The Barnstable School Committee and the District Leadership Council got their first look at a Fiscal Year 2019 school district budget Wednesday presented by Deputy Finance Director Gareth Markwell. The total appropriations are projected at slightly more than $67 million, an increase of about $2.1 million over the current budget.
Markwell gave the budget overview first to the leadership council comprised of principals and other leaders representing all the district schools. He presented it again to the full school committee. Revenue from state and local aid, user fees, and school choice payments total $70 million.
Markwell said he received $2.9 million in various requests from all schools and school departments, which were prioritized with first priority going to contractual obligations and second to student social and emotional needs. The priority submissions for 8.7 full-time equivalent positions totaling $486,729; supplies and services at $227,242: and operations and capital at $374,569 totaled just over $1 million, leaving a deficit of $260,450.
The next steps in the budget process, he said, will be to continue looking at submissions, review the current year for other funds, update savings projections for retirements and vacancies, and look at special revenue funds.
Barnstable Schools Supt. Meg Mayo-Brown said the first priorities in planning the budget are the needs of students and teachers in the classrooms and, in the area of technology, to make sure the teachers have the most recent materials. “We’d love to add 20 to 30 FTEs,” she said, “but we can’t sustain that. We have to be cautious.”
The school committee will continue to review the budget at its meeting Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Barnstable High School junior/senior cafeteria. A public hearing on the budget will be held March 21 at 7 p.m. in the Town Hall Hearing Room. After the committee adopts the budget, it will be submitted to the town manager and the town council, which votes in June.
School committee Chairman Chris Joyce announced that newly appointed member Barbara Dunn will be joining the committee at the next meeting. “We are excited to have her join us,” he said, noting her extensive experience in education. He said the 11 people who applied for the position vacated by Margeaux Weber were well qualified. Three finalists were interviewed in a joint meeting of the school committee and the town council, which Joyce called a good collaborative process.
During public comment, Kathy Bent, a parent of four children with two still in the Barnstable school system, asked about the advertising for a new director of Special Education. She said the initial month posting was not enough for the important position that is being vacated by Jane Jezard upon retirement in June.
“I expect an extensive search,” Bent said. She suggested that the search be expanded to reach areas beyond the Cape and perhaps across the country and be published in different languages and professional publications. She also said, “Nothing in the ad mentions the director should have the ability to work with parents. It’s a critical element.”
Mayo-Brown answered some of Bent’s questions in her regular report. She said the posting for the position in School Spring normally runs at first for 30 days, but she requested that it continue to run until the position is filled. She also has asked help in running the search from town Human Resources Officer Bill Cole.
“We want a deep pool of applicants,” she said. “I know it is an extremely difficult position to fill. We need a robust recruitment strategy.”
Another search for a principal of Barnstable United Elementary has been reopened after 18 applications were received and nine people interviewed. “We want to be sure we have the right candidate,” Mayo-Brown said, noting the large school size with 850 students.
A new final schedule of courses for Barnstable High School will be released to its faculty on Feb. 14, Mayo-Brown announced. The new schedule, which she called “innovative and exciting,” will include more course options, some a semester in length. She also recommended a school calendar for next year with the schools opening before Labor Day. Staff would start on Aug. 27 and students Aug. 29. The committee approved the schedule.
The committee approved a proposal for construction of a wetlands living lab for the high school and intermediate school students, which students in the environmental club initiated and will do with help from the Mass Audubon Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary.
The committee also set up a subcommittee of three committee members, Mayo-Brown, and Cole to screen candidates for a school attorney. The subcommittee will meet in executive session and the three finalists will be interviewed in a public session. The school district has been contracting with a law firm for legal services since the past school attorney, Bill Butler, died, Joyce said.