Norton School Committee
Town of Norton, Massachusetts
Featured video (with music) .. "Pay Attention" ... an inspiring video on students as Digital Learners
(this video was presented to the entire school staff)
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Norton School Committee
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The requested FY07 budget was rejected through the loss of the override vote.
The following information can still be useful in benchmarking our future needs
and understanding what elements of our school system are required to provide a
competitive educational system. FY07 Budget Request Overview The school department's FY07 Proposed Budget was developed after four months of planning between the superintendent, principals, coordinators, department heads, and school committee. It is intended to bring Norton's educational services to a level competitive with other similar communities and to address deficiencies that have accumulated over several years of under funded needs. Norton has not kept pace with spending on our regular education students, and adjusted for inflation our spending has actually declined each year during the past six years. As a result of this, we have reached a point where our instructional supplies are inadequate, technology upgrades have been delayed, services have not been maintained, and our student performance has reached levels below that of the state average.
Our expenditures per pupil rank in the bottom five in the Commonwealth among all
K-12 school districts. We have MCAS concerns, and schools that are on the NCLB
(No Child Left Behind) watch list. We have deficiencies such as outdated
text books and supplies, lack of programs, course offerings, and extra-curricula
activities. We have an extremely efficient central office (ie: no business
manager on staff, one curriculum coordinator), and low transportation costs for
regular students due to our creative utilization of busses.
The total budget request is: $24,951,563, which will require an
operational override (increase in taxes) to fund. Currently, the gap
between our proposed budget and the Town Manager's balanced budget is $2.2M.
This will result in an increase in the tax rate of about $1.00 per thousand
valuation, or roughly a 10% increase in real estate taxes to fund. This increase would still result in a future tax rate lower than
surrounding towns. A list of cuts has been developed and is posted under Cuts / Reductions above, which included numerous staff positions resulting in a 20% increase in class sizes (28 students per class in elementary grades), freeze on implementing our technology plan and curriculum revisions, freeze on upgrading computers/ textbooks/supplies, no incremental positions or programs, and the inability to implement our improvement plans. The High School accreditation will most likely be affected since funding was a major concern in the NEASC visiting team's assessment, and adequate funding is clearly required to address the deficiencies and concerns noted in their evaluation report. The new state aid formula for school funding will reduce long term state aid for Norton by about $1.5M, therefore cuts of this magnitude will continue for multiple years if the passage of an operational override does not occur. This revised formula shifts about 6% of the burden from state aid (Chapter 70) to the town of Norton local aid (real estate taxes). This aid formula in effect is sending the message that based on the current (2004) total real estate valuation of Norton coupled with the average household income, that Norton should be expected to raise and appropriate this money in addition to any incremental moneys to address our accumulated shortfalls going forward. Our ability to pay as a town is greater than our current contribution to our schools.
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