FY05 Staffing

Here is a full accounting of all personnel plans for FY05, including hiring and other changes in staffing that depend on the outcome of the override vote.

For the schools, 15.7 FTEs will be added to today's headcount if the override succeeds; if it fails, 39.8 FTEs will be eliminated. (For the municipal departments, the numbers are 2.5 FTEs added if the override wins and 10 eliminated if it loses.)

A full and accurate answer isn't simple, but it is shown by the table below, part of the excellent report by the Appropriation Committee to Town Meeting. The Appropriation Committee is appointed by and answerable to the Town Meeting Moderator, not the Selectmen or School Committee. It is constitutionally required to review all budgetary proposals and changes before they are voted on by Town Meeting. Its full report is at http://users.rcn.com/davidlkaufman/TMMA/Documents/ACReport2004TM.pdf

The table shows that some positions were eliminated by early retirements (ERI) and by cuts.

The taxpayers are not asked to fund every new hire. Sacrifices to existing programs are made. For the schools, for instance, 5.5 FTEs went away due to early retirements, and 5.8 will be unconditionally cut from the FY05 budget. In other words, to balance the budget, people are laid off in any event. If the override fails, more people are laid off.

33.5 existing FTEs in the schools are at risk, meaning those positions will be eliminated if the override loses.

5.0 FTEs in the schools are added unconditionally; these are 5 enrollment-driven FTEs at the high school. LHS enrollment will up by about 100 students (out of 1800) compared with last year.

There are another 22.0 FTEs added and restored if the override succeeds. These are:

4 FTEs are needed to restore elementary art, music, and physical education to the levels that existed before the defeat of the last override.

6 FTEs for enrollment driven teachers at the elementary and middle school levels.

5 FTEs for reduction of LHS social studies and foreign language classroom loads, to provide more time for help session. This would mirror hiring and load distribution that has improved performance of high school students in science classes and then, more recently, in math classes.

1 FTE is to restore a health education teacher at the elementary level.

3.5 FTEs are to support assistant principals at the middle school and elementary levels. These people would help supervise the teaching staff, where there is a large fraction of young, new teachers.

1 FTE is for a new counselor at the high school, where enrollment will be up significantly from last year.

1 FTE is to fund the Director of Secondary Education, an important curriculum supervision position that was filled in the past and vacated. The replacement requisition was lost in last year's override defeat.

0.5 FTE is to restore a drama specialist at the elementary level.

Total restorations and additions: 22.0