Superintendent of Schools Jeff Szymaniak presented a “truly a level-service budget” for fiscal 2025 to the School Committe on Wednesday, Feb. 7.
The proposed budget for FY ’25 funds exactly the same programs and staff now in place during the 2023-24 school year, with no proposals to add or change programs.
“What is presented tonight is apples to apples,” Szymaniak said. “With the exception that everything is a bit more expensive than last year.”
The proposed $63,590,845 budget represents a 4.7 percent ($3,105,687) spending increase because of cost increases, according to Szymaniak. If accepted as presented, the budget would set assessment increases as 11.03 percent ($19,695,553) for Whitman and 10.20 percent ($15,325,369) for Hanson.
All budget documents are available on the district webste whrsd.org.
By comparion, some area school districts are “looking at double-digit increases of their overall budgets,” Szymaniak said, citing Middleboro and Norton in particular who are looking at 11- to 13-percent increases. Most are looking at increases of 3 percent and up.
“We’re just trying to service our students the best we can,” he said. “I believe we’ve done a nice job … we’ve been able to work federal aid into the district budgets for the support of students.” Between the ESSER funding series of grants the district has received close to $4.6 million in federal aid.
After budget discussions with both town administrators in November to hear what they were allocating, Szymaniak said he told them he would get the budget to that allocation, but he was obligated to present to the School Committee what the schools needed.
A 2 percent ($61,694,861) district budget increase would require cuts of $1.8 million to the overall plan, and would place Whitman’s assessment at $18,529,713 – of 4.45 percent higher – and Hanson’s at $14,595,226 – or 4.96 percent higher. A 3 percent ($62,299,713) district budget increase would require cuts of about $1.3 million to the overall plan, and would place Whitman’s assessment at $18,901,636 – or 6.55 percent higher – and Hanson’s at $14,828,154 – or 6.62 percent higher. A 4 percent ($62,904,564) district budget increase would require cuts of $686,281 to the overall plan, and would place Whitman’s assessment at $19,273,559 – or 8.63 percent higher – and Hanson’s at $15,061,082 – or 8.30 percent higher.
“It really looks like 5.13 percent when we add the [Whitman] middle school debt … but, overall, for the assessment value of the district, we’re looking at a 4.74 increase this year to maintain level services,” he said. “Hanson is not going to be paying anything on the Whitman Middle School project. It shows in the budget … because it’s a borrowing on behalf of the school, but it’s not part of the Hanson assessment.”
Since 2016 only one other budget – when it went up 5.52 percent in fiscal 2021 posted an increase of more than 4 percent.
He also pointed out that Whitman-Hanson is still spending less, at $16,339.41, per-pupil than 11 other area communities. The state per-pupil average is $19,566.95.
“I am very thankful and grateful to say to the towns of Whitman and Hanson tonight that we’re not in the bottom third,” Szymaniak said. “We’re not up at the top tier, but we’ve made somes strong gains.”
That is an improvement from the bottom eight districts where it once had been.
Szymaniak said educational programs the towns have paid for have helped that happen, but that he is concerned about regressing.
“We all know this is a challenging time of year, as all department heads and chiefs in both Whitman and Hanson are advocating for their departments and employees,” Szymaniak said. “I’m taking risk here, but I think all town officials and leaders in both communities want a budget that will support their department and the town, and also provide the best possible service to the community. The regional school district budget proposal is no different.”
He noted that today’s students are “much different than the students we had in 2019.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on students academically, socially and behaviorally.
“Students have changed and our teachers and our district have had to change and modify how we deliver our curriculm and keep students engaged in our classrooms,” Szymaniak said. High-quality instructional materials, one-to-one technology, interventionists to aid students in making up any lost ground while helping all students, social-emotional supports, a growing English language learner population and an increase in students receiving special education both in and out-of-district, have increased the school budget over the years.
W-H is in compliance with laws, regulations and mandates from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) on high-quality evidence-based instructional materials, K- grade three screenings and interventions and enrichment.
“FY ’25 is no different,” he said. “The difference this year, is the loss of federal assistance to the amount of about $818,000, which we have incorporated into this budget.”
There are 11 district paraprofessionals ($351,388), one English language learner teacher ($90,859) and four Unit A staff members ($375,955) who were hired under the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Reief (ESSER) III funds for which salaries are being placed back in the general fund for fiscal 2025.
The budget is aligned with the School Committee’s Strategic Plan for 2023-28, focusing on what they term the four “focus area buckets” of: student access; communication; curriculum and community/culture, while simultaneously aiming to retain, recruit and develop staff as well as resources.
The budget process began with the Jan. 10 preliminary presentation to the School Committee and will continue to be discusssed at every committee meeting through April 17, if it takes that long, to finalize the budget for the May 6 Town Meetings. A meeting with the Whitman Finance Committee was held Tuesday, Feb. 6. The deadline for presenting the budget to the towns is March 21.
There are anticipated costs included in the budget, as well, Szymaniak said. These include contractual obligations, movement of costs from grants (like ESSER funds) to the budget and multi-lingual learner enrollment for which there are educational requirements the district must meet. Szymaniak stressed the multi-lingual learner population does not represent newly arrvied homeless migrants, as is the case in some neighboring districts.
“This is just direct residents of either Whitman or Hanson that has increased 198 percent over the past two years,” he said.
Unanticipated costs include specal education placements due to move-ins and increasing student mental health needs and behavioral supports.
At the same time, class size is down.
“We are at or close to, class sizes of 21 in all elementaries, if not a little bit lower,” Szymaniak said. Only the incoming kindergarten classes are not fully known right now.
High school enrollment, meanwhile, is decreasing as the town average between 60 and 70 students going to vocational schools, private schools or charter schools.
There is also 28 students supported by the district in its Community Evening School. Another 117 preschool students are also enrolled in that program at the high school.
“What does all this mean?” said Asssistant Superintendent George Ferro. “It means that we’re trying to do the right thing for the students that we have in our schools.”
That boils down to three district-based academic interventionists, 12 building-based interventionists, five district wide curriculum coordinators spanning all subject areas and a secondary data specialist. Interventionists help W-H students as teachers and paraprofessionals in math and ELA, gathering data to form intervention groups and work with staff and teachers in the buildings.
For social-emotional supports, there are five board-certified behavioral analysts, seven school psychologists, 10 adjustment counselors and transition rooms at Hanson Middle and WHRHS for students returning from hospitalization – which can run the gamut from concussions or minor surgery such as appendectomies as well as students with social-emotional issues or hospitalization of other treatment for any mental health issues.
“Our staff has done a wonderful job for the last 20 years, but we never gave them the schools that they actually needed – that are research-based, that are scientifically based, that do improve student learning that we now can offer,” Ferro said.