LYNNFIELD — School Superintendent Jane Tremblay hopes her final year on the job includes passage of a spending plan that meets all students’ needs.
Tremblay, who is retiring at the end of the school year, presented the School Committee this week with a $27,530,266 budget for the spending year that starts on July 1.
“Our Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 priorities are crystal clear and always have been, and that is to address the needs of all students,” said Tremblay, who was assisted by Finance Director Tom Geary. “We need to proactively address social and emotional needs and for that we need continued growth for educators and support staff to continue building leadership capacity. Everything you hear tonight will tie back to those building blocks.”
The budget represents an increase of 6.4 percent over the FY 20 budget and includes several new teaching positions, including a kindergarten teacher and paraprofessional at the Summer Street School; an elementary special education chairperson; two elementary school adjustment counselors; a media center assistant at Lynnfield Middle School; one district-wide English Language Learners (ELL) teacher; one full-time technology support position, and three part-time technology/media assistants.
The budget also includes a $250,000 technology capital request to replace outdated Chromebooks at the middle and elementary schools, upgrade teacher laptops and docking stations at the middle school and replace Smart Boards and document cameras district-wide. Tremblay also asked for $20,000 to replace the phone system at Summer Street and $30,000 to replace the bell system at the high school.
Tremblay said the addition of another kindergarten teacher at Summer Street is necessary to adhere to class size guidelines, which call for no more than 18-22 students in kindergarten and first grade. Currently Summer Street has 69 kindergarteners spread over four sections. Tremblay said that they expect 92 kindergarten students in 2020-2021.
“This is positively imperative and is almost non-negotiable,” said Tremblay. “With 92 incoming kindergarteners, even if we go down by four or five, we still need a fifth classroom. Never in my 33 years have there been more than four sections at each school.”
The district is currently wrapping up work on a feasibility study to address concerns over a spike in student population that has put a premium on class space and size.
“Hopefully we will have more information when the architect can tell us what our options are as we are all wondering where we are going to put these kids,” said committee member Tim Doyle. “This may not be just a blip, it might be the new norm.”
Tremblay said an elementary school special education chairperson is necessary to redress unmanageable caseloads and to provide oversight and programming across both elementary schools. New state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education coordination and documentation requirements are also a factor.
Tremblay has requested two elementary school adjustment counselors to address a spike in the number of younger students with social and emotional learning issues.
“This is a phenomenon, a real crisis, that has come out of nowhere,” said committee member Jamie Hayman. “We need to put some data behind this to find out how many kids are actually in crisis.”
Committee member Phil McQueen noted that both elementary school principals spend a great part of their day dealing with psychological and emotional issues because the schools are not equipped with adjustment counselors.
Tremblay said that trained adjustment counselors will help support students struggling with depression, anxiety, attention deficit, bipolar disorder, oppositional disorder and autism spectrum disorders, and would also be a huge benefit for teachers and administrators who are not specialists in mental health crisis intervention.
An explosion in the number of English Language Learners is the basis for adding a district-wide ELL teacher. In one year, the district has gone from 42 to 54 students and in two years the number of languages in the district has increased from 19 to 25.
Tremblay said those numbers are likely to continue to increase.
“Some kids are coming in with no English at all,” said Tremblay. “We are struggling to meet these needs.”
Tremblay also requested one full-time technology support position and three part-time assistants.
“If we could get this in the media centers at the elementary and middle schools, our one full-time digital learning coach (Sarah Perkins) could actually do her job in digital learning and be freed up to help the teachers more and not trouble shooting everyday computer needs, like ‘how do I get my computer on?’ Adding these positions frees her up to do what she was hired to do.”
Anne Marie Tobin can be reached at [email protected].
