One Parent to Another
A Parent's Notes from Budget Meeting Feb 9th, 2016 6:30pm
Secondary Budget Proposal- Archie Cole MS by Alexis Meyer
The document can be found here: http://www.egsd.net/departments.cfm?subpage=1454288
- This budget is level funded at the discretionary level.
- Pointed out increases in student enrollment projected for next year
- Pointed out increase in summer enrollment
- Personnel changes are due to Full Day K implementation (some staff that had previously been across elem and middle, now will be full time elem)
- Foreign language teacher makes a .8 position a full time to address demand
- Data indicates the need for math specialist/interventionist like we do for reading
- Since the building was built, hasn't been any tech upgrades (only upkeep) and in future budgets need to being to plan for this
Secondary Budget Proposal- EGHS by Michael Podraza
The document can be found here: http://www.egsd.net/files/1454288/eghs-02092016161336.pdf
- Enrollment has been fairly consistent (although a bubble in the middle level was discussed by the broader group about how that may/may not impact EGHS)
- New budget proposal is for purchase of Mastery Connect for standards based grading
- At first, grading would do both traditional and standards based
- There were questions and dialogue around purchase of Mastery Connect
Special Education Budget Proposal by Brad Wilson
Document can be found here: http://www.egsd.net/files/1454288/sped-02092016161125.pdf
- Five SEAC parents in the audience (whoop, whoop!!)
- Many questions from the school committee on the basic facts-how many students served, what types of needs, etc
- Budget includes: Students w IEPS = 311, but also includes 504 plan needs and in some cases RTI plan needs, homebound tutoring (may or may not have IEPs like in medical situations), and also PPSS (outside placements)
- Lots of Q&A around "Unbudgeted Expenses" (too much to sum up here) although I had asked since much of this extra costs were behavioral in nature as well as outside placements, I asked if we were looking into what those placements had that we may not create programming here. It was stated that it is a goal.
- Personnel Current: 3 at preK, 3 at MFE, 3 at Fr, 4 at H, 4 at E, 9 at Cole, and 8 at HS
- Some memorable dialogue included a parent sharing needs to dyslexia screening and effective intervention, as well as a school committee member asking how outcomes are for this population and pointing out that the parent survey (yay!!) showed that many parents don't feel Special Education has effective curriculum yet those things don't seem reflected in this budget.
Elementary Budget Proposal: MFE and FR by Neil Marcaccio and Cheryl Vaughn
Documents can be found here: http://www.egsd.net/files/1454288/mb-02092016161211.pdf and http://www.egsd.net/files/1454288/ft-02092016161150.pdf
- Of course, all the talk here are the increases due to implementation of Full Day K
- Note that the enrollment numbers for MFE from 2016 to 2017 are reversed (error)
- Also note that MFE has to also have an additional teacher at the 2nd grade level (because this year that group was so small, but next year is larger)
- Much past investment on materials, curriculum work, etc has made this year less about more money and more about continuing to refine/work on those
Elementary Budget Proposal: Hanaford and Eldredge by Beth Cauley and Domenic Giusti
Documents can be found here: http://www.egsd.net/files/1454288/han-02092016161232.pdf and http://www.egsd.net/files/1454288/eld-02092016161254.pdf
- Max capacity at Eldredge and sharing students between Eldredge and Hanaford
- Unexpected costs for field trip transportation
- Need to replace and update science kits for the new science standards
- I was tired, so I took less notes during this presentation (sorry!)