WILMINGTON, MA — Wilmington Apple recently asked all six Wilmington School Committee candidates a few questions about the school district’s budget.
This week’s response schedule is as follows: Amy Largenton (Monday), Sabrina Hewitt (Tuesday), Jennifer Bryson (Wednesday), Steve Bjork (Thursday), Kathleen O’Donoghue (Friday), Rhonda Musikar-Rosner (Saturday), and a recap (Sunday).
Below is the response from candidate Amy Largenton.
Amy Largenton
QUESTION: The School Committee reviews, approves, and oversees the operation the school district’s budget. (1) Describe any areas of the school budget you feel is currently underfunded? (2) Describe any areas of the school budget you feel is currently overfunded? (3) Do you have any ideas on how the district can save money without negatively impacting student learning?
ANSWER: As with most budgets, you will never have that perfect area that you think is funded appropriately. I feel Special Education staffing (i.e., certified teacher and aides) in the schools is under budgeted.
Basing my answers on the FY18 projected budget, the Central Office has a lot of extra payroll (i.e., numerous coordinators and data assessment specialists). We have increased the Central Office payroll in four years by $1,250,995 yet Special Education only increased by $632,144 in the same four years.
I still feel strongly money could be saved at the higher level. In the Central Office, we have many opportunities to merge job roles without negatively impacting the students as each school is already thin.
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