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Budget Thoughts from the School Committee
The budget process has begun in earnest for the Freeport Public Schools. This may well turn out to be one of our most challenging years for the budget. Both the federal government and state government are seeking to save money by reducing the amount of support they provide to local schools. At the same time, both state and federal government expect local schools to provide quality education for all students. In Freeport we have a community that is strongly committed to education and is supportive of our efforts to move Freeport into the ranks of high achieving school districts. We have taken a number of steps towards this goal, and the budget we are working on this year is intended to continue to work towards this goal while at the same time recognizing our responsibility to not overburden the taxpayers in Freeport.
Turning first to our goal of becoming a high-performing school district, there are a number of agreed-upon focus areas/strengths of high-performing school districts, and they are summarized as follows:
- High standards for all students
-Curriculum, instruction and assessments aligned with state standards
-Frequent monitoring of teaching and learning
-Focused professional development
- Supportive learning environment
- High-level of family and community involvement
Our budget discussions this spring are focused on those elements which we believe provide a systemic approach to developing the structures within the school system that are necessary to enhance student performance. By way of example, the Freeport Schools have a part-time curriculum coordinator paid hourly to provide us with necessary focus and guidance on curriculum development and coordination. This has led to a significant body of work around our math curriculum, a curriculum which is different in all of our schools. With the support and guidance of our curriculum coordinator, and the hard work of a number of teachers and administrators forming a K-12 Math committee, agreement has been reached on a new math curriculum, Everyday Math. This is being brought forward as a budget item for consideration this spring. The proposal is to implement Everyday Math K-6, and the approximately $40,000 costs includes textbooks, materials for the students, and
training and support for our math teachers. There is no doubt in the mind of any School Committee member that this is a tremendous step for us in the area of math instruction, and it is one that hits many areas of high performing schools - it sets high standards, it creates a consistent math curriculum across grade levels and one that is aligned with state standards, and comes with a strong professional development/training component. Adopting Everyday Math K-6 is a wonderful example of a budget item that meets the criteria we have set for ourselves in looking at our budget in a systemic way.
Many of you will read in the media that our initial budget projection for the next school year is for a little over $15 million, an amount which represents an increase of just over 10% from last year's budget. Please bear in mind that this amount reflects, in our view, several important components. First, there is the budget amount which reflects us doing nothing different, just paying for what we have plus increases in salaries, benefits, heating oil, diesel fuel for the buses, etc. This budget amount, which would be $670,000 over last years budget, would reflect a roughly 4.9% increase. We asked the Superintendent and the administrators to develop a budget proposal that also includes services, supports and programs which they believe they need to provide an excellent educational product. This list includes, among other things, an additional Kindergarten teacher (we will have quite a few new students this year!); monies to replace reduced Federal
funding for supporting literacy and math; additional secretarial time; the new math program; an additional math teacher at the High School; and additional art instruction at the High School. In our view, all of these requests have real merit. However, it is now our task as a School Committee to work with our administrators and bring this number down as it is simply too much to ask for in our current economic climate.
This website will provide you with quite a bit of information about our budget, and we will be meeting at least once a week in the coming weeks to talk about the budget (please click our "Budget" button on the home page to go to the budget schedule for this year). As always, we welcome public comment, whether by e-mail, telephone call, or by coming to our Public Hearing on Monday, March 17th at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall. Another very important meeting will be on Wednesday, May 7th, 7:00 pm at the Town Hall where the school budget will be presented to the Town Council, with the public hearing on Tuesday, May 20th at 7:00 pm at the Town Hall followed by budget workshops on Thursday, May 22nd, 7:00 pm and Tuesday, May 27th, 7:00 pm. Finally, they will vote on our budget on Saturday, May 31st at 10:00 am (this is a change from the June
3rd date) at the Town Hall. As you might imagine, we need your support!
Please also keep in mind that this year it is very likely that state law will require us to have a public vote on our budget (known in state law as the budget validation referendum or "BVR"). In 25 words or less, this process will have the School Committee passing a budget, the Town Council reviewing and voting on a school budget on June 3rd to send to the voters, and a vote by the public June 10th.
So, stay tuned, let us know your thoughts, and please support our efforts to ensure that our schools provide the best possible education for our children! | |
