The 2010-2011 School Department Operating Budget is now set. In May, Town Meeting approved the Finance Committee's recommendation of $46,114,078. This amount is $55,000 higher than the budget requested by the School Committee in December and approved by the Town Manager in January; the Finance Committee recommended the increase during its budget deliberations. This increase will allow the School Department to keep one teacher that would have otherwise been cut.

The School Department FY 11 Budget -- Final Stats

• This budget represents a 1.6% increase over FY 10.
• This budget funds 618.5 FTEs, a decrease of 2.9 FTEs from FY 10.  For the first time in ten years, there is a decrease of employees.  At every level, some class sizes will increase. 
• This budget relies on $615,900 in one-time stimulus funds.  In FY 12, these stimulus funds will not be available.  If FY 12 revenues are not high enough to replace these funds, the School Department will be faced with more difficult choices next year.
• This budget requires increases in high school athletic fees in skiing and swimming.
• Cuts in administration, clerical staff, supplies, professional development, and stipends.
• As happens in each budget year, there is a mixture of cuts to current resources and additions of new needed resources to create the budget.  Here's what you might notice at each level next fall:

• At the elementary schools:
  • One fourth-grade section was cut from each of these schools: Eliot, Mitchell, Newman.  The result is comparable class sizes across all fourth grades town-wide.   These class sizes are in keeping with the School Committee's class-size policy.
  • An Autism Specialist was added to provide town-wide support for children on the autism spectrum.

• At Pollard:
  • There will be four clusters in both grade eight and grade seven.  As a result, class size will increase.  In grade eight, core class sizes will be 27 students.  In grade seven, one of the clusters will have a larger number of students and six teachers, keeping the core class sizes to 24 students.  Elective class sizes for both grades will also increase.

• At Needham High School:
  • Honors and Accelerated sections are expected to see more classes at the higher end of the class-size range.  Class sizes in electives will increase.
  • Sections of Experiential Writing and Public Speaking were recently restored.  These funds come from two sources: savings in the transportation budget due to changes approved by Town Meeting, and some slight increases in grant monies.

Citizens for Needham Schools thanks the Town Manager, the Finance Committee, and the School Department for the many hours of work they devoted to the FY 11 Budget and for the spirit of respect and cooperation they brought to that work.  While our schools will operate next year with resources stretched further, Town leaders did the best they could to keep the schools strong.

The Future: FY 12 and Beyond

Needham residents interested in the schools will need to think about their future funding.  FY 11 was a tough budget year, but the Needham Public Schools have been struggling with tough budgets for many years.  The FY 11 cuts are nothing new: since 2003, Needham has cut teaching positions every year except one, even in years when an operating override passed, for a total of 28 teaching positions.  At the same time, district-wide enrollment has increased by close to 500 students.  Class sizes have gone up, and programs in physical education, the arts, media and technology, and foreign language have been reduced.

Future cuts are likely: the School Committee's five-year forecast projects that each of the next five budgets will need to be cut by $1 million.  Citizens for Needham Schools encourages everyone to think about the implications of those future cuts for the schools.  In the fall, we hope to gather interested parties to discuss school funding and share ideas.  Please stay tuned.

Town Meeting approved $176,250 in school capital requests; most of these funds will be used to replace copiers, computers and servers, and furniture and musical instruments.  $30,000 will be spent on a condition assessment of Pollard; Pollard needs many repairs, and this assessment will help the Town plan for those repairs.

Town Meeting also approved condition assessments of Hillside and Mitchell.  The money for these assessments was approved at an earlier Town Meeting; the plan at that time was to assess the technology infrastructures at those schools, but the assessments will now include general repairs as well as technology infrastructure.

Town Meeting also approved changes to the School Committee's transportation revolving fund, allowing the School Department to purchase two busses.  KASE program fees will pay for the purchase, and the busses will be used primarily for KASE transportation.  However, this purchase will allow the School Department to lease one fewer bus, saving $47,500.  Some of these savings have been re-allocated to other budgetary needs, including restoring some English electives at Needham High School.  Approximately $11,000 of the savings are being held in reserve for future needs.

An article to fund a modular classroom at Mitchell was withdrawn for two reasons.  First, the Town learned that the modular addition would require renovations to make Mitchell compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Second, in the "Silver Lining" category, the fourth-grade teacher cut at Mitchell has created one fewer section and one more classroom for 2010-2011, alleviating the overcrowding at Mitchell for that year.  However, the Needham Public Schools Future School Needs Report indicates that both Mitchell and Hillside will need modular classrooms in the near future to address overcrowding.

The Needham Times reported that the School Committee approved a new three-year teacher contract on May 18.  From a May 19 online posting in The Times:

The contract features an average annual salary increase of 4.2 percent over three years, with step and lane increases for experience and education included.

The cost-of-living allowance increase is 1 percent in the first year, .25 percent in the second year and 2 percent in the final year. It also adds a personal day in the final year of the contract. In the second year of the contract, teachers with more than 15 years in the system would receive a $700 longevity payment.

To save the town money, teachers did agree to join the rate saver health insurance plan, which results in higher out-of-pocket insurance costs in the form of co-pays and deductibles. That would be tempered with a $97,000 pool of funds to help teachers overly burdened with the higher out-of-pocket costs.

The Needham Public Schools have chosen a new math curriculum - Think Math! - and will pilot the curriculum in Grades 1 and 2 in 2010-2011.

Think Math! is a curriculum funded by the National Science Foundation.  It is used in Brookline, Framingham, and Watertown.  Needham liked many aspects of Think Math!: its open-ended problems; its options for differentiated instruction, in both reteaching concepts and extending concepts; its writing component; its use of a student textbook; and the professional development embedded in the written curriculum.

The materials for Grades 1 and 2 will be bought with funds already set aside for supplies.  Future budgets will need to provide funds for materials for the other grades.

Did you know that each school principal writes a school improvement plan every two years and presents it to School Committee? You can find the plans on your school's website, either on the home page or on the "Our Schools" page.

The open Town Meeting seats we mentioned in our last newsletter were filled by write-in candidates.  Citizens for Needham Schools thanks all Town Meeting members for their service; many School decisions are made at Town Meeting, and we appreciate the care with which Town Meeting members consider the schools' needs.

Citizens for Needham School thanks the Needham Education Foundation for its generous donation to the Needham Public Schools.  NEF awarded over $73,000 in 22 grants this spring.

Needham grants property tax relief awards to qualifying seniors; these awards are funded by donations from Needham residents.  In March, The Needham Times reported that the average awards decreased this year because donations to the fund also decreased.

Citizens for Needham Schools encourages Needham residents to donate to this fund if they can.  Needham benefits from having residents of diverse ages and income levels; property tax relief is one way to allow seniors on fixed incomes to stay in Needham and maintain our town's diversity.

Residents can donate to the fund by mailing a check in the small white envelope that comes with Town bills or by addressing an envelope to the Town Treasurer, Needham Town Hall, 1471 Highland Avenue, Needham, MA 02492.  Make the check payable to Senior Tax Relief Fund.

Your donation is tax-deductible.

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