Comments from School Committee on FY15

And you're just going to have to catch me on replay



Monfredo:
"most depressing budget that I've seen...not educationally sound"
"can't even deal with prevention"
doesn't keep down teacher/pupil ratio
continue to engage with our city councilors
"What can be done"
funds on administration of grants: $750,000
local delegation concerned about the budget
education investment not only in children, investment in our city
"failure to educate is a true expense"
do we get the McKinney-Vento funds?
goes to city
Foley:
Very depressing conversation here, continuation of the conversation we've been having
joint committee: same page relative to the school department and its funding
recognition of where we are in the funding
we are one city
identify where some of the dollars may come
floor and then beyond that
dependent on revenue from other sources
"work with administration on zero based budgeting"
priorities are issue of class size, dollars in the classroom, strong academic core
O'Connell:
deja vu to the presentation he did last week
properly conservative on projections
"situation is not a rarity...crafting the best situation we can given the funds"
gone deeply into the budget particularly in non-instructional acccounts to add to teachers
efforts to be sure that no program valuable to us was cut
"can we live without" in the central administration: suggestion here that moving seven administrators into principalships
look at special education: "do we really provide students...what they need to do well in t?"
gifted education: elimination of the planning grant for the exam school
debate, art, music, theater, sports
virtual high school
urges multiple public hearings: open process
have hearings while the budget is mallable, still flexible
libraries have the support they need
custodial and maintenance staff
"urge us not to be totally defeatist"
Novick: you're just going to have catch that later
Biancheria:
adminstration
Perkins
always hits the classroom:; central adminstration
classrooms, safety, nurses
"can't afford to lose two nurses"
look at cap of 125: how many teachers over
McKinney-Vento: disappointed in competitive nature; would suspect that we'll not only be competitive
community schools
athletic programs: "very beneficial to our students"
"each individual cut is going to be a huge difference"
solution that includes looking at central administration
Superintendent points out that administration is included
Ramirez:
"not forget the outside the classroom"
outside collaborations