Dear neighbors,
The finance committee of the School Board met for four hours last night to revise our budget proposal in light of the public comment and additional information we have received at our hearings, via e-mail, etc. Overall, I believe this proposal is an improvement, but nothing is ideal. This is a tough year. The budget increase proposed now stands at 4.1%, up from the 3.6% we started with. The vast bulk of this increase is due to mandated special education hikes, contracted livable wage salary increases, and debt service on our facilities bond. If we had kept all programs as is, we would have been looking at a 6.3% increase.
Some of the changes from last month’s budget proposal include: a salary freeze for Central office administration; restoration of the full $30,000 to the middle school athletic/co-curricular budget; restoration of $50,000, or half the funds for the middle school community outreach coordinators; restoration of $50,000, or half the funds originally proposed to be cut from the social work contract with the Howard Center; and restoration of the full $80,500 funding for library paraeducators, with an additional $20,000 for these positions. I am giving you the brief version here – check out www.bsdvt.org for more complete info., or contact me with your questions.
All the other initial cuts remained standing at the end of the night – including roughly half the funding for parent involvement coordinators, two middle school teachers at Hunt, and two elementary teachers. The teacher cuts account for enrollment decreases in the New North End, but still keep our class sizes reasonable District-wide. By the way, the South End schools in contrast are bursting at the seams . . . we have a very fertile neighborhood!
On another, brighter note, we have had 19 teachers and staff (including the principals at Hunt and Smith), accept our voluntary separation agreement, so, assuming our budget passes on town meeting day, very few employees will be receiving pink slips, and we will be hiring for many positions for next year. With $40,000 still in the budget to help us with diversity recruiting and retention, we are hoping to make concrete progress on that community goal. Please help us by getting out the word – we are looking for qualified applicants, and especially those who have the skills and experience to support our unique-in-Vermont diverse student population. Our District calendar next year will, for the first time, reflect our respect for our diverse cultures by designating Yom Kippur and el Eid (the holiest days in the Jewish and Muslim faiths) as non-school days. I am very excited about that change because we have been working on it for years – this is not an increase in days off, just a respectful change in when they happen.
Thanks to so many of you who wrote to me with your comments and feedback. I apologize that I did not have the time to respond to everyone individually. Often, I was waiting for more info. to respond, but by the time I got it, the e-mail was buried very far down. But rest assured that every comment was read and considered.
As tired as we all are, this isn’t over. The new finance proposal goes back to the full Board next week at the high school, Tuesday, January 12th at 7 p.m. You can come at 7 and contribute to public comment, and/or send us your feedback via e-mail. Board members will have the opportunity at that meeting to make last motions, and then at the end of what will probably be another long night, we will adopt a budget to send to the voters.
Stay warm, and keep in touch,
Amy Werbel
12 Catherine Street
Ward 5 School Commissioner
awerbel@bsdvt.org
www.amywerbel.info