School Committee Report
August 4, 2011
A Special Meeting of the New Bedford School Committee was held on Thursday, August 4, 2011. The session was held at the urging of Dr. Finnerty to discuss the status of the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget.
Dr. Francis informed the committee that five elementary teachers could be laid off to balance the budget. She said the Business Office and Human Resources worked to identify the vacant positions that have to be filled and some classes with low enrollments were consolidated. The committee voted unanimously to ask the superintendent to avoid the potential teacher layoffs. They also approved a measure to monitor the budget on a weekly basis to ensure that a 19% reduction in General Expenses will be achieved.
Dr. Danielle Carriga was introduced to the committee. Dr. Carriga, a resident of Westborough, will serve as the Assistant to the Superintendent for Equity, Diversity, and Family Engagement.
After meeting in Executive Session, the school committee voted to appoint Ms. Deborah Brown as the new School Business Manager. Ms. Brown currently serves as the District Accountant for the Old Rochester Regional School District.
Dr. Francis said she is in the final stages of hiring a new Curriculum Administrator and an Assistant Superintendent for Accountability and School Improvement.
This meeting also marked the return of Attorney Thomas Clark. Mr. Clark’s Massachusetts National Guard unit had been deployed to Afghanistan.
The next Regular meeting of the New Bedford School Committee will be held on Monday, August 15, 2011 at the Keith Middle School.
5 comments:
Instead of laying off 5 teachers, why doesn't the superintendent just eliminate the useless diversity position? That alone must be the equal of 5 teacher salaries!
How is the new contract looking?
what a bunch of bull. a new loser downtown for a bag of money and we have to lay off teachers who actually do something for our kids. nice effort. how about we can 1/2 the people at prab?
Thank God Tom Clark has made it back! Finally a voice of reason returns to the School Committee!
In this day and age, we are all diverse. I think it would be more important to hire someone for Curriculum & Instruction 1st... but not at the cost of teachers- the direct link to the children. And they wonder why teachers get bashed, and kids don't perform well- admin keeps over crowding the classes and decreasing funds for supplies... what next, are we going to spend our weekend shaking cans at supermarkets for supply money?
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