Schools target 7.6 percent budget increase

By NATHAN LAMB | Milton Independent Staff Writer
miltonreporter@yahoo.com

“There is no money tree," but school officials are hoping that voters will support new spending toward specific educational goals.

That was the upshot of a PowerPoint presentation on Nov. 29 for the School Board, which outlined a first draft of the district’s FY09 budget.

The draft calls for a 7.6 percent (or $1,626,046) increase over the current budget of $21,409,326. Of that total, some $1,108,433 (a 5.18 percent increase) would be required just to cover existing programs, while the remainder is to target specific needs, said superintendent of schools Martin Waldron.

“We have lots of needs that are real here,” he said. “We don’t have infinite money and we know that…we’re trying to build a budget that heads in the right direction.”

The budget proposes addition of the following items:

• $70,000 for a new High School/ Middle School leadership position
• $70,000 for the Elementary School Student Management Program
• $150,000 for facility improvements
• $100,000 for curriculum development and implementation
• $100,000 for technology implementation and replace-ment.

The $150,000 for facility improvements is the trial run of what administrators are hoping will be an annual investment into the district’s buildings. Resealing Milton High School (MHS) against moisture intrusion, upgrading water mains to the school, and a handful of smaller items round out that list.

The $100,000 for curriculum is both for teacher professional development and exploring new ways to communicate information, said Waldron. He used maps and globes within the district as an example: it would cost $68,000 to replace all of them, but a focused discussion on curriculum development could lead the district toward using newer technology that could give the district more value by delivering the maps and more, explained Waldron.

Standardized tests and federal requirements like No Child Left Behind were also cited as reason for investing in curriculum.

Elsewhere, Waldron in-dicated that at least part of the technology funding would go toward replacing computers within the district; over 200 of them still use Windows 98, which is having diminishing returns for all but the most basic functions, explained Waldron.

New staff positions would be associated with at least a couple of those items, though Waldron said it was too early to indicate how the district’s “head count” of employees would be affected.

The High School leadership position was described by Waldron as someone who could reduce the workload on co-principals Anne Blake and Laurie Hodgdon, though no specific job title was mentioned. Also involved is hiring at least one behavior interventionist for those students who need one-on-one supervision, as part of the Elementary School Student Management Program.

The School Board as a whole did not weigh-in on those suggestions, though board Chairman Doug Stout said they should get job descriptions on all the new positions.

However, board member Jim Lyons expressed some reservation with adding another administrative position, saying there’s some public perception of the district being “too top-heavy.” Though he personally vouched for the MHS principles being “flat out” busy each time he’s visited the school, Lyons explained that he’s caught between taxpayers and administrators with different outlooks and is trying to make those ends meet.

Waldron acknowledged the challenge of building an educational program that will help students grow, and doing it within a budget.

“It is a struggle to try and reach that balance point between needs and what’s affordable,” he said. “It’s just the nature of having lots of needs and desires and we don’t have a money tree.”

Overall, Waldron spoke of the 5.18 percent increase to keep current programs asa likely starting point, saying much of future discussions would likely focus on the increases proposed past that.

The School Board expects to spend much of January reviewing the budget, with the goal of finalizing it by Jan. 28 in anticipation of a budget vote on March 4. Public comment is also welcomed and will be carried as a regular agenda item between now and then, said Stout.

On the new items, Stout requested more specific information on each, and indicated that further discussion of that will be part of those January discussions.

“The question underlying all of this is: how do our kids benefit from this item?” he said.