A Letter from the School Committee Chairman

Dear Neighbors,

My name is Shawn Dooley and I am honored to serve as Chairman of the Norfolk School Committee this year. As I sat down to write this letter my original intention was to ask you to support the override vote this coming Tuesday.

As I worked through my thoughts and ideas I changed my mind and have decided on a different focus. I do not need to ask the citizens of Norfolk to once again reach into their pockets to fix a problem. Instead, what I will try to do in this letter is to let you know what we, as your School Committee, are doing to help our schools in these difficult times and to challenge you to help us make our schools even better. If you decide to vote to increase your property taxes for the sake of the schools, thank you, it will make our jobs easier, but it is not the final solution.

First and foremost, let me share with you some thoughts on the current school budget shortfall, where we are hoping to save some money and where (unfortunately) we are looking to add fees and/or cut positions. I believe it is important to let our town know that we are not just taking the easy way out and just adding to our tax burden without making every conceivable effort. The School Committee will need to make up a shortfall of around $800,000 and there are NO easy solutions. Obviously, if the override passes that will eliminate some of this urgency, but we are still looking at over $400,000 of reductions.

In administration, we are looking at eliminating the half time principal at H. Olive Day which will save nearly $30,000. The new Principal of Freeman Centennial’s salary is a savings of $15,000 and reorganizing many areas in Special Education will hopefully save us an additional $100,000. Couple that with $35,000 we are able to save in retirement and these cuts total $180,000.

Unfortunately we are also looking at adding fees. We are proposing that the instrumental music program have a fee between $12.50 and $25 per month which could generate between $25,000 and $50,000. The bus fee for students living within 2 miles of school will be increase to $180 per year which will make up $60,000 of the $164,000 cost. Also, an increase in pre-school and kindergarten tuitions will generate around $40,000 resulting in the fee total being between $125,000 and $150,000.

Other cuts we are considering: one teacher due to a lower enrollment in next year’s 6th grade (saving $45,000); and our new Superintendent is going to be eliminating professional development stipends which will also shave off another $42,000. Our before school and after school program (SACC) is being tightened to hopefully generate $30,000 of revenue and we have $100,000 coming from the Federal Government as a part of the recovery act. Unfortunately, the only revolving fund we have is for the buses and that has $32,000 in it, but we are planning on using all of that as well.

This brings our grand total, if we make every cut and create every fee, to roughly $550,000-$600,000 or still $250,000 short. This assumes no surprises during the next school year. Obviously we hope we do not need to make all of the cuts outlined above.

In addition, the school committee is actively negotiating with the teachers and their union representatives to see if they would be willing to take a full or partial pay freeze and/or explore other scenarios that will free up additional funds for our schools.

If the override does not pass and we are not able to negotiate for some relief from the teacher’s contract, we will be forced to make even harder cuts in teacher positions, reading specialists, or in the Special Education Department. As I said to one parent the other night, we have had to make cuts for the past five years now and any easy reduction that was available was made a long time ago.

Above all else, this problem is not going to be a one time issue. If we do not address this problem head on we will be here again next year and the year after that and the residents of Norfolk cannot afford that solution.

Unfortunately I do not have the magic answer, but I will endeavor to try to find a solution with your help. Norfolk is a wonderful community with incredible citizens. And at the risk of sounding cliche, our children are our future and worth every effort imaginable. We need to come together and work hard to make Norfolk schools better, be it more volunteering, developing original programing, creating corporate partnerships, exploring more creative cost cutting ideas, pooling resources/increasing buying power, etc, etc. We have it within our grasp to make Norfolk an even better place to live. I ask that all our citizens come together to help make positive changes and not simple fixes like cuts or taxes.

I appreciate your time in reading this letter and I hope it was helpful. I look forward to hearing from many of you on creative and innovative ways we can make our schools and our town the best they can be.

Warmest regards,

Shawn Dooley