MEET THE BAUMANN SCHOOL BUS DRIVERS
SCHOOLS
032505 The ABC's of the Fox Lane budget
Nonsense from a shill
By BOB COOPER
Judging from the presentations at the Bedford Central School District board of education meeting on Wednesday, it is clear that the members of the board and the professionals on staff seek to serve the needs of our children and be fiscally responsible at the same time. (REALLY ???) It is with this double sense of duty that the district hopes to shape a budget proposal that the community can embrace. The current budget-to-budget increase is at 8.05 percent. By the end of the process, the superintendent and the board hope to get that number to 7.5 percent by trimming almost half a million dollars from the original budget proposal. On this night, presentations on curriculum, special education, and technology punctuated the evening and provided a clear sense of where the district wants to go in the coming year.
Linda Schluter, assistant superintendent for special education and pupil services, provided an overview of her budget. Ms. Schluter began by stating her goal: "The primary objective in crafting this budget is to be fiscally responsible to the community, while at the same time maintaining the integrity of special education programs that educate students with and without disabilities."
She explained that many forces impact the special education budget, for example NCLB, New York State standards, the reauthorization of IDEA 04, legal issues, and transfer students. Currently serving the special needs of 616 students, Ms. Schluter emphasized the fact that because of our excellent homegrown Bedford programs, we keep many students in our schools rather than sending them to out-of-district placements. This serves the needs of our students more effectively, and saves the district many thousands of dollars at the same time. She highlighted these special programs and explained how they are singular to our area. Staffing for next year will call for an increase of 1.5 teachers. However, because of a series of reimbursements, federal and state grants, and a redeployment of staff, the dollar amount for special education will actually be reduced from last year - that difference is approximately $450,000. Stamped on every frame of Ms. Schluter's PowerPoint presentation is the phrase "Children first and foremost."
Dr. Diane Ramos-Kelly, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, presented her budget proposal next. She opened by focusing on her goals for curriculum and instruction:
• Provide ongoing professional development and support for faculty that is linked to improved student learning.
• Increase the connections between special education, English language learners, and regular education.
• Meet the needs of students through rich "thinking curriculum" that spirals across subjects K-12.
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Connect the use of assessment data to instruction.She then outlined and explained the many ongoing district initiatives - curriculum mapping, literacy instruction K-12, Math Trailblazers, Syracuse University Project Advance, as well as several pilot programs - Science 21, fifth grade integrated ELA/social studies, and ESL/content instruction. Dr. Ramos-Kelly emphasized the link between student learning and professional development, particularly in literacy, establishing a common language across the district, creating literacy coalitions, immersing teachers in "best practices" in literacy instruction, emphasizing "knowing the learner," developing curriculum maps, and continued teaching of reading and writing. In mathematics, Dr. Ramos-Kelly highlighted the common approaches used across the grade levels, ongoing professional development, common assessments, and the district math committee. The curriculum and instruction budget calls for an increase of about $45,000 with increases coming
in the areas of curriculum writing, in-service training, contractual increases, and BOCES services and materials. Dr. Ramos-Kelly closed by discussing the efficacy of the Summer Academy, an in-house "summer school" designed to help students improve their skills and catch up on course credit. This would call for an increase of $24,000 if the district decided to move forward with the program as established in the past.Jim Doherty, director of technology, followed with his presentation. He gave the board a glimpse into the future by using a Web program that provided a live feed of the board meeting onto the screen. Then he demonstrated the use of streaming audio/video - one clip of an actual underwater scene, one of a classroom upstate, and then one of Fox Lane's football team. He then showed an example of video conferencing between and among schools and classrooms all over the world. Mr. Doherty then shared what is currently happening in the schools. He talked about teacher Web sites, wireless science labs, Smart Board technology, and ELMO Document Cameras. Districtwide, he described a new student information software system, the Atlas Rubicon program used for curriculum mapping, and the basic plan for data warehousing using E scholar and COGNOS. Mr. Doherty further explained that a district technology committee is in place to spearhead the movement into the future by revising the district's long-range plan. The process is not easy, as evidenced by the many hours of careful reading of the lengthy budget book, As one sitting at the table, it is hard work, painstaking work, but work that is for the good of the community and our children.
Bob Cooper
is the assistant superintendent for human resources at the Bedford Central School District.Open board seats in district