The School Committee’s preparations for the fiscal year 2025 budget cycle officially got underway last week, when members heard presentations from the principals of three of the district’s elementary schools — the Carroll, Welch, and West schools — who each attempted to sell committee members on the needs of their building.
Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala noted that each school would be dealing with the impacts of the decision to take the Center School offline for the 2024-25 school year to allow for much-needed maintenance and repairs to the aging building. At the Carroll, Principal Tracy Ann Smith said during her presentation, that means meeting the needs of approximately 74 additional students next year.
Smith, who was the first to present to the committee, explained that nearly 72% of the school’s student population qualifies as “high needs,” a significantly higher percentage than at the state and district levels. Most of the new students were set to be in kindergarten at the Carroll, Smith said.
All three principals touted the impact of ST Math at their school, a visual instruction program that Smith said “helps to engage and motivate in a higher level of learning.” Smith also pointed specifically to the Good to Great professional learning program for teachers, which she said has been “fabulous.”
Areas of focus at the Carroll included continued support for the school’s growing multilingual student population (roughly 150 of the 665 students), continued reading support, and the implementation of a digital literacy/computer science curriculum, Smith said. To achieve those goals, she asked the committee for funds to support an additional multilingual teacher, another reading specialist, and a dedicated digital-literacy teacher.
Smith also lobbied the committee to allocate funds to purchase new furniture for the school’s library, which does not enable flexible learning. Committee members appeared particularly sensitive to that request, asking Smith to work with the central office to acquire quotes for the cost of replacing the furniture.
Welch School Principal Michelle Massa’s presentation echoed Smith’s, with nearly the same population of Welch students designated as high needs, and close to half speaking a first language other than English.
“That is a big culture in our school,” she said.
At the Welch, which will host its first fifth-grade class in several years following an extensive renovation, students’ schedules are structured so they have personalized support, a critical need moving forward, Massa said. Massa cited increased rigor, particularly in the writing curriculum, as a key area of focus at the Welch. The hope for staff was that the additional focus and rigor would lead to increased MCAS scores, she said.
Massa asked the committee for funding to support a third special-education teacher at the school to mirror the increase in student population as the school comes back to full capacity, a full-time school adjustment counselor, and additional bilingual staff.
“We would like to see some increases in our budget for our media and tech support,” she said, noting that the school was now home to a “state-of-the-art” media center.
Massa also floated the idea of creating a before-the-bell program at the school to alleviate chronic absenteeism, and sought funds for additional translation support, including speech-to-text, and handheld devices.
The West School has a much different student population than the Carroll and the Welch, Principal Julie Ann Broughton said, noting that the school was below both district and state averages in high-needs, English-language-learner, low-income, and disabled students. The West is set to welcome roughly 15 new students in the fall, Broughton said.
The areas of focus cited by Broughton included the continuation of personalized learning experiences for all students, a focus on written language development across content areas, and continued opportunities for staff to engage in professional development to support curriculum initiatives. Broughton sought budget support for the Choices Program, which has had fluctuating enrollment numbers that she expected to continue to rise.
Committee member Joe Amico thanked the principals for joining the meeting.
“When we hear from our teachers, our principals, that helps shape what we do come budget time,” he said.
Committee member Jarrod Hochman said the committee was likely to be able to meet many of the staffing requests, at least in the short term, as it seeks to relocate staff from the Center School.
“At least for this year, I don’t anticipate that being an issue,” he said.
Committee member Brandi Carpenter said the principals’ presentations are among the most important factors she takes into account when reviewing the budget each spring.
“This, for me, is really one of the most valuable pieces I use in the budget,” she said.
