SHREWSBURY, Massachusetts – Tonights meeting represented the first opportunity for public comment on the proposed budget recommendation from the School Department, as well as an open forum on whether or not to open slots for school choice in Shrewsbury for the coming year.

On the budget side, Dr. Sawyer went over the current Shrewsbury Schools budget request, which calls for a 2.9% increase over last year, to pay for various cost increases, and programming designed to save money in other areas. This gap has closed considerably from the original proposal, but there is still a great deal of variation, as we still do not have final figures from the state on how much will be flowing to the town to begin with, and then what portion of that will be allotted by Town Manager Dan Morgado to the School Department.   Surprisingly few came out to speak on the budget section of the public hearing.

Shrewsbury residents Beth Casavant, and Joanna Mussleman spoke briefly in support of the work that the Committee has been doing.   John Lukach provided the Committee with his statement in advance, which was very helpful, and gave a brief presentation about his interpretation of the budget figures, as well as sharing his thoughts that the process of compensating teachers with education and experience step increases, has created an unsustainable growth in expenses, not just in Shrewsbury, but everywhere else as well.  It was a thorough presentation, but didn’t really present a clear “solution” to what he was defining as the “problem” with the way compensation is typically done throughout the United States.   Dr. Sawyer stressed that salaries here in Shrewsbury were at the low end of the scale of comparable schools in the area, and even below the state average – while still ranking in the top 2.8% of districts nationally in value for the dollar. Committee member Mark Murray, who was on the contract subcommittee, as he has been for 15 years, stressed that he was very proud of the agreement that was reached most recently with the teachers union.

Senator Michael Moore was generous enough to make time in his hectic schedule to come out and speak with us on the current state of the budget being developed in the House and Senate, which will ultimately need to be reconciled with Governor Patrick’s.  He cautioned that it’s possible that the figures the legislature comes up with may not be as high as the Governors, based on their question as to the source of some of the revenue figures the Governor is utilizing.

The Committee heard an excellent presentation from SHS Principal Brian Reagan on the 20 School Choice students who entered in September, as well as reviewing projections for the current incoming class of 9th graders.   As that group appears to be well over the 400 student mark, Dr. Sawyer indicated that believes that he will be recommending that the Committee votes at the next meeting to not open up any additional slots in Shrewsbury for school choice students.