FINCOM: Technology Budget FY 09 (audio)

From the Finance Committee meeting on 4/9/08, the discussion on the Technology budget for FY 09. Jeff Nutting, Tim Raposa, Ken Norman, Jim Roche amongst others.

Time: 12 minutes, 16 seconds



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FINCOM: Comptroller Budget FY 09 (audio)

From the Finance Committee meeting on 4/9/08, the discussion on the Comptroller budget for FY 2009. Jeff Nutting, Susan Gagner, Ken Norman, Rebecca Cameron, and Jim Roche participate.

TIme: 12 minutes, 44 seconds



MP3 File

The proposed Town budget can be found here (PDF).

Franklin School Budget Reductions (updated)

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A letter from Ed Cafasso

Hi everyone,

At this Tuesday evening’s School Committee meeting, members will discuss how to handle the massive proposed cuts your community’s schools are facing in fiscal year 2009, which begins July 1. You can expect several updates on this topic in the weeks ahead.

The Town of Franklin, on average, spends $2,200 less per pupil than the average for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state Department of Education tracks school district spending in 11 categories, including administration, professional development, pupil services and operations and maintenance. Franklin spends above the state average in only one of the 11 categories – classroom teachers.

In fact, approximately 80 percent of our budget is driven by compensation to teachers. Over years of grappling with school budgets, the Committee has always tried to protect classroom personnel in order to maintain reasonable class sizes for our students.

But, unless we can improve school funding for the coming fiscal year, it’s unlikely that Franklin will be able to claim an advantage in that category any more.

The current school budget is $54.6 million. In order to maintain the same level of services in the new school year, a budget of $58.7 million is required to meet rising salary, healthcare, pension and utility costs. Maintaining the exact same level of services we are providing this year would mean an additional appropriation of $4 million.

Despite receiving an increase in Chapter 70 state educational aid of $2.2 million, town tax revenues are down overall, so the Town Administrator proposing to give schools only $800,000 more in fiscal 2009.

In order to fulfill our responsibility to submit a balanced budget to the Town Council, the School Committee and Supt. Ogden are considering $3.2 million in cuts, including:

• 15 teaching positions at elementary level

• 12.5 teaching positions at middle school

• 17 teaching positions at FHS

• A $100 increase in the pay-to-ride bus fee hike, and

• The end of late bus service for students who need to stay after school for academic, club and extracurricular programs.

Last year, even passage of the town’s first-ever override was not enough to help the budget keep pace with escalating costs, and the schools cut 28 positions. The vast majority of those terminations were not educational positions. This year, the 45.5 jobs slated for elimination will have a direct, negative impact on class sizes in Franklin for the first time.

At Franklin High School, where a reasonable class size range is 22 to 26 students, the class size in September will balloon to 25 to 30. Middle school class sizes will range from 25 to 30, as well. Class sizes in most of the town’s elementary schools will push well past appropriate levels, and will feature 26 to 30 students each this fall.

At our most recent meeting, school principals expressed deep concern over their ability to deliver a top quality academic experience to students if these cuts go through. One even predicted that Franklin’s test scores, which have been outstanding despite lower-than-average per pupil spending, will begin showing declines in only one year.

Members of the School Committee – as well as members of the Town Council and the Finance Committee – need to hear your concerns and recommendations on how to proceed. Everyone recognizes that these are tough economic times, but disinvesting in our schools has no good outcome. It will not help our children prepare for their own economic future. It will not maintain our quality of life. It will not stabilize home prices in Franklin.

Please let me know your thoughts on the current situation. In the meantime, the following links provide additional information on budget proposals and discussions:

School Budget Information Home Page:

http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/schools/FPS/super1/FY06Budget/default.htm

PowerPoint Overview on Proposed FY09 School Budget:

http://www.franklin.k12.ma.us/co/supt/budget/Budget2SCFY09.pdf

Complete Proposed FY09 Budget by School:

http://www.franklin.k12.ma.us/co/supt/budget/FY09Budget.pdf

Franklin School Committee Web Site:

http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/schools/fsc/

Franklin Town Council Web Site:

http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/town/towncouncil/

Franklin Matters Blog:

http://franklinmatters.blogspot.com/

Franklin Town Common Discussion Site:

http://www.towncommon.net/tcma/forumdisplay.php?f=594

I hope you will use these sources, as well as newspaper reports, PCC meetings and cable broadcasts, to stay informed as budget discussions continue. As always, I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you!

Ed Cafasso, Member

Franklin School Committee

Brick Classroom FY09 budget status (audio)

A segment from the Franklin School Committee meeting on 2/26/08, Supt Wayne Ogden answers a question from Sue Rohrbach on the Brick FY09 budget status.

Time: 2 minutes, 9 seconds



MP3 File

The full segment from which this piece was taken can be found here.

The full meeting summary can be found here.

Budget Update FY09 (audio)

a preliminary update on the FY09 budget from Town Administrator Jeff Nutting with Q&A from several of the councilors.

Time: 10 minutes, 17 seconds



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FY09 - Elementary School principals (audio)

Franklin School Committee continues the detail discussion on the FY09 budget with the Elementary School principals

Time: 13 minutes, 14 seconds



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FY09 - Special Ed: L Waters (Audio)

Franklin School Committee continues the discussion on FY09 budget with Linda Waters on the special education budget

Time: 6 minutes, 34 seconds



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FY09 - Middle school principals (audio)

Franklin School Committee meeting continues the discussion on the proposed FY09 budget cuts and in detail the impact in the middle schools.

Time: 26 minutes, 14 seconds



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FY09 - High School Impact (audio)

Franklin School Committee continues the discussion on FY09 with questions on the impact at the high school. Paula Mullen and Pam Gould primary speakers in this segment.

Pam also returns at the end of the Middle School segment for an additional question.

Time: 2 minutes, 32 seconds



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FY09 - Wayne Ogden's overview (audio)

The Franklin School Committee got to get into some details with the school prinicpals during the meeting 3/25/08. Supt. Wayne Ogden leads the introductory overview in this segment.

Time: 17 minutes, 2 seconds



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In the News - principals bemoan budget cuts, Natick override passes

By Heather McCarron/Daily News staff

GHS

Posted Mar 26, 2008 @ 12:18 AM

---

FRANKLIN —

School Committee members last night got a brief insight into how potential cuts in the fiscal 2009 school budget will translate into the town's classrooms: Most significantly, larger class sizes and, consequently, less individual attention.

Principals from all town schools attended the board's meeting, where officials continued to struggle with a grim budget outlook that, without an infusion of $3.2 million in additional revenue, will mean 45 layoffs - most of them among professional staff, Superintendent Wayne Ogden said.

Read the full article in the Milford Daily News here

-----------------------------

Voters approve Natick override

By Erica Noonan Voters in Natick Tuesday approved a $3.9 million Proposition 2 1/2 override by a 55 to 45 percent margin -- a tax increase that is expected to cost the average homeowner an extra $290 annually. The...

SchCom: Middle School Principals

SchCom_MS_Principals, originally uploaded by shersteve.

The middle school principals did not have happy faces when explaining what the FY09 budget cuts will do to the operation of their middle school beginning in September.

The outlook is grim.

SchCom: Pam Gould

SchCom_FHS_Gould, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Pam Gould, Principal at Franklin High School, answered some questions during the School Committee meeting Tuesday evening on what impact the FY09 budget cuts would have at the high school.

Recorded sections of the full meeting will be made available beginning Wednesday evening.

Video of the FY09 School Budget

What is FY09?

Fiscal Year 2009 which begins July 1, 2008 and runs through June 30, 2009. This is the budget cycle for the school year beginning September 2008 and running through June 2009.

The School Committee blog has some video from the FY09 budget presentation at the 2/26/08 School Committee meeting.

The FY09 budget

The High School renovation options

The audio recording for the 2/26/08 School Committee meeting can be found here. It is broken out into sections to enable easy access.

FY 09 Outlook

Jeff Nutting

Time: 2 minutes, 21 seconds



MP3 File