Lincoln Public Schools FY2005 Budget

March 2004

To the Residents of Lincoln:

The Lincoln School Committee is pleased to report that the Lincoln School’s proposed budget for FY05 provides a high quality education for our students pre-K through grade 8. This is true despite increasingly limited resources from the state of Massachusetts and only a 1.6% increase in our appropriated budget. We commend our Superintendent, Mickey Brandmeyer, and his administrative team for once again producing a fiscally responsible, carefully crafted budget, one with a small number of improvements and innovations, but certainly no frills. The budget delivers substantially the same program as the current year’s budget. We must acknowledge, however, that given cost increases in the years ahead, such small increases in our total budget for too many years more will most likely begin to erode the strong program that is now in place.

At Town Meeting we will ask for your support of our base budget as presented below and for our override request of $93,000.

Given contractual raises in our teachers’ salaries (3% for FY04/05), other salary increases (administrative and custodial, for example), the high price of such fixed costs as utilities, and the rising costs of special education which is legally mandated, it is remarkable to have an FY05 budget proposal that is only a 2.7% increase over FY04 (with the override request of $93,000). How have we done it?

1. The Superintendent ensured that the budget-building process was as cost-effective as possible. Teachers and staff were asked to consider all expenses carefully, while maintaining the integrity of educational programs. All cost centers submitted lean budgets.
2. We were able to capitalize on retirements. While the School is always sad to lose seasoned, valuable members of the teaching staff, such retirements enable us to hire new teachers at a lower salary.
3. This year the School will receive approximately $105,000 in “Special Education Circuit Breaker” funding. This entire amount will be applied to the FY05 budget and will offset our special education costs. Circuit Breaker funding is expected next year too and will be applied to FY06.

Our proposed budget continues to provide a high quality education for Lincoln’s students. The budget has been tightened in many ways and places, including administrative spending, and money spent on direct services to children has been protected. While we do not have actual enrollment numbers for FY05 at this point, the School Committee and the Administration are planning on adhering to our class size policy. The numbers will vary from grade to grade because of such factors as the number of special education students and the middle school model, but we continue to be mindful of what the K – 8 Task Force found a year and a half ago: our class size policy puts us in line with our peer districts and with what “best practice” research suggests, particularly in the lower grades. The Administration will continue to utilize classroom assistants to supplement teaching and supervision as appropriate, further enabling the class size policy to be implemented in a sensible and flexible way.

What makes the School as great as it is are our teachers. We intend to remain competitive with comparable districts in the years ahead, not at the top of the scale, but hopefully in the top decile. If not, we fear Lincoln’s ability to attract the best teachers will begin to erode. Next year marks the third and final year of the School Committee’s contract with the Lincoln Teachers Association. Negotiations for a successor agreement will begin sometime next fall, and we intend to focus on faculty salaries and professional development to ensure that we continue to employ the best teachers we can find. This year’s budget contains $53,000 in the base and $10,000 in the override for professional development, an area we feel is critical to attract and retain top professionals. This spending on professional development is an increase over the current year’s professional development funding and represents our resolve to support a highly skilled teaching team.

Comparative Teacher Salaries: Lincoln and surrounding communities

We have also budgeted to keep METCO at its current enrollment of 91 students. As you may know, there will be a discussion about Lincoln’s participation in the METCO program on the floor of Town Meeting this year. We intend to listen carefully to the opinions expressed at Town Meeting and to take the ballot vote into consideration as we plan for the future. We remain committed to educating METCO students currently at the School, and it is our hope that the Town will support our participation in the METCO program.

Special Education expenses continue to rise. That said, the Administration has contained costs as much as possible while maintaining the ability to deliver the services that students require. Worth noting is the fact that the School now has in place a high quality summer school program for students for whom we are legally required to provide services during the summer. Just as we believe in the inclusion model during the regular school year (including special education students in regular classrooms whenever feasible), we found many benefits to establishing a summer school program on campus, rather than outsourcing the work.

Lincoln Special Education Budget Comparison: FY’03, FY’04 and FY’05 (selected programs)

OUR OVERRIDE REQUEST

While we are prepared to make do without our requested amount of $93,000, we feel strongly that the items listed are very important for next year’s program.

		Professional Development		$10,000

		Arts Enrichment				$20,000

		Instrumental Music Program		$20,000

		Additional Bus				$43,000

Additional money for professional development helps us in launching new curriculum work that will move us forward in exciting ways. This money will allow our teachers to continue to master new skills and adapt to changes in curriculum and state educational frameworks. Furthermore, we are committed to a well-rounded program that includes music and art; these subjects resonate with a wide variety of students and provide them with opportunities to develop skills untapped in core subjects. We intend to bring some of the cost of the instrumental music program, which started this year funded entirely through donations, into the school budget. Finally, we feel that an additional bus will help address shortcomings in our transportation service. With our current six buses and next year’s anticipated enrollment, we face problems in accommodating all students who request a non-mandated ride for a fee and in committing a bus seat to them in time to allow families to plan adequately. Adding a seventh bus, as part of our override request, allows us to accommodate requests for transportation, plan appropriate routes, and to notify families of a committed bus seat before the end of the current school year.

The School Committee remains indebted to our Superintendent, his administrative team, and our faculty for their hard work, their devotion to our school, and their ability to craft the FY05 proposal given the tough financial realities of our times. We are also grateful to the residents of Lincoln for their continued support of our school and their willingness to partner with us and provide a first-rate education for all of our students.

Respectfully submitted,