Framingham Superintendent Finds $8,660 For Kindergarten Aides in His $109 Million Budget

Framingham Superintendent of School Stacy Scott announced he has ”identified $8,660” to increase the kindergarten aide positions at McCarthy Elementary School from 19 to 30 hours.

Staff from the McCarthy Elementary spoke earlier this month at a Framingham School Committee meeting about how unfair it was that the other level 3 schools in the district had kindergarten aides at 30 hours, yet McCarthy’s aides are at 19 hours.

Scott told Framingham School Committee members, during their Monday night meeting, he made the decision “today.”

He said he had planned to increase the aides’ hours for the 2015-16 school year, but has decided to “accelerate that” to this year. He said he will “move to do it quickly.”

Scott estimated it could be completed in about “2 weeks.”

The Framingham teachers union earlier this school year filed a grievance because of the inequality, between the three “level 3” elementary schools, but it was denied. The grievance reached level 4 and was rejected by the School Committee, too.

McCarthy Vice Principal Jean Nolan said to bring the aides to full day status for the rest of the 2014-15 school year would cost the district about $8,000, earlier this month.

At the School Committee meeting on April 8, Scott said the district does “support the need to increase the hours” for aides at McCarthy.

Scott told McCarthy staffers, and its assistant principal, sitting in the audience he would make “every effort to support” the school in the 2015-16 school budget.

Scott apologized for the district being “slow” to meet the needs of McCarthy Elementary.