Live reporting - Q&A - Preliminary budget discussion

Glynn - what are ramifications of not going for the NEASC accreditation?
Sabolinski - we will no longer have an external evaluation of our standard educational processes



Glynn - The technologists that we cut hurt our development as a 21st Century
Sabolinski - yes, those folks would help the teachers learn and implement technology into their classrooms


Cafasso - Q on tying the numbers back to the last year budget documents
Goodman - carefully explained the difference in the numbers to tie them together


Trahan - is the wage deferment in these?
Sabolinski - no, that was last year, nothing for this year at this point.


Decision making tree


Rohrbach - I put some thoughts down (handout to be added later)


1 - District wide impact on staff/program reduction

• number of students affected
• K-12 continuum - feeder program considerations

2 - Impact to or conflict with the following

• FPS educational philosophy
• Educational policy i.e. DESE
• Financial savings
• Financial costs i.e. unemployment
• Grant funding
• School Committee guidelines i.e class size
• Space needs
• Collective bargaining

add 
accreditation
community priorities

Communities needs to provide some guidelines on how much we can cut and how low we can go

Roy - FY 2006 we spent more in 2 catagories, FY 2007, we only did one category, in FY 2008 we are under in all eleven categories, we expect to be under in FY 2009 numbers. The amazing thing is that we are still a high performing district despite that.

What is a broad definition for core academic areas? Should music and art get equal treatment with the other core subject matters.

It is a balance between the core and the extra-curriculars as we are trying to educate the whole child.

Starting the discussion now gets a better chance to keep to it.

Are these ranked in order of priorities? or are these just a general listing

It would be interesting to see where the principals and administration would come up with their listing and how close it would be to this

I am not a fan of going through a death by 1,000 cuts

If I can live with a program going away, if it is gone it is gone. You need to be able to live with it going away and not coming back.

You can start talking about reductions until you know what the magnitude is?

Possible Saturday working session with Principals to get to hear from them directly

Live reporting - FY 2011 Preliminary Budget Discussion

Maureen Sabolinski, Sally Winslow, Miriam Goodman

The State numbers are not yet available, these factors will change over time
The goal for tonight is to provide a historical overview, where we are, and where we would like to be

Franklin Public Schools - FY2011 - Budget Discussion

View more presentations from Steve Sherlock.

teachers peaked at 517 - 2006, now down to 399 for 2010

110 FTE since FY 06
administrative 3 asst principals, 4 central office administrators

K-5 Spanish reduced to 1x a week
Elimination of French at the Middle School
K-5 health eliminated
K-5 PE reduced
Grade 4-5 instrumental eliminated

Curriculum and instructional services
Textbook line item elminiated, rely on capital to obtain books
Eliminated 10 custodial positions cut (separately from the Facilities transfer to DPW)

Pay to ride fees ass and increased
Sports fees added and increased

Per pupil expenditures  $9,751    State avg $12,449

good chart comparing us to 20 other districts of similar enrollment (i.e. 5,000 to 7,000 students)
we are in the middle of the districts on school size, we are on the bottom of this set on per student spending

Special Education costs have increased from 16% in 1998 to 21% in 2010

FY 2000 to FY 2003 health increased at 13.86%, however we have done better in avoiding rising costs as much as possible. The increase was only 3.91% FY 2004 to FY 2010

saved tens of thousands of dollars in printing and ink costs by going electronic where ever possible

FHS Wireless Technology helps to allow students to bring their own systems into the school environment

Edline K-5 report cards being piloted
ConnectEd software enhanced communications to parents, reduced flyers

Food service point of sale program now more accurate and accountable

In house special education programing, slows the rate at which the budget needs to grow by servicing the students in house where possible

Chapter 70 funding - 56% in 2010, in 1998 only 28%


Potential, level service needs $53,500,000

The value of all of our homes is directly related to the school performance

Live reporting - FHS London Trip

Peter Light, Principal Franklin High School
Tina Leardi, Marushka Waters

A week in London , time at the West End theaters, chaperoned with ratio of 1-8
If 35 students from Franklin go, it will be "our" trip.

75 brochures were handed out so far.

this is on the action items later this evening.

Live reporting - Sidewalk Snow Removal Presentation

2. Guests/Presentations
a. Snow Removal / Sidewalks – Robert A (Brutus) Cantoreggi


The presentation is similar to what was shown to the Town Council reviewed earlier this month. You can view that presentation here


Roy - How are the decisions reached on school cancellations?
Sabolinski - Process starts in October, meeting with DPW to plan for the process, notifications, etc. Decisions on school closings rely on the safety officials (Police, Fire). Timeline is an issue. High school and middle school staff report at 6:45, need to make decision before 5:30 AM to alleviate unnecessary travel. Responsibilities further refined between Facilities and custodians based upon experience. In a town this size, we heard from about 10 people, considering our size, that is good.

Cantoreggi - The Facilities transfer was a good thing, we have learned along the way. The Police call us when the road conditions turn bad. We are prepared and on standby until we get the call. At night we can be ore efficient as no one is on the road, once the day starts, it gets more difficult as our trucks are in with the traffic.

Sabolinski - inclement weather notice sent out, posted on Schools website (PDF) There is a regular practice for the buses to pick up students walking along the road.

Glynn - How do you determne when to stop?
Cantoreggi - After the snow has stopped and after we have cleared the roads, we'll also do the push back to clear the road to the gutters. If another storm came along, the gutters would be blocked, we could get drainage problems. Can't have that so we clear it to the gutter.

Rohrbach - could you go into the process on the sidewalk routes?
Cantoreggi - I did not bring the map, it is on the DPW website, as is this presentation. (Note: The presentations can also be found here)

Rohrbach - You mentioned that you have vacancies, does that mean you use more contractors?
Cantoreggi - We have folks out that we have not backfilled. We do have some Franklin equipment that sits idle during a storm as we don't have manpower to run it. We do use contractors more, it is a more expensive option.

Live reporting - School Committee

Attending: Douglas, Cafasso, Rohrbach, Mullen, Roy, Trahan,  Glynn

Vision Statement
The Franklin Public Schools will foster within its students the knowledge and skills to find and achieve satisfaction in life as productive global citizens.

Mission Statement
The Franklin Public Schools, in collaboration with the community, will cultivate each student's intellectual, social, emotional and physical potential through rigorous academic inquiry and informed problem solving skills within a safe, nurturing and respectful environment.

1. Routine Business
• Citizen’s Comments - none

• Review of Agenda - add FHS London Trip to agenda

• Minutes: I recommend approval of the Open Session and Executive Session minutes from the January 12, 2010 School Committee Meeting.
correction on meeting date should be Feb 5th not 4th

page 4 - FY 2011 budget, add a sentence referencing a one page summary
page 6 - should say "fiscal review" instead of "financial audit"

motion to approve, excluding the minutes from the Executive Session, passed 7-0

• Payment of Bills - Mr. Glynn  motion to approve, passed 7-0

• Payroll - Mrs. Douglas

• FHS Student Representatives

• Correspondence:  none

Franklin, MA: Kindergarten registration

For students entering Kindergarten in September 2010, registration will occur on 

• February 2
• February 4
• February 8
  

For more information, please visit the Franklin Public School kindergarten registration page here:
http://www.franklin.ma.us/auto/schools/FPS/KInfo/default.htm

In the News - financial discussion

A brief write-up for the budget workshop held on Monday for Town Council, Finance and School Committee members appears in the Milford Daily News

Franklin finances look grim

from The Milford Daily News News RSS by Ashley Studley/Daily News staff

Additional info from the workshop can be found here and here


The workshop provided extensive details on the finances and budget process. The information gathered will be shared overtime to help us all prepare for Fiscal Year 2011. We are currently operating within Fiscal Year 2010 which ends June 30th.