[Apswel] Budget letter from Dr. Bach

[West Elementary School Mailing List]

April 8, 2008

Dear Parents,

In my last letter to you, I promised to keep you updated on developments
in the school budget process.  As much as I would like to report
otherwise, we still face a daunting budget shortfall of about $2
million.  

Meanwhile, questions have been raised by town leaders and other Andover
residents about school hiring in recent years-questions that imply
overspending on the part of the schools.  I'd like to address some of
those here as clearly as I can.

Why have the schools added 103 positions since Fiscal Year 2004?  
Of the 103 staff positions added to the school department since 2004:

	*	Two-thirds represent positions mandated by state and
federal laws for special education (SPED), the No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB), and the Massachusetts Student Learning Time Regulations.  
	*	One-third represents staff added for other reasons:
primarily to restore positions cut in 2004 or to keep class sizes in
alignment with the School Committee class size policy.  

Some have asked why "town side" departments have NOT added staff
positions since 2004.  This is due in large part to the fact that town
departments are not subject to the federal and state regulations that
account for two-thirds of the new school positions.  

Were many positions actually cut by the schools in Fiscal Year 2004?
Here are the facts: 

	*	In 2004, the equivalent of 46 full time staff positions
(referred to as FTEs) were eliminated from the schools.  
	*	During budget negotiations that year, every position we
said would be cut was, in fact, cut.  These cuts resulted in a 10% loss
to regular education work force hours.  
	*	Of the 46 positions that were eliminated, 31.5 have
never been restored.
	*	Because of these cuts, if you compare overall district
staffing numbers in 2003-the year prior to the school department cuts-to
the staffing numbers we have proposed in the Fiscal Year 2009 budget,
you will find that in six years, we have a net gain of only 2.5
positions for regular education.


Page Two
April 8, 2008


How have the schools managed since Fiscal Year 2004?
Some say that every recent budget season has brought on another round of
"crying wolf."   The school department bemoans the losses it has
sustained and predicts dire consequences should it not receive a certain
budget allocation.  Meanwhile, our students continue to perform quite
well.  Where is the problem?

What is critical to understand is that when we cut positions in 2004,
the last thing we wanted to touch was the quality of a student's core
academic experience.  With this in mind, administrative positions were
targeted for elimination along with library, physical education, music,
technology, and guidance staff.  Andover students have performed well in
the interim due not only to an outstanding teaching staff but also to
the school department's extreme efforts to protect the integrity of the
classroom experience.

Other ways we have managed within an increasingly restrictive budget:

	*	Principals have shouldered enormous additional burdens
each year since 2004 in order to keep budget constraints from affecting
classrooms.  This includes everything from taking on hundreds of hours
worth of extra staff evaluations to pitching in with custodial and
landscaping duties.  Meanwhile, over the last five years, only 3% of
school staff additions have been made at the administrative level.
	*	Parents contribute hundreds of thousands of dollars each
year in the form of user fees and fundraising donations-monies that pay
for transportation, supplies, and equipment.
	*	Thanks almost entirely to private funding, we've been
able to bring in some new programming that keeps innovation alive in our
curriculum and helps boost student achievement.
	*	While we have added numerous special education staff to
our system, as required by law, we haven't simply hired new people.
We've created new in-district special education programming that has
saved the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Given the rapid escalation in costs of utilities, healthcare and special
education nationwide, I am very proud of how well our schools have been
able to protect the core needs of our students thus far.  We have
reached the point, however, where it will be impossible to remove over
$2 million from our budget without making cuts that fundamentally affect
the quality of daily school life.  For reasons stated in my listserv
letter of March 13th, those cuts will come in the form of increased
elementary classroom sizes and the elimination of high school sports.
Our schools need every last vote of support at Town Meeting on Wednesday
April 30.th I urge you to attend and to ask the same of your friends and
neighbors.

Sincerely,
 <<Picture (Metafile)>> 
Claudia Bach

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