$25 million school budget passes easily

Wilson argues district should have hired teachers this year

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The School Committee met at City Hall Monday and unanimously approved the proposed school budget of $25,579,133 for the coming fiscal year, and members of the committee said that they were happy with the school’s ability to maintain all of its current programs, despite the struggling local and national economy. Superintendent of Schools Carol Daring presented the budget for fiscal 2009, and said that the goals for the budget were to continue to support their current staff and programs, create standards-based educational efforts, and provide a safe and secure learning environment for the area’s students. Dr. Daring emphasized that the budget proposed during this difficult economic time was inevitably going to be thin, but was encouraged with the school’s ability to formulate a budget that allowed them to keep all of their current programs. “We knew last summer that the budget for fiscal 2009 was expected to be a rather lean year,” said Dr. Daring. “Fortunately, unlike other communities, we have been able to maintain our arts, music, physical education and technology programs. That is not to say that we have an excess of funds, this is still a very slim budget, but in spite of that we have been able to keep all of our programs intact.” Dr. Daring also said that while the rising costs in oil have made it more expensive to maintain the utilities at the schools, they have been able to make some crucial technological purchases over the last year which she believes will put them in a good position entering into the new school year in the fall. “On the bright side we have been able to purchase some much needed technology, we have new computers at the middle school and the high school,” said Ms. Daring. “We have also been able to buy software and textbooks, so we should be in pretty good shape for the beginning of the school year in the fall.” Committee member Christine Wilson said that although she was thankful for the amount of work that went into creating the budget, she was concerned with the lack of recent hires for teaching positions within the school system. “I feel that I must tell the committee that I am disappointed,” said Ms. Wilson. “We had an opportunity to add staff that would have had a positive impact on the education of the students in Gardner. The last time Gardner added someone to the teaching staff was in fiscal year ’99.” Ms. Wilson thought that, rather than the school committee continuing its recent trend of adding staff at administrative positions such as vice president and dean of students, the money would be better spent on hiring new teachers. “I understand that this is a bare-bones budget,” said Ms. Wilson. “How long can we continue to educate at the highest level with bare-bones staffing?” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 5/13/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 114)