The Board of Education recently approved a budget which will be moved forward to the Town’s Finance Committee.
The Board of Education will present their budget to the Finance Committee on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, at 7:15 p.m. This presentation will be held in the Norma Drummer Room at Town Hall.
The Board added the following positions to the Superintendent’s budget:
- Two Fine Arts teachers for Seymour High School
- Stipend position – Theater Arts Adviser at Seymour Middle School
This link will take you to the following documents:
- PowerPoint presentation – 2012 – 2013 Superintendent’s Budget
- Rationale for New Positions/Line Item
- 2012 – 13 Approved BOE Budget-Road Map
When developing the budget, the Central Office administration reviews the principals’ budget requests which are based on District Goals and individual School Improvement Plans.
Principals prioritize their requests and demonstrate to the Central Office Team evidence of a three-year planning horizon for their schools in regards to staffing needs as well as resources. The Central Office team looks at the requests for the entire district and then again prioritizes the requests and develops a budget that reflects the most immediate and important needs of the district while being cognizant of the present economic conditions.
Long term planning with a laser-like focus on improving student achievement and district priorities have given us the ability to incrementally move forward even in extremely difficult economic times.
Specifically, I would like to call your attention to the Approved Board of Education Budget Road Map.
Over the years we have become very adept at reallocating funds to focus on district priorities. The majority of new positions are being funded through the reallocation of funds already in the education budget or an incremental increase in existing positions.
A few examples of incremental increases for existing positions are:
- the middle school psychologist who presently works three days per week will become a full-time employee which will translate to an incremental cost of $16,364.
- Additionally, the incremental cost of $3,893 will provide Central Office with a 12 month secretarial position with increased job responsibilities compared to the present 10 month clerical paraprofessional position.
Five positions were eliminated due to the consolidation of Chatfield and LoPresti Schools for a cost savings of $353,290.
One middle school world language teacher, middle school STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) teacher, the high school DECA advisor and stipends for summer curriculum work were the only new positions/item which the total cost was added to the budget by the Superintendent. As noted above the Board of Education added additional new positions.
There is a lot of information here! As always, if you need clarification on any item or you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Remember, if you hear something that seems to be completely unbelievable than most likely it is.
The author is the Superintendent of Schools in Seymour. The Valley Indy occasionally accepts guest columns of no more than 500 words.
