Good
morning. I wanted to take a minute to
update you on the upcoming Annual Town Meeting and articles that are related to
the Canton Public Schools.
First
of all, the Annual Town Meeting begins next Monday, May 11th. Most of the first night will be spent in a
“special town meeting” that will discuss and deliberate primarily on the
proposed use of the Plymouth Rubber site on Revere Street. Once that matter concludes, they will move
back to the regular town meeting and handle the articles that are proposed in
the warrant (link to Warrant information http://town.canton.ma.us/510/2015-Annual-Town-Meeting).
Matters
on the ATM warrant that have been brought forth by the School Committee are:
Article 12: “Omnibus” Capital Outlay
Program- There
are two parts of the Capital Outlay Program that impact the schools. The first
is in “Cash Capital” section, under Motion 3 of Article 12. The town has allocated $550,000 for the
school department to use for items that fall under the following
categories: Building
Repairs/Improvements, Technology, Program Improvements, Furniture &
Fixtures and Extraordinary Maintenance.
The Cash Capital requests have been supported by the Capital Planning
Committee and the Finance Committee.
In
addition, under the Capital Outlay Program are items that fall under the
category of “Long Term Debt”. These are
for larger projects, typically in access of $100,000. The first item under this category is Article
12, Motion 5 which would provide $300,000 for the Classroom Interactive Projector Project. We have been working on this project
throughout the year and have raised close to $115,000 to offset the costs of
the projector setups. If approved, the
remaining costs of the project would be covered. This project has been supported by the Capital
Planning Committee and the Finance Committee.
The
School Committee will also be presenting a motion, under Long Term Debt, at
Town Meeting to allow for the purchase of six (6) school buses. The cost of this proposal is $540,000 and
again, would be taken from Long Term Debt Capital (not the operating budget).
With these additional buses, the District would be able to go forward
with the later start time for the High School, a matter that is of great
importance to the District and one that has been evaluated over the past few
years. This motion has the support of the Capital Planning Committee.
Information
on the Capital Budgets can be found at the following site: http://www.cantonma.org/files/_AdLHV_/dd667642f0cd59073745a49013852ec4/FY16_Capital_Summary_Prioritized_-_as_of_01-29-2015.pdf
Article 20: Transfer Of A Portion Of Special Education
Stabilization Fund To Supplement Special Education Budget Deficit- This will move $80,000 from the School
Special Education Stabilization Fund for use by the School Committee to offset
the special education deficit in the FY 15 operating budget. This has been supported by the Finance
Committee.
Article 35: Improvements To The Lt. Peter M. Hansen
Elementary School- This
would appropriate $4.1 million to replace the current modular classrooms by constructing
and equipping eight (8) new classrooms at the Lt. Peter M. Hansen Elementary
School. In addition this would help
alleviate current and future class size concerns. If approved at Annual Town Meeting, this
would go before the Town, in a Special Election, as a Debt Exclusion Referendum
Question sometime later in the Spring. The
estimated impact on the average tax bill in Canton, if this project were
approved, would be $26.31 per year. This
matter has the support of the Finance Committee.
Article 42: Appropriate Funds To Meet
Expenses For Next Fiscal Year (FY16)- Article 42 is the Operating Budget
article and would be the last one presented at Annual Town Meeting. Currently, the town has set $36,259,994 as
the budget target for the school department.
The School Committee’s last vote on the Operating Budget provided for $36,455,794. The School Committee’s budget request allows
for 12.8 additional Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees. This additional staffing will go a long way
towards addressing class size concerns that have been identified by the School
Committee as a top priority in this budget cycle. The School Committee is continuing to
communicate with town officials on coming to a resolution on the final budget
number.
***
This
update is informational in nature. The
Annual Town Meeting is a very special event in every town across the
Commonwealth and affords residents of the town the opportunity to speak on
matters of importance to them. We hope
that you can attend town meeting.
Annual
Town Meeting begins on Monday, May 11th at 7 PM in the Canton High
School Auditorium. The other nights
scheduled for ATM (if needed) are Wednesday, May 13, Monday, May 18th
and Wednesday, May 20th.
Thank
you.