The finance committees of Tri-Town traditionally request level-service budgets for most town departments, but the Old Rochester Regional School District has prepared a “Better School” budget in order to accommodate a growing population of students into ever-increasingly larger class sizes.
ORR High School Principal Michael Devoll expects the student population to exceed 800 for the first time, thus creating a need for further sections of English, Math, foreign languages, and Health.
“I don’t have a Health class under 30 right now,” said Devoll on February 11. He said he is looking to add two more sections with another significantly larger freshman class coming in September.
Devoll said the school has always had 40 sections of English and had not added staff in the past as the student population increased.
“If anything, we’ve taken positions away,” said Devoll. “…We’ve reduced sections.”
The better school budget proposes a $132,572 or 24.2% increase over the fiscal 2015 budget to fund two new teaching sections of English to avoid bringing teachers’ student totals beyond the contractual limit.
The Mathematics budget line reflects a $96,974 or 10.5% increase over last year, adding two new sections as well, and the Science budget increase of $83,481 accounts for the addition of two new Health sections and textbooks.
The district is also seeking to increase the junior high school librarian position from part-time to full-time in light of the evolving “library common” that expands the librarian’s role more into technology and media education, reflected in a $83,481 or 6.7% increase.
School Business Administrator Patrick Spencer said the hiring of a part-time treasurer is requested under the school committee budget line at a $20,965 or 37.7% increase.
“It’s a good check and balance to have someone outside the Business Office to keep track of the bank account,” said Spencer. Superintendent Doug White called it “a best practice,” adding that most other school districts in Massachusetts have a treasurer.
The better school budget totals at $17,269,114, which is a 4.2% overall increase over the FY15 budget. The level-service budget the school district prepared totals $17,032,148, an overall increase of 2.8% over FY15.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” said White, with budget season still in full swing until the public hearing to present the FY16 budget to the public on March 3.
ORR School Committee Chairman Jim O’Brien asked School Committee members to return to their communities and talk to the public as well as their respective school committees to persuade them that the better school budget was the way to go.
“It just can’t be that [level-service] budget,” pleaded O’Brien. “We need you … to speak to our various towns.”
In other matters, Katie Brown Educational Program Executive Director Claire Spaulding McVicker presented committee members with the curriculum of the relational violence program slated for ORR students, which the committee voted last month to hold off on approving before receiving further information.
McVicker presented some heavy statistics about relational violence and bullying relative to teens’ experience, saying that 66-percent of students have never had a conversation with their parents about relational and dating violence.
The School Committee approved the program, which will be presented to all ORR High School students, pending fundraising. If only a portion of the funds to cover the cost of the program is raised, then only seniors will be offered the program at this time. The cost is $50 per student.
The next meeting of the Old Rochester Regional School Committee is scheduled for March 11 at 6:00 pm in the ORR Junior High School media room.
By Jean Perry
