Schools

School Committee Approves FY14 Budget

Vote comes after the city approved a $119 million budget this week.

The Attleboro School Committee approved an operating budget Thursday night in the net-spending amount of $62,382,504.

The meeting was broadcast on DoubleACS.

The number represents an increase of $2,303,591 from FY 2013.

The vote comes after the city council approved a $119 million budget presented by the Mayor that did not include $1.2 million originally requested by school officials.

The school department was still able to add $400 thousand in additional positions, however. Assistant Superintendent David Sawyer said money was found through additional health care savings, a health care "holiday" and tuition reductions.

"400 is a better place than we were on June 17th," school committee member Ken Parent said. "So, I think that's a good sign."

The budget includes two additional elementary school teachers - one at Hyman-Fine and one at Hill Roberts to help lower escalating class sizes. It also includes an additional science teacher at the high school, a part-time english-language-learner teacher, a full-time ELL paraprofessional, a part-time career and technical education teacher, an adjustment councilor and a part-time board-certified analyst.

"The administration believes that these positions would do the greatest good for the greatest many with the resources we have available," Sawyer said.

"This is not a wish list," added school committee chair Michael Tyler. "These are needs - and we're not able to even really fill the needs that we currently have but we're doing the best that we can with the budgetary number that's presented to us."

Sawyer outlined a number of needs not included in the budget that are secondary to what is included, such as additional classroom teachers, more ELL positions, a special education paraprofessional, a science coordinator in the high school and a student services coordinator. He said the main drain in the pool at the high school needed to be addressed as well.

According to Swayer, more funds could be made available through money not expended in FY13, further healthcare savings, additional support from the mayor and "circuit breaker" funds.

Tyler said the committee needs to keep communication open with the mayor and the city throughout the year to ensure needs continue to be met.

"These talks have to be ongoing through the course of the year," he said "We can't just sit down and start talking about them in April."


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