At a special meeting held March 8, the Westfield Board of ...



At a special meeting held March 8, the Westfield Board of Education...

. . . Adopted the tentative budget for the 2005-2006 school year in the amount of $77,180,278. The budget will be submitted to the Union County Superintendent of Schools. We have been notified that we will not receive an increase in state aid. It will remain flat at $4,821,103. The amount to be voted on by Westfield residents on

April 19 will be $66,025,201.

The approved budget includes $1,879,593 from the Fund Balance account that will be applied to help offset taxes. A maximum allowable Fund Balance of two percent or $1,388,988 will be retained in accordance with the limitations set by Senate Bill 1701. Our “rainy day fund,” as termed by Board Finance Chair Rich Solomon, will be as small as it’s ever been. This reserve is set aside for major repairs to our facilities and for unanticipated Special Education out-of-district placements that historically have occurred during a school year.

This approved tentative budget now represents the maximum amount allotted for 2005-2006. There is an opportunity to make shifts within the budget prior to the public hearing on Tuesday, March 29. The Board discussed possible trade-offs within the budget last night, particularly in the area of technology. Board President Anne Riegel raised the question of whether a seventh grade technology class could be implemented next year in lieu of leasing media carts for the elementary schools. I explained that an additional technology class would require a new teacher. The cost of the carts is not significant enough to equal a teacher’s salary. The other issue to be considered is that no curriculum has been created for a seventh grade technology course. Most importantly, we have just hired a new supervisor of Instructional Technology. Board members agreed that we need to give her time to determine the curriculum needs of the district. At this point, we offer a technology course in the sixth and eighth grades. I do feel it is a good idea to implement one in the seventh grade, but it is not urgent to do so next year. What we need to ensure is that our teachers are integrating technology into all the subject areas, and to continue training them to do so.

In regard to the media carts for the elementary schools, these have been requested by our principals so that teachers can project information, such as a web page, on a large screen in the classrooms. The budget includes one media cart for each of our elementary schools. Barbara Mammen, Instructional Technology Supervisor, endorses the acquisition of the carts, which will also be equipped with a DVD player.

Board member Arlene Gardner questioned whether the addition of a high school guidance counselor, currently proposed in the 2005-2006 budget, should be reconsidered and changed to a student assistance counselor, who deals primarily with student crises and high school transition. Since Westfield High School will have approximately 70 additional students next year, I feel that a position that provides primarily academic and college counseling will be most needed. A guidance counselor will be able to provide counseling on social, emotional and academic issues.

We have scrutinized the details of the budget for nine weeks and will have more opportunity to review it for final approval by the Board on March 29. Every one of the ideas that have been presented by Board members has merit, but we are under constraints and cannot do everything we would like to do. This budget is rooted in the educational beliefs of our community which have been incorporated into our district’s strategic plan.

We will not be able to accomplish everything in the plan in a single year, but we are committed to moving ahead educationally while being careful to prioritize and be prudent in our planning.

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