Worcester School Committee FY14 budget

You can find the back-up here. Posting as we go
Allen: no news on sequestration, Legislature silent on
"...more towards the worst side than the better side; we'll know more next Wednesday"
OPEB: "notified the city CFO that we will not be submitting a budget that contains the $3 million for OPEB"

Mayor: anything on sequestration? When will we know
fed says 5%, we're planning on 8%
Mayor: "going to be an interesting budget
O'Connell: updated numbers as the budget goes forward
"regretful but understandable"
reviews potential additions to teachers...positions that might be at risk at the secondary level
enrichment in danger?
class size "has always been for the school committee a top priority"
textbooks, materials, supplies
look at size of administration..."will advocate for a minimum of $500,000 of central office administrators" who make over $100,000
"we can do that without anybody losing their position"
"it is a means of saving eight or nine teaching positions at a minimum"
"many more priorities, but unfortunately the funds aren't there for them"
Allen: "moving towards an optimal budget"
not sacrificing art and music at secondary level
"significant gap between the level of funding available to the district"
don't want to give impression that elementary teachers are increasing and secondary decreasing
Boone: building in ninth grade support, want new graduation requirements to be recognized
Monfredo: "never enough money to meet the needs"
IA's in all Level 4 schools
3rd grade literacy
non-violent solutions
summer slide: "students can truly hit the ground running in September"
talk to Legislature about full day preschool
Colorio:
"look carefully at line items to shift from administration" to front line
list of positions within schools considered teachers versus non-instructional
detailed line item of programs that are affected and what the cuts could possibly be under sequestration
Allen notes that the full budget will be out in a month
concerned about cost of Common Core: list of what we have spent so far
Boone: state adopted Common Core as part of the state frameworks...not focused on separately
"put out a crosswalk...85% match" with current frameworks
"responding to state frameworks"...not new, done every time there's been a revision of the frameworks
"don't have the luxury of not adopting and moving forward"
Foley: not really a surprise for us hearing since October
priorities haven't changed a whole lot in the last few years
K-1 as low as possible
Textbooks...up-to-date textbooks, and have ones to bring home; materials to learn at home as well as at school
Hardware: technology
Enrollment up: people have to recognize that the population is changing
ELL and special education growing: more challenging to educate and cost more to educate
"foundation formula does not adequately reimburse the city for those costs as well"
put whatever we can into classroom...caution to set a number arbitrarily
"recognize that our administrative costs are much lower than our peer cities across the Commonwealth"
Biancheria: grant funding
interest in how we spend our funding on the grants
categories students in different levels
"have to keep in mind that we are within the Mass Common Core"
summer opportunities for our students
safety in our schools: safe and welcoming schools
"unfortunate that things cost more than they did in 2004 and 2005"
reference to to PARCC needs for technology
look forward to more on that...prepared for all our staff, students
Sorry, I'll write mine up later...I've put my chart (of briefly) who said what here