November 3, 2020 by Carol Britton Meyer
Due to COVID-19 and "the lack of visibility" for Fiscal 2022, the upcoming budget process will be shortened and a proposed budget will be developed using "status quo" assumptions, Supt. of Schools Paul Austin said at last night's School Committee meeting during a presentation of proposed "Guiding Principles for the Development of the FY ’22 School Committee Budget."
"Several key initiatives will be added that we believe are essential for meeting the needs of our students and school community," he continued.
Some School Committee members objected to the use of the words "status quo." Michelle Ayer noted that this is "an unusual year. . . . We have a lot of making up to do for these kids, and it will cost money. We need to be clear with town departments and the community that we should at least be asking for what we need next year and in the years to follow to bring our kids back to where they should be. I'm concerned about talking about 'status quo' or a level services budget in a year that's not normal."
Austin said his intent was the same, despite that particular wording. "That's our desire here. Some students are struggling and have lost a lot of instructional time. We know what we need to do and the types of services we need to provide moving forward. That's the distinguishing mark on this budget process, and I expect a lot of discussion."
The best way to approach the Fiscal 2022 budget is "to start back at where we were on March 31 [before the impacts of COVID-19 were felt] and use that as our jumping off point," said HPS Director of Business and Support Services John Ferris. "We still need the same services [despite a COVID-19-related decline in enrollments]. We need to start where we left off. That's what the reference to 'status quo' meant."
School Committee member Libby Lewiecki expressed concern about what she considers to be present and past underfunding of the HPS. She went on to say, "I feel as if for next year we need to prepare town officials and the community for a huge jump in our budget for not fully funding our schools for a long time on top of all this COVID-19 mitigation. This is the time to do it, which means very possibly going for an override, which in the past has been taboo."
Chair Kerry Ni also weighed in. "The school budget has held steady and the needs increased, and now we are in a crisis -- which has made it more difficult," she said.
Austin said the goal is to present a needs-based budget. "We have a lot of work to do. We should not be striving to go back to where things used to be. There are things we knew already we needed to improve. We need to rebuild in a new way, and we will come out of this stronger."
With the basic premise that the Hingham Public Schools will maintain its focus on providing the highest quality education for all Hingham students, Austin outlined presumptions that will be used to develop the Fiscal 2022 budget.
These include assuming a continuation of enrollment from the March 1, 2020 enrollment counts -- before the pandemic caused a large number of children to undergo remote, pod, and homeschool learning -- and a continuation of all Full Time Equivalent (FTE) positions approved in the FY 2021 budget.
The proposed guiding principles -- which the School Committee will discuss at an upcoming meeting -- also call for:
* providing the services and support necessary to remediate the loss of instructional progress resulting from COVID 19;* funding the process and development of a five-year Hingham Public Schools strategic plan;
* providing staffing and support for special education to ensure that the district is able to appropriately and adequately address the needs of students, staff, and the community;
* funding resources required for year one of the district’s Equity and Inclusion Plan;
* providing for needed personnel support for Central Office Administration, including the addition of a payroll clerk, and an administrative assistant to perform data analytics and to provide School Committee, social media, and communication support.There will be ample opportunity for public input during the process. "There will be several public meetings, with the budget documents posted online. It will be a transparent process," Austin said.