Increases in staff salaries and benefits make up the bulk of the $1.1 million increase to the proposed Westbrook school budget for next year.
The budget submitted by Superintendent Stan Sawyer is approximately $29.3 million, an increase of a little more than 4 percent over the current $28.1 million budget.
According to information provided by Sawyer, negotiated increases in wages and benefits account for $865,000 of the increase, with new programs and positions accounting for $177,000 of the increase.
“All of our contracts with our nearly 500 employees expire at the end of this school year,” said Sawyer. “We had to put in a reasonable wage increase.”
Citing ongoing labor negotiations, Sawyer said he was unable to discuss the exact percentage of the wage increase, but he said it was based on wage figures taken from surrounding school districts.
In a presentation to the City Council Monday night, Sawyer said the share of the school’s budget from local property tax is $15.6 million, an increase of 4.5 percent over the current year. The state share of the school budget is about $12 million, an increase of about $400,000 from last year.
While the new school budget does not call for any major new programs, it does add several new positions to the department. Sawyer said the majority of those new positions are “driven by our needs in special education and special services.”
The new positions include an full-time educational technician for a kindergarten special needs student; a part time English-as-a-second-language teacher at Westbrook High School, a position Sawyer said is necessary for the school to meet state guidelines and an occupational therapist, which Sawyer said is actually moving an existing part-time position to a full-time one due to an increasing number of students.
The budget also includes money for a half-time district-wide psychological examiner. Sawyer said the psychological examiner was not a psychologist, but instead someone who would be working with students assessing any possible learning disabilities and seeing if the student in question qualifies for placement in a special education program.
In addition, the school department is looking to add a full-time guidance councilor dedicated to students in kindergarten through second grade. Sawyer said that is another position mandated by the state to bring the school into compliance with the requirement that Maine schools provide a guidance program for all students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
Sawyer said the only new program in the budget is a continuation of one that was started last year. The budget calls for the schools to continue with the second year of a planned five-year program to replace computers throughout the school system. Sawyer said the computers being replaced are not laptops, but instead are desktop computers at the high school and in some classrooms. Sawyer said it’s important for the school department to constantly ensure that students and staff have access to the most up-to-date technology possible, making it necessary to replace computers as they become outdated.
The school budget does contain one other big-ticket item, though Sawyer said the state would bear most of the cost. The department is seeking to purchase two new school buses to replace older buses in its fleet. While the cost of the new buses is approximately $75,000 each, Sawyer said the majority of that $150,000 would be paid by state money.
Sawyer explained that the amount to be paid by the state is still to be determined. Each year, the state sets aside a certain amount of money designated for buses to be distributed among all school districts. The amount each district gets for buses is determined by how many buses are actually purchased, but Sawyer said the state generally ends up paying an average of about 90 percent of the cost of the buses.
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