School Staffing Levels Remain Concern for Budget Committee

By Paul Conyers

The Budget Committee’s first meeting of December opened with an update from Superintendent, Daniel Moulis. There had been a few changes to the School District’s executive summary for the upcoming budget.
“Through this budget process we looked at class sizes, we looked at curriculum maintenance operations, we looked at personnel at the elementary level, at the middle school and high school level, we also looked at academic supports for our students at the high school level, and we also looked at capital improvement school infrastructure projects,” said Moulis. “Priorities for the community are to present a school district budget that represents all students in the district.”
Some improvement projects included new furniture, ongoing upgrades to science classrooms, and a roof replacement. New updates to the budget include the expiration of several grants and updated staff contracts. With 18 new positions in the budget, Alt-Clerk, Shawn Murray, had several questions for the Superintendent. One focused on a credit recovery program, which aimed at keeping struggling high school students on a path to graduation.
“Why would you need more positions for this? Don’t you have school counselors to help students along the way with their credits and everything?” asked Murray.
Moulis answered that the recovery tutors gave one-on-one and small-group support to students for specific classes like math and English. It was also confirmed that proposed staffing increases in the preschool program were designed to reflect an increase in preschool enrollment and the addition of several paraprofessionals. There are around 40 paraprofessional vacancies that the district has struggled to fill, something they hoped to do with a new contract under negotiation.
When asked which three positions he needed in the budget the most, Moulis focused on credit recovery academic support, the counselor position at Dr. H.O. Smith Elementary, and either the preschool teacher or an SOL tutor, although he found it difficult to single out any position as “most essential.”
Budget Committee member, Shawn Jasper, wanted an accurate assessment of staffing needs with a decline in K-12 student numbers over the past few years.
“I’d like to see what we had for personnel at our all-time high: what we had then, what we have now. What is going to be the total at the end of this budget?” asked Jasper. “This budget is driven by the number of employees we have, and we’re seeing a decline.”
The Budget Committee approved a motion to calculate and compare staffing levels in the 2017/18 budget to the proposed 2024/25 budget.
“Nearly 400 fewer students in the last few years should allow us to see some consolidation, instead we’re seeing growth,” said Jasper.
Committee member, Kathy Leary, pointed out that comparing student numbers to school staff may not necessarily paint an accurate picture, saying “There’s a lot of different needs that didn’t exist in 2017.” The need for specialized school counselors to make up for pandemic learning loss was given as an example.

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