01/23/10 - At Tuesday night’s meeting, the School Committee considered the addition of two new sports teams, which left one teacher/parent asking “where is the money for non-sports students?”

Kristine Monje raised the issue of funding a non-athletic enrichment program for students who do not participate in sports. She suggested that children not involved in sports were missing out by being left with only two or three other students in their class when the sports teams travel to games.

“Kids come in different packages,” Monje said. “We need to start planning [an enrichment program] for non-athletes now.”

Committee member Sean McGarry took issue with the idea that children in the classroom were the ones missing out. He said that he would be very disappointed with the instruction at the school if all learning stopped when the sports teams left for games. McGarry said that it was the sports teams who were at a disadvantage because they had to make up the work they missed while traveling to games.

Monje explained that the learning atmosphere is very different when there are only two or three students in a class. She thought the students left behind would benefit from a program that got them out of the classroom. Rather than going to a game they could visit a museum or cultural event.

Committee Chair Bill Padien pointed out that the School Committee had never said no to any enrichment program for the students. However, Monje said there was a big difference from approving small clubs on a case-by-case basis and developing a program like has been done with sports.

“We are spending $90,000 for sports versus $1,500 for chess club,” committee member Rich Tretheway said. “It isn’t comparable.”

With the planned addition of sailing and cross-country to the sports program, the requested sports budget would be $98,168. Cross-country would add $3,282 and sailing would add $6,086. Athletic Director Rob Closter explained that the money would go to coaching, transportation and fees associated with each sport.

Closter suggested the new sports would encourage students who weren’t normally interested in team sports to join. He pointed out that many students already compete in distance running on the island and also sail. Both sports will start with only high school teams.

However, McGarry said that funding for sports programs accounts for only two percent of the total budget, which he called “embarrassing.” Monje explained that it wasn’t her intention for money to be taken from sports to fund an enrichment program, but she wanted to make sure the committee remembered the students not involved in sports.

“Half of the middle school and 1/3 of high school students do not travel with a sports team,” Monje said. “That’s a lot of students.”

The council agreed that something should be done. Padien asked Superintendent Bob Hicks to come up with a plan for a non-athletic enrichment program that would fit into next year’s budget without increasing the bottom line.

“I am happy to be challenged to speak with students and come up with a plan for such a program,” Hicks said.

Budget talks continue

For the 2010-2011 school year, Hicks presented the committee with a separate Special Education budget of $820,000 in order to clarify exactly how much the school was spending on the program.

“In a $4 million budget, nearly a quarter of that is going to Special Education,” McGarry said. “I just want to draw peoples’ attention to that.”

Hicks said that while Block Island School does spend a lot, most schools spend around 20 percent of their budgets on Special Education. He also said that because of the school’s commitment to the program he thought, “it is a wonderful place for special needs children to grow up and be accepted.”

Padien explained that the committee is trying to keep the budget increase at around 2.5 percent rather than asking for the full 4.5 percent increase allowed by law. However, the budget is still based on estimates and projections with key items up in the air. For example, teachers are currently negotiating a new contract, which could have a significant effect on the budget.

However, nearly half of the increase in the budget is due to cuts in state and federal funding, with another large chunk being taken up by increases in teacher and other school worker salaries. In all, only $24,000 is being asked for to cover new programs, which are the two new sports teams and an additional day for a social worker.

The proposed budget includes $14,500 to increase the number of days a week a social worker will visit the school from three to four.

The committee is hoping to save money by switching health and dental plans from the current provider to the town’s plan under Blue Cross Blue Shield. Hicks estimated that the school could save roughly $7,500.

The electricity budget for the coming year is expected to decrease by $10,000, however, Hicks warned that if oil prices continue to rise “all bets are off.” The school is also asking to add a $2,000 line item to cover snow removal in the future. The number was based on how much it has cost this year to clear the fire exits following the heavy snowfall in December. However, some committee members thought the amount was high and suggested the job be put out to bid.

Tech upgrades

Hicks also plans to upgrade the school’s Macintosh network to run the latest version of the Apple OSX operating system, which will cost $4,000, and to buy a new administrative server for $5,000. He explained that since all of their computers run an operating system two-generations-old it has caused additional maintenance problems.

McGarry asked Hicks whether there are savings possible in technology support since the school pays $35,800, or just under $1,000 per computer, for support. Hicks explained that the figure also represents network support. Since the network runs an older operating system any new computers had to have their software downgraded to be able to run on the school’s network.