Ash-West committee bumps budget to add positions
By Sean Sweeney Journal Correspondent

The Ashburnham-Westminster Regional School Committee increased the district's FY08 budget by $73,815 on Tuesday night, after three principals implored the panel to add certain positions to their buildings.

Coming into the meeting, the budget was sitting at $2,332 shy of $28.2 million. With the new positions - a half-day kindergarten aide at J.R. Briggs Elementary School, a .4 school adjustment counselor for Overlook Middle School, and a .5 school adjustment counselor for Oakmont Regional High School - the FY08 budget now checks in at $28,271,483.

The panel unanimously approved the district's spending plan, 9-0.

The Overlook and Oakmont positions are current existing positions that will be made full time. The position at Briggs is a newly reinstated position and would join the two current kindergarten aides that rotate between three classrooms.

"The principals have put a lot of time and energy into formulating what they feel are important positions for their buildings in order to run and manage their buildings well, to provide the best services they can to their students. So I was happy to see the School Committee at least consider and in fact add back in a few of the positions that were commented on this evening," Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Zapantis said.

The kindergarten aide was one of two requests that Briggs principal Candace Wright made to the committee.

With next year's fourth grade expected to have class sizes of approximately 27-29 pupils at Briggs, Wright requested the committee insert a new fourth grade teacher into Zapantis's budget proposal. Third grade classrooms at the Ashburnham school are currently sitting at 25-26 students each.

The kindergarten aide is budgeted for $10,500.

"I am happy with my addition. I think it's the correct thing to do for our students," Wright said.

When asked her reaction about not getting a new fourth grade instructor, she said, "It's give and take, and we can only take small steps."

Overlook Principal Brenda Houle was brief in her request. She asked the committee to make the school adjustment counselor (SAC) position a full time, which would be an increase of $10,000.

Currently, the SAC works primarily with special education students. With the new duties, the SAC would also work with other students, helping them transition into their new environment.

"That's absolutely huge for the regular education students," Houle said.

Oakmont Principal Jeff Lawrence and Assistant Principal David Uminski also asked to make their SAC, currently a .5 position, into a full-time job. Lawrence said that after the recent 10-year review by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the organization recommended the school get help for the guidance department.

"Our guidance department is overwhelmed," he told the committee. "There are 250 students for each of our three counselors. There is no department director. So there are issues there with numbers."

The Oakmont SAC is currently budgeted for $25,000. The additional expenditure is another $25,000.

"The requirement that our regular education students have a school adjustment counselor is just what we need for them to be supported. They don't have that benefit right now; we've Band-Aided it, but this takes care of their needs," Lawrence said afterward.

Lawrence also requested a building aide would primarily supervise high school pupils after school. He said students regularly stay after school and await sporting events or other organized activities. The principal also indicated the aide would help crack down on illegal activities on school grounds, such as theft.

Committee member Gwen Farley echoed Lawrence's request and went above and beyond it by suggesting that the panel add a building aide position to both Oakmont and Overlook. However, in order to add all the positions the principals requested, it would have added somewhere in the range of $293,000 to the spending plan.

The three new positions total $55,500, but with extras as insurance and payroll taxes, the check balances out to approximately $73,815.