Early in February, the Finance Committee agreed to recommend most of the school district’s proposed $13 million budget for fiscal 2018 for approval at Annual Town Meeting. Superintendent Linda Dwight told the School Committee Monday evening that she believes the budget will probably be sufficient to cover the cost-of-living increase expected in the teachers’ contract currently under negotiation.
Despite some lingering questions about whether new math and science materials counted as part of a “level service” budget, FinCom agreed to expenditures for those programs, as well as some small capital costs at Bromfield that the fire chief said were necessary. The committee struck off several other small capital items for Bromfield, including bookcases, stand-up desks, teacher desks, and music filing cabinets. The rejected items totaled about $35,000, according to Dwight.
FinCom also rejected $28,000 for an additional tech person. Dwight said the additional person was needed because the district’s technology plan called for leasing 400 new devices this year—MacBook laptops for grades 9 through 12 at Bromfield and for faculty at all grades. The new devices, coupled with the iPads at the lower grade levels, would be more than the existing tech staff could handle in terms of repairs, troubleshooting, and upkeep, she said.
Dwight and the School Committee agreed this week to look for ways to fund the additional tech person from one of the schools’ revolving accounts, so that the MacBook lease program could go ahead. The cost of the new leases themselves would be covered from the Devens fund, money that MassDevelopment pays the district for educating students who live in Devens, so those funds were not part of the school district’s budget request from the town.
