Medfield School Committee Facing 'Fiscal Reality' of 2012 Budget Proposal

The Medfield School Committee is facing “significant” reductions to its fiscal year 2012 budget proposal that would "have a detrimental impact" on the ability of the school system to provide students with a "well-rounded" educational experience, according to Superintendent of Schools, Robert Maguire.

“There are no good ideas,” Maguire said during a presentation of the latest budget proposal at Monday’s School Committee meeting. “We are out of good ideas on how to do this.”

The problem Maguire and the committee faces is the FY12 budget submitted to “exceeds the funding that would be allowable with the normal 2.5 percent increase to the town and school committee,” Maguire said.

On Monday, the committee voted unanimously in favor of Maguire’s recommendation to reduce the FY12 budget proposal from the $27,483,721 originally approved by the school committee and presented at Town Hall, to $27,422,358 – which is still a 4.03 percent increase over last year’s budget, but is down from the 4.6 percent proposal presented by Maguire in January.

That number, according to the town, is still too high as the “allowable increase for the school department would be $26,625,508 or a 1.01 percent increase over last year’s budget,” according to Maguire.

“The reduction that we would be required to face in the event that we do not receive these funds would be slightly under $800,00, which is certainly a significant amount,” Maguire said.

Maguire presented two separate documents detailing the affects the $796,850 in reductions would have on the school system as a whole, but more specifically each school within in the system.

“A good portion of [the reductions] is personnel cuts and some of them are really not the right direction at all,” said Maguire.

 Maguire and his “administrative team” had been working on solving issues within the budget proposal since December and held their final meeting Monday.

“This was not an easy exercise,” Maguire said. “We literally suffered through a very difficult process.”

The school committee reviewed what Maguire and the administrative team came up with in a 16-page packet, detailing what reductions it would take to meet the town’s allowable increase and the affect it would have at each school in town.

“By location, I’ve listed the work that I’ve been doing with my administrative team to try and tackle this issue,” Maguire said.

The reductions by location were this: $17,571 at ; $18,117 at ; $58,110 at ; $78,373 at ; $104,183 at ; $428,023 in technology and professional development; $92,473 in system maintenance.

Maguire made it clear after presenting those numbers that he was not looking for the school committee to “take any action” at Monday’s meeting and that the purpose of the material was to inform the committee of the issues it’s facing and to facilitate discussion on the matter.

“It’s the responsible thing to have this conversation and to begin the dialogue with you as a school committee,” Maguire said. “I’m going to do my responsibility to engage people in the thoughtful conversation. I’m going to be as a strong an advocate for these [school] programs as I should be but I also have a job to face the fiscal reality.”

Members of the committee voiced concern after reviewing what the impact of these cuts would have at each school and to the district so many have worked very hard to transform into one of the best in the state.

“People have to realize when you cut positions as what is recommended in [this proposal], it takes so long to get those back and to get them back into a budget in years going forward,” said Debbie Noschese, committee recording secretary. “So not only do you have the pain of those now, but for years to come and that’s what's so difficult about all of these [cuts] is that we have been so efficient for years now. Like Bob [Maguire] said, now we are pushing the envelop if we [have] to make these cuts. It would really be very detrimental to the district. It’s not just the immediate impact; we want to position ourselves to continue to be a successful school district.”

Despite the overwhelming concern of what these potential reductions would have on the school system, Christopher Morrison, committee financial secretary, commended Maguire on his presentation and thorough analysis of these possible cuts.

“Having worked in a lot of districts and on other school committees, this is really remarkable,” Morrison said. “You’ve really thought seriously about what it means to make these cuts and made some real valued choices. A lot of times you will see a district faced with these kinds of choices and sort of engage in a ‘stick-up.’ Say: ‘we’re going to cut athletics or our entire music program.’ You haven’t done that. These are real cuts. Some of them are very difficult. These are very real things and not a ‘stick-up’ and they do give the community a choice about what kind of educational program we want to offer. If we want to step back to where Medfield was quite some time before this was a town where everybody aspired to move here because of its school district, you know there’s a choice here people can make.”

Committee chair, Tim Bonfatti, echoed Morrison’s praise of Maguire’s efforts and Noschese’s notion of the impact these cuts, but also provided a silver lining of sorts.

“School will open, these cuts are not Armageddon,” Bonfatti said. “There is a point here where making these kind of cuts is going to have an impact and instead of at least staying neutral or moving forward, which we have pretty much been able to do, we are going to be stepping backward. It’s hard, once you step backward, it’s hard the next year to step forward, just like Debbie was saying. It’s hard to make that leap to pickup two years. It is very quickly how you start to see indicators of poor performance start to pop up.

“I think it’s something everybody in the town doesn’t want to see happen, especially since it’s been a lot of work by a lot of people over the last 10 to 15 years to get where we are.”

The School Committee will likely discuss the proposed FY12 budget reductions further in greater detail at its March 21 meeting.

“Certainly I think for the meeting on the 21st, you want to be in position to have reviewed [the documents] and have some thoughtful conversation about it,” Maguire said.

Here’s an Overview of the Reductions Proposed at Each School:

Memorial School: $17,571

• Reduction of Kindergarten Specials: .34 FTE

Ralph Wheelock Elementary School: $18,117

• Eliminate .5 FTE Library Aide ($9,267)
• Eliminate Library Texts Funding ($3,000)
• Eliminate Teacher Conference and Travel Funds ($1,000)
• Eliminate Principal Conference and Travel ($750)
• Reduce Replacement Funding ($1,500)
• Eliminate Professional Development Materials ($600)
• *Reduce Funding for General Supplies ($2,000)

Dale Street School: $58,110

• Eliminate Writers in Residence Program ($16,000)
• Eliminate Grade Four Instrumental Program .52 FTE ($25,749)
• Reduce Replacement Funding ($6,704)
• Reduce Library Texts Funding ($2,000)
• Reduce Library Aide .5 ($7,657)

Blake Middle School: $78,373

• Eliminate Principal Conference and Travel ($1,500)
• Eliminate Cafeteria Aide .2 FTE ($8,742)
• Eliminate 1.0 FTE Library Aide ($18,578)
• Reduce Specialists Positions .52 FTE ($26,873)
• Reduce Content Specialist Supervision 1.0 (Savings included in High School cuts)
• Reduce Technology Equipment Funds (Savings included in technology cuts)
• Reduce .5 FTE Guidance Secretary Position ($10,088)
• Reduce .2 FTE Reading Teacher ($12,592)

Medfield High School: $104,183

• Reduce Substitute Coverage ($15,215)
• Reduce 1.0 FTE Content Specialist Supervision ($54,084)
• Eliminate .75 FTE Library Aide Positions ($13,443)
• Increase Counseling Load of Guidance Content Specialist .2 FTE ($11,105)
• Reduce Supervision of Athletic Program .2 FTE ($10.336)

Systemwide Technology and Professional Development: $428,023

• Reduce Technology Replacement/New Equipment Funding ($361,343)
• Eliminate Requested 1.0 FTE Secondary Technology Specialist ($51,680)
• Reduce Professional Development Funding ($15,000)

Facility Maintenance: $92,473

• Eliminate Point of Sale System: $22,595
• Eliminate 1.0 FTE HS/MS Custodian ($39,776)
• Eliminate Installation of Music Room Sound Absorption Material ($26,349)
• Eliminate Purchase of AESOP Substitute System ($3,753)