School Committee Shifts Budget For Textbooks, MHS Staff | Free PSAT Proposal Fails To Pass

The Melrose School Committee unanimously voted on Tuesday night to reallocate $66,000 in next year's budget towards purchasing new textbooks and funding an additional full-time position at , but a proposal to offer free PSATs was narrowly defeated.

Superintendent Joe Casey recommended the reallocations based on feedback from the committee, public and school officials during discussions over the past seven weeks regarding the district's fiscal 2012 budget. He also said that in discussions with Mayor Rob Dolan over the past week, Dolan agreed to have the city provide $120,000 to the school department over the next three years specifically to purchase textbooks.

The new textbooks next year would cost $21,000 and include books for Grades 7-9 math; Grade 7-12 English literature; Grade 7 history; and foreign language books for .

Concerns about science textbooks will be addressed after a new Science Department chairman is hired to replaced the retiring Sue Eason, Casey said, as had been done this year with first-year Math Department Chairwoman Ro Gine.

"They can actually do a pilot next year as Ms. Gine has done (this year)," Casey said.

The additional full-time position at Melrose High School, which would cost $45,000 in salary, comes in response to Principal Joe Dillon's about increasingly crowded classrooms, something identified as a critical area through the NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) re-accreditation process the high school recently went through. Next year's budget proposal had already included an additional teaching position at the high school to address that problem.

The funding for both the textbooks and the new high school position comes reducing the consultants line item by $30,000, from $138,000 to $108,000; reducing the gas-heat utilities line item by $30,000, from $445,786 to $415,786; and reducing the electricity utilities line item by $10,000 from $770,352 to $760,352.

Dolan said that the consultants line item sounds like a "broad term," but that it funds "some important things," starting with legal representation.

"An entity of our magnitude needs to be well-represented, both in terms of our attorney and special education law," he said. The consultants line item also funds the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which Dolan said has helped bring in "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in grant funding to Melrose, which in the past has supported having a registered nurse in every school in the city and the .

The consultants line item can absorb the $30,000 hit, Dolan said, because "the school department is not a separate entity—it's a department of the city" and savings can be realized by using the in-house attorney, Melrose City Solicitor Rob Van Campen.

School utilities line items can be reduced next year, Dolan continued, because the School Maintenance Department as the new requires demolishing the School Maintenance barn, consolidating costs. Also, the district is now entering negotiations with SEEM Collaborative regarding a , an agreement that Dolan said will cover the cost of utilities at the school.

Free PSATs, or doing a better job of getting the word out?

The reallocations proposed by Casey freed up $70,000 in total, with the last $4,000 going towards committee member J.D. LaRock's proposal of to Melrose High School sophomore and juniors. Casey supported the proposal.

While there was no debate over the reallocations for textbooks and additional high school position, the committee argued back and forth about the free PSAT proposal, with Dolan laughing as he said, "All the budgets I’ve ever seen, it always comes down to the $4,000 ...  you go to the State House and it’s the same thing."

When it came time for a vote, the proposal failed on a 3-4 vote, with Dolan, LaRock and Carrie Kourkoumelis voting in favor and Chairwoman Margaret Driscoll, Kristin Thorp, Christine Casatelli and Don Constantine voting against.

The main point reiterated by those opposed to the proposal was that the district had not yet undertaken a comprehensive marketing campaign targeting students and parents to tout the benefits of taking the PSATs early and often. Driscoll said that notice of the PSATs consisted of "one Connect-Ed (the district's phone message system) call for about 30 seconds on one day to families."

Driscoll said that "it's not clear that money is even an issue"—the PSAT costs $13 per student—and that the district could first attempt to boost participation rates through more aggressive notification of parents and students.

"I attended the high school PTO meeting a week ago yesterday and that topic came up, and high school parents themselves indicated they were not in favor of this proposal," she said. "These are people directly affected and willing to pay the money. They wanted to see the money used in other places that would also directly benefit other students ... I think the high school parents have been very clear saying they don’t think it’s (money) the problem."

LaRock responded that "in terms of communications" the whole committee has been privy to, two members of the public spoke in favor of the proposal at and one spoke in favor of it Tuesday night, in addition to a letter sent to the committee signed by eight parents supporting the proposal.

He added that based on that feedback, the sentiment "is about 10 to 1 in favor," a remark that Driscoll shook her head at. LaRock said he appreciate the point about cost not being the primary factor and "I think the piece is broader than just the cost issues," but an educational issue.

"I think this the strategy most likely to produce the greatest gains," he said. "We don’t want, I think, a half-measure building off an only half-successful outreach in the past. We want to make a change."

Casey said that when MCAS was introduced, "it became not just the sine qua non for testing, it became the only testing." Nationally-known standardized tests were gradually phased out due to the MCAS and Casey said he noticed over the year that Melrose's SAT scores are "flat across the district—that concerns me greatly."

In addition to helping students, Casey said that more sophomores taking the SATs would provide the district with data that could help mold how classes are taught, what classes are offered and more. He also pointed out, after LaRock asked about 'bang for the buck,' that six years ago Melrose spent $7,000 on the TerraNova standardized tests, compared to the $4,000 for the PSAT proposal.

Thorp pointed out that everyone on the committee supports more sophomores taking the PSATs.

"The question is, do we start with a marketing campaign, do we start with giving the test during school day, or do we have to do the $4,000?" she said, adding that she hadn't been convinced offering the test for free would be the optimal solution.  "Most people would be happy to pay ... if they understand what it is and why it’s important."

Kourkoumelis, as she has previously, noted the drop in Melrose High School's SAT participation rates four years ago, which she said equates from a 95 percent participation rate dropping to a 75 percent participation rate.

"That is a very serious drop. We’ve had a problem here in this district," she said. "Yes we do need to address where that problem has originated, but we need to jump start this right away for students, because they don’t have years and years to play around and experiment. College costs a lot of money."

Casatelli said she believed investing some of the $4,000 into a marketing campaign would be a bigger bang for the buck for the coming school year.

"We may come here next year at this time and say our marketing didn’t work, and I’d probably be second—after Mr. LaRock—to say, 'you know, now we have to pay for it.,'" she said. "We haven’t gone down that path yet (of marketing) and I think we need to do that first."

The committee was also scheduled to vote Tuesday night on five budget categories: Salary; Text-Supplies-Materials; Other General Expenses; Plant; and Athletics. However, the committee held off on the votes and is expected to take those up, along with approval of the budget's bottom line, at its next meeting on Tuesday, March 22.