The Old Rochester Regional district fiscal year 2013 budget topped the agenda at the Joint School Committee meeting on Thursday, March 22. Superintendent Doug White provided an update to the committee on where next year’s budget stands.
“When we started this back in November, and we were looking for level funding, it was about a $1.4 million increase we would have needed to cover all of the expenses in all of our six schools. Right now we’re looking at about $521,000 to support the education that will be happening in the four districts,” he reported.
White said public hearings on the budgets for all three towns are scheduled, with Marion on March 27, Rochester on April 5, and Mattapoisett on April 9.
In other business, Superintendent White spoke about Rochester Memorial School’s search of a new principal to replace Jay Ryan, who is retiring next fall. District officials narrowed down seven candidates from 21 applicants, he said, and interviews will begin next week.
“There is a committee with representation from the school, the community, and the central office,” White said. This committee hopes to announce the new appointment in May, he said.
School Business Administrator Katie Isernio also took time to report on the status of the region’s funding from grants.
“Even though the nature of the grants have changed, the amounts have been relatively stable,” she said.
While the dollar amounts may be steady, the loss of the education jobs grant and money from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act significantly impacted the budget, Isernio said.
Elise Frangos, director of curriculum and instruction, informed the committee on her latest activities. She reported attending a conference at Harvard Law School on bullying and harassment and said she is looking to improve how students, faculty, and administration respond to incidents and support the victims.
“Bullying is no longer connected to time and geography,” she said, as social media makes bullying possible with a quick text or status update. Since the conditions that surround bullying have drastically changed over the years, so should the strategies used to deal with the problem, she said.
Frangos discussed the benefits of district schools receiving small grants from the non-profit operation DonorsChoose.org. With this website, public school teachers can post project requests, from field trips to pencils, and patrons of the website can then choose which projects to fund.
Lastly, the committee discussed some policy changes, and voted to approve alterations made to the School and Family Relations Goal policy and the Professional Staff Salaries and Contracts policy.
The Joint School Committee will have their next meeting on May 10 at 6:30 pm in the library at ORRHS.
