By Elizabeth Hacala
The Bedford School Committee met on March 4 to review the budget and examine solutions for the approximately $198K budget gap between their approved budget and the Finance Committee’s guideline for town meeting. The schools had originally requested a 6.7% increase while the FinCom’s guideline was for a 2.8% increase. Some adjustments had already been made prior to the March 4 meeting but a gap of $198K still persisted.
The School Committee had requested additional staffing to respond to an increase in population at both Davis School and the high school. Superintendent Jon Sills stressed that these staffing increases were necessary to keep class sizes in check. He said the school system currently has 35 classes over guidelines, including 21 classes with more than 25 students. If the staffing additions were scaled back to meet the Finance Committee guideline Superintendent Sills projected next year we would have approximately 41 classes over guidelines. He also said that five years ago Bedford had three to four classes over guidelines and that it was a new phenomenon to have so many large classes.
Over the past decade Bedford has worked to bring more special needs services into town, resulting in expanded staffing. School Committee Chair Ed Pierce pointed out that the process of bringing special needs students into the local schools where possible has saved the district approximately $3.6 million per year, versus sending the students to private out-of-district schools. Currently, 88 students are sent to such programs because their needs cannot me met in district and 372 are served within the schools. School Committee member Ann Guay added that in addition to it being financially beneficial, bringing students into district provides a better educational experience for the student and allows them to attend school alongside their peers.
One potential budget reduction the superintendent brought to the committee was from the Concord Area Special Education (CASE) Collaborative budget line. The state is requiring the collaborative to change the way it bills districts; as a result they will be distributing a onetime surplus which would allow the school committee to reduce their request by a further $50,000. Superintendent Sills cautioned the committee that future costs will increase significantly.
The school committee approved the reduction reducing the gap to $148K between the School Committee’s proposed budget and the Finance Committee recommendation.
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