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Home My WebLink About2010-11-15 School Council - Alice M Barrows Elementary Minutes01/25/2011 12:41 17819429119 BARROWS PAGE 03/07 A. M 13ARROWS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 16 edgemont Ave. s Reading, MA 01867 �'•„„�a , (781) 942-9166 Pax (781) 942-9119 John F. Doherty, Ed.D. Karen J. Callan Superintendent?5 Principal idohertv(alrearirtaX12.mams ” t1` 53 kcallan@reading.k12.ms.us School Council Meeting Monday, November 15, 2010 FINAL Minutes Call to order: 3:30PM Present: Karen Callan; Chairperson, Karesa Encarnacao, Sara Fenelly, Lauren Nigro, Kristen DiGiovanni, Meaghan Hart, Dr. John Doherty Absent: Michael Coelho II. New Business: Dr. Doherty's transition plan Dr. Doherty asked the council questions regarding his transition plan. Mrs. Callan took notes III. Minutes: Minutes from the October 18 were reviewed and accepted IV. Old Business: none V. Topics of Discussion: a. School Improvement plan- Mrs, Callan had emailed the council a draft copy of the School Improvement Plan. It will be discussed further at the January meeting. L b. Bulling Program —the staff discussed the whole school program, Ooch, which was well received by the students. Also, the parent town -wide portion was well-received. c. Maternity Leaves- Mrs. Callan indicated that she had begun interviewing for the upcoming leaves. Final interviews will take place with team members in the next few weeks. d. Budget FY12 — Mrs. Callan reminded the council of the upcoming public budget presentations. Mrs. Fennelly is a budget parent and will report at the January meeting on any developments VI. New Business - none VII. Concerns, questions issues — none VIII. Next meeting: Monday, January 24, 2011 Barrows Conference Room IX. The meeting concluded at 4:25 Respectively submitted Karen Callan Enclosures: minutes 10/18/10 The Reading Publle Schoors Coes not dlnrlminam on the baste ofma, corm. ns, 11gis ,national m gin, somal otlenlatlon, age nrClmhllli,. 01/25/2011 12:41 17619429119 BARROWS PAGE 04/07 Dear Barrows Families: As you know, the Superintendent's Recommended 2011-2012 School Budget is being presented to the School Committee (SC) this month, to be voted on at the end of the month, The full proposed budget is available on edline - on the Reading Public Schools (RPS) page. For your convenience, the highlights of what has been discussed at SC are outlined for you here. If you have been following the discussions or reading local papers, you may have heard that the superintendents office has actually provided 3 budgets for the SC. 'level service,' level funded' and a 0.5% reduced budget that the town Finance Committee has suggested all departments consider. If RPS wishes to provide the same level of high quality service next year as is being provided this year, we would need to increase the budget by approx. $1,000,000. In these economic times, it is very unlikely that we will be able to fund alevel service budget. A level funded budget means little or no funding increase for next year In the past two years, the RPS essentially had level funded budgets, resulting in a variety of cuts and decreases, increases in certain fees and elimination of the equivalent of 28 full-time positions. The federal stimulus money helped reduce the impact, but the funding is ending. A level funded budget for FY2012 would mean an additional $1,000,000 in cuts. The proposed cuts are as follows: Changesto achieve level funding budget: *Larease Offsets $125,000 *RaduceSchool Supply and Materials Budget $100,000 "Eliminate 1.5 FTE support Staff Positions $50.000 *Reduce Adminismator Salaries $20,000 To meet the Finance Committees recommended -0.5% budget, the RPS would need to cut an additional $385,000 from the level funded budget. The following cuts have been proposed: *Eliminate Instructional Specialist position $50,000 *Reduce Athletic programs or increase athletic fees $40,000 -Eliminate 6.3 FTE Support Staff Positions* $120,000 *Eliminate 3.7 FTE Teaching poeitiorte* $175,000 Total $385,000 "obtained most likely by reducing hours rather than cutting positions ** to be determined, most likely to occur at the gr 3-5 level and HS course sections 01/25/2011 12:41 17819429119 BARROWS PAGE 05/07 These reductions would have a significant impact on students with an increase in class size where noted above, reduced instructional support, and possible elimination of athletic programs. The remaining meetings are as follows: January 20, January 24 (Public Hearing), January 26 (Financial Forum -Senior Center), January 31(Final Vote). All 5C meetings will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the conference room at Central Office. The Financial Forum is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at the Senior Center. The SC meetings are broadcast live on RCTVS educational channel, Comcast 10, Verizon 32. If you would like to have your concerns heard, please try and plan on attending one of these meetings as they are open to the public. If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to email Sarah Fennelly at thefrnnellys4LDverizon net. The other budget parent for Barrows is Barbara Heinemonm Thank you for your continued active interest in this process. Parents play an impartant role in determining what is best for the children of Rending and their education. Barrows Budget Parents 11 01/25/2811 12:41 17819429119 BARROWS PAGE 06/07 Page 1 of 3 @You forwarded this message on 1/11/201110:42 AM. Callan, Karen From: Heinemann, Barbara From: Tue 1/11/2011 10:33 AM [b.heinemann@eastembank.com] To: Callan, Karen Cc: Subject: PTO Contact Information Attachments: Hello Mrs. Callan, Happy New year! As you know I am a budget parent for Barrows participating in the 2012 budgeting process. There are some key dates and information available at this time that I would like to get out to the Barrows community and thought working through the PTO Board would be the best approach. I am unable to attend the PTO meeting on 1/24 as there is a School Committee Public Hearing meeting that evening. I am unable to find the Board members contact (email) information on edline. Would you kindly send me the contact information for the PTO President, or please forward this email to him directly? One of the key dates of which parents should be aware, is this Thursday January 13th. There is a School Committee meeting at 7:30 at RMHS at which the Regular Day budget will be presented to School Committee members and to the public. As is expected, this is another very challenging budget year. The budget scenarios being reviewed include three scenarios: A Level Service budget; a Level Funded budget; and a Reduced budget with a 0.5% reduction from the current 2011 FY budget, which is a reduction of $1,360.00 from the Level Service budget. This last scenario would result in 11.0 FTE positions being eliminated. They would be 6:3 FTE regular education paraeducators and 3.7 FTE teachers allan/Tnhox/PTO%20... 1/24/2011 01/25/2011 12:41 17819429119 BARROWS PAGE 07/07 Page 3 (. There is opportunity to submit questions via email to Administration or the School Committee directly, and as always there is scheduled time at each School Committee meeting for questions from the public. For scheduling purposes, we will be having budget parent meetings at 6:30 p.m. priorto each of the January School Committee meetings. The dates of the School Committee meetings are as follows: January 10 January13 January 20 January 24 (Public Hearing) January 26 (Financial Forum -Senior Center) January 31 (Final Vote) All School Committee meetings will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the SchoolCommittee Conference Aoom. The Financial Forum is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. at the Senior Center. Barbara Heinemann Chief Information Officer . 781-596-4435 Eastern Bank 195 Market Street Lynn, MA 01901 htttne•//"r`h.madineschools.neVexchange/kcallanftbox/PTO%20... 1/24/2011