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| By Katelyn Gendron Reminder Assistant Editor AGAWAM According to Mayor Susan Dawson, two pending lawsuits currently in litigation against the Town of Agawam have caused concerns over the town's fiscal year 2009 (FY09) budget. "Pending legal decisions are going to make it necessary for us to maintain strong fiscal responsibility," Dawson said in an interview with Reminder Publications. "Due to the way that the town did business under the former administration, there are some legal decisions which will be made to cause the town to potentially be responsible for additional money." While Dawson would not disclose any information about the pending lawsuits, she did say that she has requested that each department present a level-funded FY09 budget. "Because the former administration made the decision to be level funded for the past four years we don't have the latitude necessary to put anything extra into our budget," Dawson said. In a joint meeting of the School Committee's Finance Subcommittee and City Council School Budget Subcommittee on March 10, Superintendent Mary Czajkowski presented two separate school department budgets for FY09. Czajkowski presented those in attendance with two budgets the first (Budget 1) is a 6.02 percent increase from FY08's $32.2 million budget, totaling $34.1 million. The second budget, (Budget 2) formed and presented at Dawson's request provides a 5.45 percent increase from FY08, a savings of $181,378. Czajkowski explained that after meeting with the mayor several weeks ago she was told to "sharpen the pencil" because "the fiscal outlook didn't look good due to pending lawsuits." Czajkowski added that Dawson never gave her a specific dollar amount. "One hundred and eighty-one thousand dollars . we're dealing with pennies in my opinion," City Councilor Paul Cavallo and co-chair of the council's School Budget Subcommittee, said. "We were given a pretty bleak future and [the mayor] told told us to go through [the budget] with a fine tooth comb," Anthony Bonavita, vice chair of the School Committee, said. Czajkowski explained that the budget was formed after each principal's requested budgets were reviewed. She said the principals requested a 7.92 percent increase from FY08 for staffing and equipment needs. City Councilor George Bitzas, also member of the council's School Budget Subcommittee, said he believed Czajkowski had made enough cuts to the budget to yield a 6.02 percent increase. "If the town has made mistakes it can not be at the expense of education," he said. Czajkowski explained that Budget 1 was formed after the fixed cost increases including contractual salary steps, negotiated collective bargaining, vocational education tuition, special education, transportation, building based budgets, instructional technology district wide, central office and school committee and retirement offsets were tabulated. The price of the fixed costs total approximately $1.3 million a 4.25 percent increase from FY08. Projected state aid such as Chapter 70 funding totaling approximately $2.4 million in FY08 was also a large factor in the budgetary process, Czajkowski said. Budget 1 also requests additional staffing for $306,941, a 0.95 percent increase and an increase of $262,967 for special projects, a 0.82 percent increase over FY08. Czajkowski explained that additional staffing requests include three elementary school teachers, a guidance counselor at the middle school, an additional intensive math teacher to aid students at the junior high school to meet Adequate Yearly Progress, a biology and physical science teacher and social studies teacher at the high school, a physical education teacher and additional special education staffing. Czajkowski said she recommended not replacing two retiring teachers at Granger Elementary School due to decreased enrollment. She explained that contract negotiations mandated that all elementary school teachers have 30 minutes of daily prep time, which requires the hiring of three additional teachers two science teachers are projected to be shared by four elementary schools. The additional physical education teacher would allow each elementary school to have their own physical education teacher. Increased funding for special projects include English, foreign language, history and chemistry text books, various manuals, library technology, updating 16-year or older library books, updated equipment for the Video Production class and a tuba for the music department. Special project funding also includes $7,800 for mandated PSAT testing and $40,000 for the high school's accreditation to take place this fall, Czajkowski said. Czajkowski explained that Budget 2 offered decreased staffing requests and special projects funding. She will present the final school department's proposed FY09 budget to the School Committee on March 25 and a public hearing for the budget will take place on April 8. |