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Reminder Assistant Editor WESTFIELD Since the appointment of Superintendent Shirley Alvira last July, the Westfield Public School System has experienced a major operations overhaul in order to overcome the department's fiscal year 2008 (FY08) $824,468 shortfall. In an effort to ensure the department's financial stability during fiscal year 2009 (FY09), Alvira called for "a new approach in the development, presentation and execution of the district's budget." At last week's School Committee meeting, Alvira presented the proposed $54.9 million FY09 budget a 6.5 percent increase over FY08 to the public. "The Westfield Public Schools has a moral and legal obligation to educate all students," Alvira told those in attendance of the need for the increase. "We are facing challenges in meeting our goals and those mandated by the state and federal government. We are confronting increased accountability and unfounded mandates. Our commitment is to provide quality services to our students. Therefore, central office administrators and building administrators, focused to involve staff, at all levels, in the planning of the budget to better meet these needs." Alvira explained that the detailed FY09 budget was prepared with the assistance of a third party consulting firm, The Abrahams Group, in order to ensure that monies are being spent "effectively" and "efficiently." Alvira said the focus in this year's budget was to prevent previous overstaffing and return funding to the classrooms. She added that 62.3 percent of the FY09 budget is dedicated to classroom instruction, 16.7 percent to operations and maintenance, 9.8 percent to administration, 7.8 percent for transportation, 1.4 percent for technology, 1.4 percent for curriculum materials and supplies and 0.6 percent for other amenities. Katie Isernio, interim business manager, explained that 82.4 percent of the budget is for personnel (1,231 district employees). In addition to the budgeted personnel, Alvira said, "I am recommending the approval of $666,278 [for] salary additions and recommending the restructuring or decreasing [of] salary accounts for $421,461 for a recommended net increase in the salary budget of $244,816 over the base service level salary budget." Alvira's revisions for the personnel's base budget include the addition of a SEI paraprofessional at Highland Elementary School, restoring the librarian positions at North and South middle schools, an additional science and English teacher at the high school, adding social studies, science and physical education teachers at Westfield Vocational Technical High School, additional staff for maintenance and the addition of a district-wide autism consultant. Isernio explained that each principal also composed expense summaries and additional requests prior to the budget's formation. Additional expense requests from principals and administrative staff totaled over $12 million. However, Alvira recommended an $11.8 million increase for additional expenses. Alvira noted that this composition of the FY09 budget was based on a specific goal to "reduce personnel expenses and to bring money back to classrooms and building maintenance." "We cannot continue to increase staff at the expense of classrooms," she continued. Alvira explained that personnel expenses for FY08 totaled 82.4 percent versus FY09's appropriation of 79.3 percent of the budget for personnel. She noted that additional staffing requests initially totaled approximately $3.4 million to her requested $1.9 million proposed in the FY09 budget. Alvira explained that as part of the city of Westfield's overall budget, the school department must be considerate of other department's fiscal needs. Alvira said the budget proposal is also "based on the proposed goals from the draft district improvement plan." The goals were to address areas such as "deficiencies in the state ELA and Math aggregate target, maintenance items which have been deferred for several years, compliance issues for special education, compliance issues with vocational regulations and accreditation recommendations in the district." It is also aimed to "institute math and technology coordinators to address MCAS scores and provide leadership direction in those areas." At the meeting Mayor Michael Boulanger commended the work of the superintendent and others as "a model for other city departments." He said the extreme detail of this budget "leaves nothing to question or chance." Several veteran members of the School Committee said they had never seen such a high level of detail in the school department's budget before. Marybeth Ogulewicz-Sacco said Alvira has established a "definite culture of transparency" with her willingness to work through the shortfall and also obtain a feasible FY09 budget. The School Committee voted unanimously to send the proposed budget to their Finance Subcommittee for review. | ||||||
