Published January 29, 2020
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Superintendent Jane Tremblay unveiled the recommended fiscal year 2021 school budget to the School Committee on Jan. 21.
Tremblay is requesting a $27,530,266 budget for FY21, representing a 6.4 percent increase over FY20’s $25,875,345 spending plan. She is also requesting a $300,000 capital budget for the next fiscal year.
“We believe this budget will help move our district forward while demonstrating fiscal responsibility,” said Tremblay.
Tremblay said the recommended FY21 school budget is aligned with the School Department’s strategic plan, school improvement plans and goals established by teachers and administrators. She also said the proposed budget seeks to improve student achievement.
“We feel very strongly about creating intellectually curious learners,” said Tremblay. “It is very important to us that we give our students everything they need in order for them to reach their full potential.”
Positions
Tremblay has requested seven full-time positions and four part-time positions in the proposed FY21 budget.
Two of the positions Tremblay is requesting are a full-time kindergarten teacher and a full-time paraprofessional for Summer Street School due to increasing enrollment projected for next year. She said Summer Street School will be running five kindergarten classes next year, which is the same number of kindergarten classes that will be running at Huckleberry Hill.
The school system’s class size guidelines for kindergarten and first grade are between 18-22 students. Tremblay projects that 92 kindergarteners will be enrolled at Summer Street next year and projects that 97 will be enrolled at Huckleberry Hill, but said those numbers could fluctuate before the 2020-2021 school year begins. She said around 70 kindergarten students have been enrolled at each school in previous years.
“Our numbers are off the charts this year,” said Tremblay. “We will be offering five sections at both elementary schools next year. I have been in the district for 33 years and never during my time in the district have we run more than four kindergarten classes at each school.”
Tremblay recalled that she was forced to add a kindergarten teacher and a paraprofessional for Huckleberry Hill School into the FY20 budget due to growing school enrollment.
School Committee Chairman Jamie Hayman said the School Enrollment Capacity and Exploration Committee (SECEC) will be giving a presentation to the school board on Tuesday, Feb. 25 that will outline recommendations for addressing space issues at the elementary schools.
“Based on that, we can make a recommendation to the town,” said Hayman. “It is actively being addressed because we are all wondering where we are going to put these kids.”
School Committee member Tim Doyle, who serves on the space committee, agreed.
“The problem isn’t going away,” said Doyle. “It looks like it could be the new normal. The community has grown.”
Tremblay is also looking for a full-time elementary special education team chairperson. She said the district currently has a special education teacher running special education department meetings for both elementary schools.
“It’s not as smooth as it should be,” said Tremblay. “The caseloads for the special education teacher at the elementary level are getting too high for her to manage.”
Tremblay is also requesting two adjustment counselors for each elementary school in order to support students’ social-emotional needs. She originally requested the two positions as part of the proposed FY20 budget, but the positions were cut from the final spending plan.
“Adjustment counselors specialize in mental health crisis and intervention,” said Tremblay. “They are responsible for working with students who have physical, emotional, behavioral and learning disorders.”
Tremblay recalled that the North Shore Superintendents Roundtable recently met with state lawmakers. She said each superintendent told the lawmakers that they “need more help with social-emotional learning.”
“Every single superintendent in the room told a story about why we need more help,” said Tremblay. “There are families in crisis and kids in crisis. For superintendents to spend three hours on that topic alone tells you that we are not the only district dealing with this and it is super important. This is not a Lynnfield issue. It is a state issue.”
School Committeeman Phil McQueen said he spoke with Huckleberry Hill School Principal Melissa Wyland and Summer Street School Principal Dr. Karen Dwyer about why the two adjustment counselors are needed.
“They both said about 50 percent of their time is dealing with mental health crisis and intervention,” said McQueen. “These positions are not wants. They are necessary.”
Tremblay is also requesting a full-time English language learners (ELL) teacher because the number of students who speak English as a second language has increased from 42 students to 54. The school system currently has two full-time ELL teachers.
“We used to have 19 different languages represented in Lynnfield Public Schools,” said Tremblay. “We now have 25. Even with the two full-time ELL teachers that we have, we are still having a hard time meeting the needs of the students sitting in front of us. We have kids coming in who don’t speak English at all.”
Finance Director Tom Geary added, “The number of ELL students is not going down.”
Tremblay is also requesting a full-time technology support position and three part-time technology support paraprofessionals. She said the full-time position would be tasked with supporting various technology needs across the district. She said the three part-time technology positions would focus on troubleshooting technology issues, which would allow the district’s only digital learning coach to be “freed up to teach more STEM in the classroom.”
Lastly, Tremblay is looking to reinstate a Lynnfield Middle School media center aide into the FY21 budget. The position was cut from the FY19 spending plan.
Special education
Tremblay has budgeted $1,281,659 for special education out of district tuition for FY21.
“We are seeing an increase in out of district placements,” said Tremblay.
Tremblay has budgeted $439,256 for special education tuition.
Hayman said both special education funding requests are necessary.
“This is what it costs to make sure all of our learners are getting what they need,” said Hayman.
Capital budget
After Tremblay gave an overview of the School Department’s proposed operating budget for FY21, she discussed the proposed $300,000 capital budget.
Tremblay is requesting $250,000 for school technology, which would be used to purchase Chromebooks for Lynnfield High School freshmen as well as to replace outdated Chromebooks at the elementary schools and the middle school. She said the capital budget for technology would also be used to upgrade teacher laptops and docking stations at the middle school. She said the funds will also be used to replace Smart Boards and document cameras across the district as needed.
The superintendent has also requested $20,000 to purchase a new phone system for Summer Street School and $30,000 for a new bell system at LHS.
Next steps
Tremblay noted she will be presenting the proposed FY21 school budget to the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee in the next few weeks.
Hayman thanked Tremblay, Geary and school officials for developing the proposed FY21 spending plan.
“This is a thoughtful budget,” said Hayman. “We will have more conversations about it as we talk to other stakeholders. As a preliminary conversation, this is exactly what we need.”
