By Katie Farrell
AMESBURY — Some new programs and new staff will come to the schools next year after the School Committee voted last night to approve a $24.93 million budget for FY09.
The budget is a 3 percent increase — or $732,775 — over the current year.
Following a lengthy discussion, the budget was passed unanimously. It will now be sent to Mayor Thatcher Kezer to include in his overall budget proposal to the Municipal Council, who will vote on it in June.
The budget allows for adding four new teachers, a part-time adjustment counselor, a part-time library clerical assistant and clerical hours at Amesbury High School. With the brand-new building opening in September, that school has been a top priority during budget discussions.
"This school district cannot survive another year of a 2.9 percent increase," Superintendent Charles Chaurette told the School Committee, adding that despite not having much of an increase, the district was still able to "accomplish quite a bit."
By bringing more teachers into the high school, students will have more electives to choose from, which will reduce the number of guided studies students now have, he said.
The budget will also fund a part-time librarian at Amesbury Elementary School, which will allow the Cashman Elementary librarian to return to a full-time schedule and allow for the creation of a computer lab at Cashman.
The middle school will gain a reading tutor, a full-time reading specialist, a part-time adjustment counselor and more clerical hours. The budget also funds the district's nurse leader position, which was previously funded through a grant.
The School Committee agreed to apportion a $22,000 line item to give $7,000 to a summer school program for students in grades three through eight while using $15,000 to fund an in-school suspension program at the middle school.
"It's one of the things I felt uncomfortable taking out to begin with," member Paula Blair said.
When middle school students get suspended, they often have no parent home with them to watch them, she said.
"They're better off in school doing school work," Blair said.
School Committee members mulled ways to increase the high school library budget in order to allow staff to purchase new books. Due to storage limitations during the construction project, the librarian could not buy new books for the past several years, committee member Bonnie Schultz said.
"There are no new books for that library coming in," she said.
The committee decided against adding to that item in the budget, noting there are ways for the community to fundraise and hold book drives to get donations for the school.
"I believe this community will support that," Vice Chairman Deb Bibeau said.
"It really is a sorely needed area that we need to address," Schultz said.
Due to lower new growth money and less revenue coming into the town than expected, the School Committee did eliminate some parts of Chaurette's original budget proposal.
Among those reductions were the creation of a "therapeutic high school program" for students with significant behavioral and emotional impairments or mental health issues, a data analyst position for the district and a reading specialist for the middle school.
Prior to the School Committee meeting, about 100 teachers, paraprofessionals and custodians from throughout the district gathered in the lobby of the middle school, many wearing pins saying "Unity." The session was a way to show their support to the negotiating teams fighting for new contracts, they said.
The teachers are working without a contract right now, Cashman teacher Marcia Stellmach said.
"It was time," she said. "Our negotiating teams need our support right now." The group does have "other actions" they are planning, as well, but Stellmach declined to discuss them further.
The group did not attend the School Committee meeting upstairs in the library.
