Framingham Superintendent Wants $10 Million Increase To $125 Million Budget

Only a handful of residents attended or spoke at the Framingham School Committee's public hearing on the proposed 2016-17 school year budget Tuesday night.

Superintendent of Schools Stacy Scott is proposing a $125 million budget, a $10 million increase from his current $115 million budget.

The Town of Framingham is proposing a $120.4 or a $120.7 million budget for the Framingham Public Schools.

Town Meeting will have the final say on the budget in the spring.

Scott said rising special education costs, and increases in student enrollment are two of the reasons the additional $10 million is needed.

In December 2015, Scott had proposed a $128 million budget, but has since lowered that amount to $125 million.

Since that presentation Scott has put a "freeze" on the current school budget.

But despite the freeze, some positions have been hired, including an assistant health director for the district and teachers for the district's Mandarin language program. The positions were on a previous "want-to-hire" list for the 2016-17 school year by the superintendent.

Framingham Patch asked Scott for a list of all positions hired since December 2015. The district is working on answering the request.

In his presentation Tuesday night, Scott told the School Committee that salaries were increasing by 4.5 percent from $84.78 million to $88.61 million. Scott explained the increase was due to cost of living increases, as well as union negotiated steps and level increases.

Scott is proposing adding an additional 18.3 positions to the public school district at a cost of about $1 million.

A majority of the positions are for King Elementary School. King will go from a kindergarten and first grade school to a K-2 school in the fall. The plan is to add a grade each year until it is a full K-5 school, like the district's eight other elementary schools.

King was opened as the district's ninth elementary school to deal with an increase in enrollment.

Framingham Public Schools now has more than 8,800 students from Pre-K to high school. In the 2014-15 school year, the district was just under 8,500 students.

Scott also said increases in special education costs, including out of district tuition costs are forcing him to increase his budget.

Between PreK and age 22, the district now has 236 students receiving education outside the district as of Feb. 26, said Scott.

Students with special education needs between the ages of 18-22 are required by law to continue to receive educational services. There are 34 students who fall under that category.

Scott said the "location of two highly-specialized special education private schools in or in close proximity to Framingham created a high number of families moving to Framingham."

He said the district now has 17 students attending the Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham and 10 students attending the New England Center for Children in Southborough.

Scott said the district is anticipating a $1 million increase in out of district special education costs for the next school year.

Scott said the Framingham High has seen a population increase of about 8 percent this year. He said that is why he wants to open a newcomers academy. He said the new transitional program will help to reduce out of district costs.

In Scott's level 1 requests, is three positions for the high school newcomer's academy - each at $56,000.

Finally, Scott told the School Committee expenses in the district are up and he is proposing a 15.66 percent increase in that line item from $27.3 million to $31.6 million.

Scott said ideally he would like to add 32.6 positions, called level 2 priority, to the district at an estimated $1.693 million, but that request is not included in the $125 million proposed budget.

He also has an additional 16.78 positions, called level 3 priority, at an estimated $1 million, also not included in the $125 million proposed budget.

Framingham has a handful of level 3 school, which the state consider underperforming. Some of the district's underperforming schools have no level 1 priority positions in Scott's proposed $125 million budget. Those schools include Fuller Middle and McCarthy Elementary.

Fuller parent Jennifer Moshe questioned that rationale at the public hearing. She was one of only two parents and five residents total who spoke,

"Where is Fuller on this list?" asked Moshe.

Under the level 2 priority list, there is a special education assistant for Fuller at $30,000, a STEAM coach at $56,000, a half-time reading interventionist at $25,000 and a ELD teacher at $56,000.

The following positions are listed as level 1, and the district's top priority to be filled by Scott. They are included in his proposed $125 million budget.

• Brophy grade 5 teacher - $56,000
• Framingham High Newcomer's Academy academic teacher - $56,000
• Framingham High Newcomer's Academy program director - $56,000
• Framingham High Newcomer's Academy social worker - $56,000
• 3 second grade teachers at King Elementary - each at $56,000
• 1/5 physical education teacher at King - $10,000
• 1/5 art teacher at King - $10,000
• 1/5 music teacher at King - $10,000
• 1/2 social worker at King - $25,000
• 1/2 gifted & talented (SAGE) teacher at King - $25,000
• Walsh Middle grade 8 ELA teacher - $56,000
• Walsh Middle grade 8 math teacher - $56,000
• Walsh Middle grade 8 science teacher - $56,000
• Portuguese language teacher at Wilson IB Elementary - $56,000
• Cameron Middle English Second Language teacher - $56,000
• Cameron Middle special education teacher - $56,000
• Cameron Middle special education teacher's assistant - $56,000
• Cameron Middle special education aide - $40,000
• 1.2 gifted & talented (SAGE) teacher at Wilson IB - $25,000
• Dunning Elementary special education teacher - $56,000