The Kingston Elementary School Committee met on Monday, March 20. Town Treasurer Carl Pike asked to speak at the beginning of the meeting regarding the budget. He called himself a strong supporter of schools and school budgets over the last decade before saying that it was difficult for him to speak up regarding the preliminary budget and what it would do to the Town’s overall finances. He noted the $2.1 million increase this year saying that even with $600,000 removed due to increases in state aid, they were still at an increase of approximately $1.5 million. “What that does to the residents of the town of Kingston – we have about 4,500 residential parcels so that would equate to about $350 of a tax increase for every residential house in the town of Kingston for the next fiscal year.”
Pike also spoke about what the school’s increase would mean for the rest of the town. Pike said that the other town departments were challenged to stay around a 2 percent increase. “We have always strived to leave about a million dollars on the table; what that means is if I could tax the residents $40 million across the town, we try to only tax them $39 million so there’s a million on the table.” He said that with the school’s increase that wouldn’t be possible. He noted that this leaves the town in a dangerous position. He noted that the million dollars carrying over each year prevents a Prop 2.5 override. He encouraged the School Committee to reconsider their budget saying that he would have trouble supporting it as-is and said he suspects that the Finance Committee and Selectmen likely would also have difficulty supporting it.
Selectman Sheila Vaughn, who noted she is also the parent of an incoming kindergartener, thanked Pike but said it is very difficult to run a school and level-fund it. “We have schools… we need to be taking care of them… we’ve done more with the legislature to try to secure more funding,” Vaughn said. She said that cuts always come out of the regular day operating budget because it is difficult to cut from special education and out of district vocational. “We have parents and we have people who will support this,” she said.
Superintendent Jill Proulx shared version three of the budget with the Committee. She noted that Circuit Breaker was still estimated at 70 percent. “No cuts were made to this since the last time we met… regular day in this includes the addition of three classroom teachers, one kindergarten para, a 0.5 para, $60,000 in equipment, 0.4 music, and 0.4 art bringing it to a 9.53 percent increase. “Special education in this budget, we have added the paraprofessionals for the program, we have added the behaviorist… they show up in the form of tuition increases… so now special education is at 23.2 increase,” Proulx told the Committee. She said that there was some discussion about using free cash and carrying over some of Circuit Breaker into FY24. “We are very much open to that idea,” Proulx said. Committee member Tim Lewis said he was “absolutely passionate” about the three new classroom teachers and the special education educator.
There was some discussion about whether the behaviorist was necessary. Some Committee members argued that the time taken away from students while teachers dealt with these issues was immeasurable. Other Committee members felt that the data was not there to warrant the position. Kingston Intermediate School (KIS) Principal Mike Bambery said that the need was imminent due to the strain on other staff. Coleman spoke in favor of the behaviorist but questioned the need for a third classroom teacher. She did note, however, that she didn’t want to be put in the position they are in now where kindergarten parents are outraged about the large class sizes which are approaching 30.
Proulx said that in speaking with the Technology Director and the Curriculum Coordinator “we felt that we could absorb $19,000 for curriculum and $30,000 for technology because we felt we could move some of that into ESSSER.” The Committee also discussed reducing positions, such as music from 0.4 to 0.2., to save money. Proulx pointed out that it would be difficult to find someone to take over a 0.2 position. Coleman said that she was comfortable bringing the budget as-is to the Town Meeting floor. Lewis said that one hundred percent of the people at the public budget hearing supported the budget. Coleman said that she spoke to a mother of a kindergartener and a third grader who moved across the country sight unseen in part because of the Kingston’s schools. “I don’t want to lose that,” she said.
There was considerable conversation around the budgetary impacts of students who transfer into the district mid school year. Lewis asked, “Am I correct in saying that there is a law on the books that if a student moves into the district after a certain date than the previous district owns that bill; so when we talk about an extraordinary year because of move-ins, aren’t those move-ins being paid for by the previous district?” Administrator of Special Education Marie Grable said “Correct, there is an April 1 move-in law, so if there is someone who moves into our district after April 1 that we did not have a chance to budget for, then that district owns and assumes the tuition for the rest of the school year but there are other taxes.” If students moved-in earlier than April 1, the district still has to pay for them regardless of those students not being included in the approved budget.
The excess cost that was spoken of was $700,000. Grable said that the bulk of that came from students who turned 3, move-ins, and some out-of-district placements that were not foreseen. Grable explained that if students that move-in are private then the April 1 law applies. She continued, “if they are collaborative, then we look to see if we have some in-district program that can meet their needs, so we are not bound to the move-in law if we have a comparable program.” Grable said, “we received students that weren’t on an IEP that were challenging to place; I’m really toeing the line here.” Committee Chair Jeanne Coleman said, “I think the majority of the public might be able to connect some pieces with the timeline that we’re looking at… and now we’re fiscally responsible… and the State dropped the ball on providing appropriate funding.” While it was not explicitly stated, the implication was that the conversation centered around the 64 migrant children who were housed in a hotel in Kingston in October. Director of Business Services clarified that that situation only made up a small portion of the additional expenses.
After considerable conversation and debate, the Committee voted to approve a regular day operating budget of $10,410,747, a special education budget of $6,354,065, and an out of district vocational education budget of $228,000. Coleman noted that the increase was actually 8.6 percent.
The Committee listened to some changes to two policies that were previously discussed at the Halifax and Plympton School Committees. The first dealt with access to security footage from the schools. The changes allowed for more emergency services to access the footage in the event of an emergency. Previously, only Police were allowed but the changes allowed for both Dispatch and Fire and Rescue to also view them. The second policy was regarding the opt-out option for parents for student surveys. Parents have the option to opt-out of the social and emotional surveys being administered by the schools. The Committee voted to approve both policies.
During the Teacher’s Corner for the month of March it was said that the reading focus was Dr. Suess. It was noted that author, Beth Ferry, came to work with students and would be returning to work on creating their own books. The second grade participated in a March Madness book tournament where books went head-to-head until one was voted as the favorite. The first grade participated in a STEM project creating Leprechaun traps. After School programs led by KES teachers and being put on by Kingston Youth and Rec have been very successful.
KES Principal Kerri Whipple provided an update saying the focus of the past month has been curiosity. Whipple called Ferry’s visit a success and noted that they had positive feedback on the visit from many families especially those with students with special needs. Whipple said that the first-grade celebrated beach day where they studied marine animals. Whipple said that the program “germs alive” was incredible. “There’s a lot of events coming up; it’s our busy time of year,” she told the Committee.
Bambery also provided an update on recent goings on at KIS. He said that the infrastructure trials for MCAS have gone well. He said that the student/staff basketball game went wonderfully, selling the entire place out. “The kids just had a fantastic time; I had kids coming up to me harassing me because I didn’t call any fouls,” he said laughing. Bambery also said that the fifth grade would be going on a field trip and the sixth grade would be having a cyber-bullying presentation.