on the necessity of keeping music programs, developmental programs for Kindergardeners that may not be available next year, and custodial shortages in the district all problems rooted from insufficient funds.

"The problem is we are dealt a limited deck," said Superintendent of Longmeadow Public Schools Dr. Scott AndersEn. "We don't have 52 cards to play with, we have 33, [and] we can't be all things to all people. That's the bottom line."

Instrumental music and chorus in grades four and five were in danger of being eliminated due to the current budget restraints. Another option, that was not well- received by members of the music department in attendance, was to make the programs fee-based. Adding a fee to either program would generally move it to an after school activity.

"Music is an incredibly important element of teaching kids to think critically," said Music Department Chair Michael Mucci. "Music is not extra-curricular."

Custodial duties and kindergarten education are other areas stretched thin in the budget.

Kindergarten teachers Karen Palazzi, Sandy Passmore and Karen Kadis spoke on behalf of the kindergarten program urging the committee to maintain the kindergarten teacher and assistant positions.

The trio said that this one teacher, one assistant setup has enabled the students to participate in a good developmental program.

Another difficult decision the Committee faced was to increase class sizes and keep both adults in the classroom, or reduce class sizes by having one teacher in the classroom.

Kadis said it comes down to whether "we have a developmental kindergarten or the traditional kind."

Center School currently has three custodial positions. Next year that could be reduced to two positions, one during the day and one at night, according to Center School's principal Dr. Robert Lincoln.

AndersEn added that maintenance affects everyone in the district. While all Committee members seemed to agree that it was of importance, they also seemed to agree that the music program was, as well.

Committee member Jerold Duquette kept reiterating where things were on the list of priorities that the committee made months back.

"Look at our priorities, clearly clean schools is not number two," he said.

"I feel like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place," added School Committee member Robert Barkett.

School Committee member Paul Santaniello said that, in order "fill a void" and offer full course loads at the high school and comply with NEASC standards, core teachers were added to the FY06 budget.

"My concern with the budget is that we added in when we had no additional funding," explained Santaniello.

The FY06 budget contains up to $800,000 in one time funding, which came from the free cash transfer approved by voters at a recent Special Town Meeting and other School Committee funds, such as Special Education reimbursement.

"[We'll] be in the hole $800,00 next year without the raises," Nittoli responded.

Duquette said that, by cutting funds from such line items as remedial reading and writing, teachers would possibly be easier to recoup and place back in the budget than the music programs.

"If we cut the music program, they won't see the pain and we won't be able to restore the program," he said.

"I have to respectfully disagree. I will speak out whole heartedly," AndersEn interjected, adding that cutting fundamental programs like reading and writing "would be negligent and a misuse of authority."

AndersEn later told the Committee that he would find $4,000 in the administration budget to help fund music, should the School Committee want him to.

The School Department has seen some savings in other areas that may assist with compiling the cash for the program.

For instance, with the upcoming departure of Longmeadow High School (LHS) Principal M. Martin O'Shea (he will become the principal of Minnechaug Regional High School in Wilbraham) the Department was able to gain $3,000 in savings with his replacement. There was also $10,000 in savings for a Math position at LHS.

AndersEn said, roughly, $80,000 in funds can be redirected in the budget if needed, until the fall.

Since the School Committee previously voted to fund $75,000 for the coaches in the athletic department, at this meeting they were determining the best way to fund that $75,000. One of the ways to do that is raising sports fees.

The Committee decided to go with a tiered concept, raising the fee of each sport according to its operating costs. Committee member Geoffrey Weigand and Santaniello abstained from voting due to conflicts of interest they have children who currently participate in sports, and the motion carried three to one.

At the next School Committee meeting Tom Caliento, Interim Director of Business, will present prepared examples of possible rates for sports.