| 0:02:41 | Hearing, not meeting | The superintendent: “It's a public hearing. And there is a difference.” The current figure is “a increase of over $850,000 to next year's budget compared to this year's budget”; the recommendations are “clearly is not a done deal”. | POS |
| 0:05:42 | Default budget mentioned, not stated | With an $850,000 increase, “there would be a default budget lower then the budget being proposed”, and the bargaining agreements “would be for not” [naught] if voters chose it. No default figure is given. | HIGH |
| 0:06:22 | Enrollment and state aid | Claremont enrollment “It's decreased by over 300 students” in ten years. The budget rose less than 2% over five years, “but that still represents $2.4 million”. This year the board's $60,000 for professional development raised the rate 11 cents, while “a reduction in adequacy aid, and that was over $430,000” raised it 63 cents. | |
| 0:10:10 | Class sizes | In core academic classes, Stevens has about 18 classes under ten students and 32 over twenty; the middle school has none under fifteen. “Research has shown that class size is not the major factor on student achievement” [the speaker's characterization]. Changes “can't be based on emotions or friendships. They have to be based on data.” | |
| 0:14:40 | January 7 work session | The superintendent will show “some of the work that the school board accomplished on January 7th, the Sadie [Saturday] budget work session”. Sprague later: “when we were sitting here on Saturday, we're looking at budget lines with with big numbers and not a clue” (0:23:27). | MED |
| 0:16:04 | Elementary reductions | The Maple Avenue request to replace the library paraprofessional with a teacher is withdrawn; LeClair: “from paraprofessional to teacher” was the proposal, and the library class continues as now. Teacher-laptop refreshes are deferred a year; the replacement plan “will be deferred a bit”. | |
| 0:22:27 | Technology purchasing | Sprague: “$50,000 for new equipment, we haven't been involved at all in knowing how how that money is spent.” and “Does it go out to bid?” The superintendent proposes a review with the new director of instructional technology. | |
| 0:23:50 | Middle-school reductions | The middle school's assistant athletic director position is cut, with duties falling to the district athletic director; an assistant principal position is reduced by 0.2. The principal confirms the library media specialist supports classroom teachers. | |
| 0:26:19 | Explaining in public first | The superintendent says he received letters and press calls about the high-school changes and told a reporter “I'd like to wait until the board meeting. So the community and the board can hear it versus have pieces of it being published.” | POS |
| 0:26:55 | PE position | Barry: of the two PE positions, one is not fully PE; the plan is to grant more of “the 1.0 credit that the state requires for graduation” through extended learning and sports. She reads that a student “may earn a maximum of 0.25 credits per year” for each varsity or junior-varsity season (1:18:38). Enrollment is about 545 to 550. | |
| 0:28:26 | Owls and the alternative program | Barry: one of the Owls teaching positions is cut while the district expands individual plans with adult education; the program runs two 2.5-hour sessions “with a capacity of 30”. An alternative-program director stipend and a program-assistant title for the discipline monitor are added. Adrian recalls the alternative position was presented as a director at about $74,000. | |
| 0:37:49 | Sprague on Owls | Sprague: he created the discipline-monitor position and “I wrote the grant for ombudsman.”; most Owls students “are not behavioral problems. They are school phobic.”; mixing them with behavioral programs: “I cannot support that as a board member.” Barry: “the mixing of those populations is not part of how we would move forward”. | |
| 0:45:13 | Owls enrollment and entry | Barry: a high of about 44 two years ago, back to a cap of 30, about 23 now. Dillon: guidance counselors use a dropout-risk rubric; three students have already graduated this year; “careful which which limbs you cut off, you know, because it may not be able to walk anymore”. Sprague recalls the state's change to compulsory attendance to age 18 as the program's origin. | |
| 1:00:12 | What is being cut | Pierce asks whether the program is being consolidated rather than cut. Dillon: “that is not exactly the case”. Barry: “the way it's currently structured works well” and the proposal answers the task of finding cuts. | |
| 1:06:43 | Athletics versus Owls | Herzog raises “the sacred cow in this community about athletics with an increase in $46,000”. Barry: athletics are “another form of an alternative program”; uniforms and helmets are overdue after lean years. | |
| 1:09:51 | The members' line-by-line review | Irish: on Saturday “we literally went through 67 pages front and back, 1300 plus lines of budget one by one as a group”. On Owls: “my personal opinion, I don't want to mess with it unless we have absolutely no other choice”. The superintendent: “the word got out from whatever source and suddenly the Owls program is going to be cut. That was never the intent”. | MED |
| 1:13:06 | PE data | Sprague calls it “kind of a non sequitur” to cut PE while core classes run small, with no PE enrollment data presented. Barry describes absorbing co-taught and health sections. | |
| 1:21:19 | Bottom line and tax effects | With the administration's recommendations and some of the board's January 7 work, “if this was March 14th, the main budget is less than this year's budget”; “the fall budget to be announced” [default budget]. Warrant articles: maintenance and custodians 7 cents, paraprofessionals 17, secretaries 4, roofing no change, capital reserve a 15-cent reduction; overall “represents 16 cent increase on the thousand”. Staff pay lags other districts by “anywhere from six to over $20,000”. | HIGH |
| 1:24:33 | Comment rules | Raise a hand, use the podium, name and ward, three minutes, a second turn after all have spoken; the board will respond where asked. | POS |
| 1:25:45 | Mike, Ward 1 | “32 years of experience has told me any time you cut any personnel in any position, the kids suffer somehow.” One teacher would serve “the 500 plus students”. | |
| 1:28:08 | Lisa Draper, Ward 3 | “I am very concerned that adult Ed is not a substitute for the supports that our students receive in the Owls program.” | |
| 1:30:51 | Michelle Springer, Ward 2 | A graduate of the original program 18 years ago: “I would have dropped out”; cutting it would send more students to the behavior program. | |
| 1:32:12 | Brianne Lawrence, Ward 2 | Asks the superintendent and principal whether they have “really sat inside the owls classrooms during either of the sessions”; says adult education and Owls students have “totally two different needs”. | |
| 1:33:48 | Amanda Mass | A 2010 graduate, now finishing a nursing degree: “Is it is it by eliminating the teacher positions?” Barry: “Part of it is from the teacher salaries.” and the rest is furniture and equipment. | |
| 1:37:19 | John, Ward 1 | Asks who will cover middle-school athletics and about “a $44,000 increase for athletic training services”. O'Neill and the superintendent: the trainer “was by error not budgeted in fiscal year 16” and has been moved to athletics; “It's been the same person for for several years.” Irish praises the trainer's concussion work. | |
| 1:42:26 | Middle-school athletic director | Irish: “I don't want to touch people. I want to touch things.” and credits the position for higher sports participation. | |
| 1:43:54 | Former Owls student | Asks how the program will still work with one teacher fewer. Irish: the proposal “it's not written in stone”. Adrian: “I would I would never move forward without being able to answer that kind of question.” | |
| 1:47:44 | Judy, retired PE teacher | Calls the PE recommendation “ill conceived and perhaps Pennywise and pound foolish” and asks for time to gather facts before the February 8 deliberative session; four years ago there were two and two-thirds PE teachers. | |
| 1:49:24 | Veronica Bellair, Ward 2 | “who's going to teach the adaptive physical that's being taught now?” and how one teacher can serve 540 students. | |
| 1:51:02 | Shauna Baird, Owls teacher | A dissertation found “our program is a model program”; staffing fell from three to two; “since we've been here, Ombudsman and Owls, we've serviced 300 students”. | |
| 1:54:37 | Bruce Wilkins | His son graduated through the program this year. | |
| 1:56:04 | Adult-education pathways | Barry explains working with the adult-education coordinator on individual plans; an $8,000 adult high-school tuition line would fund evening credit-recovery classes at “about $1,500” a teacher. “none of us got into the business to dismantle anything”. | |
| 2:02:13 | Library-media staffing | John asks whether legal requirements are met. LeClair: “at the elementary level, we have to have the services of a library media specialist” under the state's school approval standards, provided by one specialist and two paraprofessionals; “we do meet school approval standards”. | |
| 2:09:02 | Reduction totals | Irish: the administration's proposal and the board's Saturday list come to about $850,000 and $897,000 (he first reverses them, then corrects: “we had 897. They had 850.”), with overlap; “We're looking at $900,000 worth of cut before we even get started.” | MED |
| 2:11:08 | Athletics data | Ferland asks how many teams the district funds and suggests athletics “might be a place for some cutting”; Herzog and Sprague ask for participation data; the superintendent will report with the athletic director in a week. | |
| 2:13:36 | Hearing closed | The chair: “This is just the start of our process.” and “I'm going to close the budget hearing.” (2:14:12). | |
| 2:17:29 | Nonpublic session and seal | “I'd like a motion for nonpublic 91 a for personnel.” The chair asks whether the room “next door” is free. After the return, 945. is spoken and the chair moves “Motion to seal. Minutes.” with a roll call. | MED OBS |
| 2:19:56 | The school board's own line | Sprague: the school board line “it's 150,000.” and no one can explain it; the superintendent mentions elections and the School Boards Association dues and offers an accounting. | |
| 2:22:17 | Patterns in the figures | Sprague: “So five of us five of us were here Saturday.” and saw budgets rising without growth in actual spending. The superintendent: “The problem was the prior BA didn't have a handle on expenses”, which led to fall spending freezes; of O'Neill, “He's made such a difference.” | MED |
| 2:25:18 | Board goals | Herzog: the board still owes the superintendent “written expectations”. Irish: cuts aimed at equipment and supplies, not people, and “My goal is that the tax rate doesn't go up at all, and that's after adding in Warren articles”. The superintendent: cutting a line without knowing its effect “it's more than just a math activity”; Irish: zeroed lines will be refilled “with what's justified”. | |