School Funding a Hot Topic at Easton Town Meeting

A discussion regarding school funding eventually led to a motion at Monday's Annual Town Meeting to increase the school technology line item in this year's capital budget.

While the motion was shot down, Easton's schools were a hot topic throughout the evening.

"I don’t see education as a priority in this town anymore," said Luis Marquez, the parent of an Oliver Ames student. "I’ve been here 17 years and I really worry about our education system."

Marquez's comments came after a budget presentation made by Superintendent Michael Green, who outlined the school's $34.8 million budget (slightly more than half of the town's overall operating budget) and the district's position in relation to the rest of the state.

While Easton spends $11,132.85 per pupil, the state average sits at $13,656.24.

Easton spends less per student despite being far above the state average in Special Education costs.

According to Green, Easton spends $47,979 per pupil on Special Education while the state average is $21,399. Easton's expenses are due to the large number of special education students who need out-of-district services. He said school officials will likely ask for an increase in funding this fall to cover the soaring costs.

"We don’t anticipate that this issue is going away," he said. "We will be monitoring these expenses."

Green went through every other major expense category. With the exception of special education, Easton spent less than the state average.

"Easton spends lower than state averages in all expenses," he said.

He highlighted areas that could be addressed were funding equal to state per pupil averages, including languages at the primary schools, robust media programs at the middle and high schools, delayed start times at the high school and better professional development programs.

"There are many, many things," he said. "There are many priorities that the school department would like to move forward with."

Green said that while Easton students still perform well because of solid teachers, solid parents and community support, he questioned whether or not that was sustainable in the future.

The discussion regarding school funding carried over to Town Meeting's vote on the capital budget, which asked for $173,000 in school technology funding and  $2.8 million overall.

Former school committee chair Jane Martin motioned for an extra $100,000 in free cash to be dedicated to school technology. Her motion came after a presentation from Assistant Superintendent Cathy MacLeod.

"What I wanted to mention tonight is that technology is no longer a 'nice to have' item in our schools," MacLeod said. "Technology is now at the core of how our students learn."

Martin's motion was eventually shot down by Town Meeting voters at the urging of Town Administrator David Colton, who said the capital budget presented represented all of the money requested from the school department during the budget process.

"I’d just like to draw your attention back to the budget presentation where we talked about reserves and we talked about how our reserves are about half of where they were before the recession," Colton said. "I think we need to be very careful about spending our reserves before we can draw them back up...In my opinion, it would be a step in the wrong direction in terms of the financial demand of the town."

Both the capital budget of $2.7 million and the operating budget of $69.2 million were approved as presented by Town Meeting voters overwhelmingly.