Shout Outs
- Thank you to the amazing Penn Brook sixth-grade team for supporting the sixth-grade students at Camp Kieve. They supported, challenged, cared for, and engaged with the students in all aspects of this weeklong field trip. The behind-the-scenes work done to make this a successful learning experience for students is commendable and is why students were able to shine as they engaged in important leadership experiences.
- Ted Cronin deserves a thank you. He has gone above and beyond by working extra shifts to keep the Council on Aging, Perley PreK and Central Office clean.
- The School Department and Families of Georgetown want to thank the greater community for investing in the children of the town. We had the ribbon cutting for the new, accessible playground at the Perley School. SEPAC provided the sensory table ensuring all students could participate. The PTA helped out with cotton candy and mittens for all!!
Budget Process Update
The Select Board asked all Municipal Department heads to submit their budgets and to develop three budget projections, which were to be submitted by mid-November. In a typical school budget process, this information is not available until late January or early February. Mike Cassidy, GPS Business and Human Resources Director, presented the three projected budgets during the School Committee meeting on Nov. 14, 2024.
The first budget would be what is known as “Level Funded.” This would result in the exact same budget totals for FY 2026 as was in FY 2025. As you can see, due to inflation and increased costs in expenses, the salary and wage total will be decreased. With the increase in expenses and the contractual obligations there will be a reduction in staff.
A “Level Service” budget is the second budget being developed. This would be the total from FY 2025 plus additional costs to maintain the exact same staffing and services into FY 2026. The increase will be based on salary/wages and inflation to products and services with a 5.47 percent increase.
The third budget request includes the FY 2025 totals with additional financial resources to modernize, maintain, and improve municipal services townwide. To fund this budget the townspeople would need to approve a Proposition 2½ override in the spring.
Included in this budget are the needs of the district to continue its modernization to move the needle for our students. There are multiple focus areas identified in this draft budget, including advancing student achievement, continuing the trajectory of high-quality curriculum for all grade levels and content areas, improving technology, and enhancing safety and operations.
Please note that the School District will not receive preliminary state budget allocations until mid-winter. Throughout the next couple of months, the Administrative Team will work on flushing out all three draft proposals and create line-item budgets for each. I will continue to keep the community informed.
Website Update
I want to remind you of the changes on our Georgetown Public School District website. There are updates that I want to bring to your attention:
- With the goal of keeping the community informed of the ongoing GEA negotiations, the School Committee has created and updated the Collective Bargaining page of the website. The new information is on the bottom of the page. Here is the link where you will find information on tentative agreements, the Committee’s financial package and other pertinent details.
- School Committee Policy Manual. In partnership with the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Georgetown School Committee completed and approved an entirely new policy manual. Many of the policies have been tweaked and/or changed. Click Here to Review.