District faces $1.2 million budget hurdle for FY17

Jan. 14, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW – It might be a rough budget season for the School Department. The fiscal year 2017 (FY17) budget for the department is expected to be approximately $1.2 million over budget, based on preliminary numbers.

“I just want to make sure the committee is informed of our financial position where the town had what they projected for an increase and at this time I don’t see us getting to that number with our contractual obligations; and if then the committee wants free full-day kindergarten included in there – the number’s going to be somewhere in the $1.3 to $1.5 million above our FY16 budget.” Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Thomas Mazza said.

The FY16 budget for the School Department was $35.3 million.

Superintendent of Schools Marie Doyle asked Mazza to create a budget that includes funding free full-day kindergarten with three tiers.

“What would happen if we cut tier one, cut tier two, and cut tier three?” she noted. “You’d have an idea of what the impact would be should we have to not ask for all the money that we need to sustain a level-service budget as well as include free full-day kindergarten.”

Doyle later told Reminder Publications the three tiers would give different options to the School Committee based on what it would like to keep in the budget and what it would like to cut.

“Tom Mazza will create the tiers after the administrative team discusses our priorities for this budget,” she added.

The cost of implementing free full day kindergarten this year is estimated at $374,742.

Mazza said the preliminary estimates would likely change prior to the School Committee voting for the FY17 budget.

School Committee Chair Janet Robinson said the committee is anticipated to present the school department’s budget to the Select Board on Feb. 1. The committee would likely vote on the school budget at its Feb. 10 meeting.

School Committee Vice Chair Michael Clark said he believes the district shouldn’t be in a position where the state would mandate free full-day kindergarten, which could result in “significant cuts.”

He added, “We settled contracts … We know where we are for the next three years. It’s not any better, but it’s not any worse. We’re roughly in the same spot. The only difference is that we get closer to a point where we’re mandated.”

In other business, the School Committee voted 6 to 1 in favor of having the Preliminary Superintendent Search Subcommittee meet again to essentially redo meetings that are in violation of the Open Meeting Law.

Robinson said the subcommittee is set to reconvene to retake votes from two meetings – one that narrowed applicants down to six candidates and another that further vetted those six to three finalists – during a one-day back-to-back meeting within the next two weeks.

“That [subcommittee] would meet in open session to vote to re-conduct their business and to approve their minutes, provided that our legal counsel does not object given the parameters of the information that was provided this evening,” she added.

The Open Meeting Law violation was the result of subcommittee meetings for Dec. 2 and 12, 2015 not being posted with the town clerk in accordance with the law. At its previous meeting on Jan. 4, Robinson stated School Department staff made the error.

Resident Scott Foster, a Springfield-based attorney and son of Select Board Chair Richard Foster, submitted allegations of the violation several weeks ago.

Foster called for the superintendent search process to be restarted at the point was the law was broken on his Facebook account.

“The screening committee needs to re-meet, which is what [the School Committee is proposing to do,” Foster told Reminder Publications after the meeting. “That’s what’s required under the law. Nobody could have an objection to that. There’s nothing to go forward with because they’ve addressed the violation. That’s the point.”

Robinson said Foster has the option to either submit the allegation to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s (AG) office or withdraw the allegation of the violation after receiving a response from the School Committee.

She added the district’s attorney told her if the allegation of the Open Meeting Law violation were filed with the AG it could take three to four weeks until the AG finishes its investigation.

School Committee member Russell Dupere, who made the motion for reproducing the subcommittee meetings, said he believes redoing the subcommittee meetings could make the allegation go away.

School Committee member John Fitzgerald voted in opposition to the motion. He said he believes redoing the meeting is “moot” at this point considering Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District Superintendent M. Martin O’Shea was chosen to be Longmeadow’s new superintendent.

Robinson said the district is still in contract negotiations with O’Shea and his contract could not be signed until the Open Meeting Law violation is resolved.

She added the subcommittee was charged with brining three finalists to the School Committee, which included O’Shea, Wolf Swamp Elementary School Principal Neil Gile, and Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation of Indiana Associate Superintendent for Strategy and Accountability Catherine Minihan, who dropped out of the running prior to finalist interviews due to personal reasons.

Robinson said the district’s legal counsel is still determining whether the subcommittee’s charge with bringing three finalists to the School Committee would be a factor in redoing the meetings.

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