School gets operating budget money
Ashburnham Selectmen decide to fund $70,000, override feasibility study
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Brenda Houle

The Ashburnham Selectmen and Advisory Board members voted on Monday to return $70,000 in school funding to the town's operating budget but decided to put the entire feasibility for the John R. Briggs Elementary School building project as a one-year capital exclusion.

The move came after tempers rose last week when the Selectmen removed the money in the operating budget for Fiscal Year 2009 so they could help fund a new paramedic/ firefighter, a reserve of gas and heating oil expenses, a new police cruiser and the feasibility study for John R. Briggs Elementary School.

"The Select and Advisory boards tried to put together a financial proposal that would avoid going back to the voters to pass an override to fund the allimportant Briggs school study," Selectman Mark Carlisle said on Monday.

Selectmen and Advisory Board members decided if the school district wanted the $70,000 for the operating budget then they would have to fund the feasibility study through a one-year capital exclusion.

"I have been told that a member of the School Committee is confident that this override will pass without our proposed financial contribution. I can only hope they are right," Carlisle said.

The feasibility study is estimated to cost $400,000 and will include everything up to the architectural drawings of any proposed renovation or new construction. The Massachusetts School Building Authority will reimburse the town at least 53.53 percent of the project if the town and school district comply with the terms of the agreement between the two parties.

"Regardless of what has transpired, it is important that we fund the Briggs study. At the end of the day, on both sides of this issue, I do believe we have all tried to do the right thing." Carlisle said.

The committee can't use any the school should retain it's goal to serve as a middle school or if it should change to a junior high, Zapantis said. He described the differences as not only philosophical but also curriculum based.

"The concern I have is our middle school as changed," he said. "We've lost a lot of staff."

This change in staffing impacts the enrichment classes, such as art, music, physical education, health, technology and languages. Zapantis said in the 11 years the school has been open the school went from offering 10 enrichment classes to offering seven.

"It's all important stuff that the kids need to learn about," he said. "It's a big part of the middle school philosophy."

The goal of a middle school is to incorporate those enrichment classes' curriculum into the core subjects as well as meld the curriculum of the core subjects. The team teaching approach at Overlook is one of the ways to incorporate this philosophy.

"The new administrator is going to have to work with the staff," Zapantis said. He is going to be looking for them to answer questions such as "are they functioning as a middle school? … Do we want to continue as a middle school? Do we want to move away from it? Do we want to move closer?"

Zapantis said it is unlikely a classroom teacher would be selected for the position because he would be looking for someone with supervisor experience as well as administrative. But said it is "not impossible."