Officials Seem Satisfied With School Budget Numbers

Town Council member Mark Etre put it point blank to school officials on Saturday.

''I want to ask if this budget is something you can live with?'' he said as the council prepared to listen to the Board of Education budget presentation at Town Hall.

The answer from Board of Education Vice Chairman Dean Houle was affirmative.

Houle said the $47.6 million budget submitted to the council by Mayor Jason McCoy for the 2011-12 fiscal year - a decrease of 0.2 percent from the current year - would not affect current programs.

Houle said if the council trimmed any more off the bottom line, "programs would be impacted.''

Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway had requested $47,632,358 and McCoy came back with a bottom line of $47,462,358, mainly because insurance premium negotiations came in $170,000 less than anticipated. Both McCoy and school officials said the trim was a team effort.

Of Etre's question, Conway reponded "We would love to say we never have enough but we are looking at every program we do and saying to ourselves, honestly,  'Is this working?''' Conway said.

Conway said evaluations are an ongoing process.  

"We are working very hard on examining our programs, actively, adding things and taking things out out to see if we are cohesive,'' Conway said.

In other words, Etre's question is answered for now, but Conway reserves the right to keep things open-ended.

School system officials presented the budget as part of the council's Saturday deliberation session.

The school system budget serves 1,757 elementary school students, 763 at the middle school and 1,047 at Rockville High School. Staff members total 654, not including 109 adult education staffers, including 317 classroom teachers and 20 administrators.

The total proposed for salaries is $30.2 million, a reduction of 1 percent. George Apel, the chairman of the school board's Budget Steering and Finance Committee, said teaching team consolidation at the middle school saved money.
 
The teachers are taking no step increases and no raises in salary for the next fiscal year, agreed through mediation.

The $7.3 million line item for benefits represents a decrease of 0.6 percent. The teachers' prescription drug program is projected to go down by $107,232.

The $1.2 million line item for school property services is down 12.8 percent, mainly because work was consolidated between the town and school system.

Capital outlay is proposed to be 52 percent less at $175,357.

Council member Marie Herbst asked about textbooks, proposed at $87,296 less for the next fiscal year. In all, about $37,000 is proposed for textbooks. Textbooks are currently being analyzed as part of a five-year curriculum review, Conway said.

''One thing I always want to make sure the kids have is textbooks,'' Herbst said.

Apel assured her that textbooks were up-to-date and that there would be enough to go around. Conway suggested after her presentation that textbooks may not even exist in their current form five years from now.

''I am glad to hear about the textbooks … and all the innovative changes and am assured were are just not throwing money around,'' McCoy said.

Conway presented a series of three major goals that make up the mission statement of her new administration. It was one of the first things she began working on after taking the helm of the Vernon schools over the summer.

The first is, ''Build and improve relationships and partnerships with family and community. The second is, ''Increase the achievement of every student of every student through high quality curriculum, instruction and assessment. The third is, ''Promote safe environments that are socially, emotionally and physically conducive to learning.''

Etre seemed satisfied with the answers.

''I appreciate the effort you put into this,'' he said to school officials. ''It is well-thought-out and well-presented.".