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We currently enroll 273 students in Kindergarten. Next
year’s enrollment to-date is 305 students which means we have space and
materials issues. This increase could be a “bubble” but could also be a trend
and we don’t yet know. If it’s a trend and we need to add classrooms/teachers
as students progress through the schools, we will need to plan for that.
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The state-funded Kindergarten grant has been cut for the
current fiscal year, and is proposed for elimination in the Governor’s FY16
fiscal year budget. (The K grant funds
paraprofessionals who support teachers in K classrooms.)
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The status-quo budget means adding two classroom teachers
(at Lincoln and Winthrop), an Academic Interventionist, and another ELL
coordinator.
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The growth budget reflects thinking beyond where we are now
and getting to the next educational level for students. It includes adding 1.5
Library Media Specialists, a Social Worker, an Academic Facilitator, an
Instructional Coach, a Director of Instructional Technology, and an Inclusion
Facilitator.
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The ELA curriculum is outdated and not aligned with the
frameworks, and also needs to be addressed.
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Ideally, there would be an Instructional Coach in every
building. They are well-versed in content and can provide support for content
delivery (i.e. an instructional coach can
help a teacher perform better teaching by having deep content knowledge as well
as understanding the practice of teaching the teacher – kind of like having a
prior soccer player coach soccer – the coach must know how to play, as well as delivering
understanding of the skills, strategies, and techniques to play effectively).
- For special education, we currently enroll 549 pre-K through age 22 students in-district,
31 Melrose residents who don’t attend the Melrose schools but receive services
in-district (mostly young students), and 38 out-of-district students for a
total of 618 students.
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The largest segment of the special education budget is for
students placed out-of-district, and those tuitions continue to increase.
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The special education budget doesn’t exist by itself, but
has elements embedded in many other parts of the budget.
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Challenges include the extent of social/emotional needs; and the
increase in the number of students who need hospitalization, are on the autism
spectrum, and are homeless.
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General education is the first resource for all students,
including special education students.
The March 24th meeting was a regular School
Committee meeting, with March 31st being the next budget meeting.
Please don’t forget to send your budget questions to fy16schoolbudget@melroseschools.com!
