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Final Budget Votes, FY09
The superintendent's recommended budget changes remained largely intact last night through several attempts by members of the school board to reinstate various positions on his list. The only two changes approved were the implementation of Full-Day Kindergarten to three of the four under-enrolled elementary schools (Aldie, Middleburg, Lincoln and Hillsboro). The School Board did not determine which of the three schools would benefit from the program. The Superintendent asked the School Board not to create the program because we do not have a path forward to Full-Day Kindergarten in all schools, primarily because of space limitations.The second change was in support of our classified employees, who will receive two more paid holidays than last year, for a total of six. The original plan called for four additional days to be implemented but on the whole the Board felt limited by this year's budget restrictions.
While some of the funds for the changes come from a small reduction in the number of interactive whiteboards to be purchased, the Board did not respond to my strong push to remove the whiteboards from the budget and so next year each Middle School will be fully outfitted with them, as the High Schools were this year.
Over the course of the evening additional cuts came to light as members attempted to cut purchases that, as it turned out, were already cut by the Assistant Superintendents to meet their 5.8% reduction commitments. For example, when I looked for funds for speech therapists by cutting the new PFHS scoreboard and new expiring security stickers, we were informed that they had already been cut over the course of the past week. I think that parents, teachers and other school staff will discover many small cuts like these, primarily once school opens again in the fall.
I commend the LCPS headquarters staff, who worked very hard all through the budget season and balanced this budget by keeping the impact out of the classroom as best they could. They do an excellent job throughout the year.
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