Wednesday, May 8, 2013
The budget includes both the municipal and school budgets for fiscal year 2014.
With very little discussion, residents at the Mansfield annual town meeting approved the budget for fiscal year 2014 beginning on July 1. The costs, which includes both the municipal and school budget, comes in at a little over $78 million. The town budget for the new fiscal year will be $35.6 million, an increase of 1.23% while the school budget increases by 3.6% to $42,574,028. The budget was balanced this year in part to the use of $1.5 million in free cash. It is projected that the use of free cash to plug budget holes will go down over the next five years with a goal to use close to none by fiscal year 2018 No jobs were lost in the new budget and a few positions were added including a human resources director. With 800 town employees…
Monday, February 4, 2013
Superintendent Brenda Hodges said the budget situation in Mansfield is starting to come together.
Mansfield School Committee Chairman Michael Trowbridge said that the fiscal situation in Mansfield may be improving. “Not to be real optimistic, but we’re $1.1 million above what we were expecting,” he said. “Realize it’s still early in the process and there are a lot of things we need to shake out.” Mansfield Schools Superintendent Brenda Hodges said that to maintain level services, the district still needs $500,000 for what the current projections are. She said that everyone in the joint budget subcommittee strongly believe that chapter 70 state funding will be level funded at 2.5 percent for 2013, since Gov. Deval Patrick’s budget did not cut into state funding for schools. “It’s a moving target really until you get to May,” she said. …
Monday, December 3, 2012
Mansfield one of 46 Massachusetts districts named in the Advanced Placement Honor roll for 2012.
Mansfield was one of the 46 Massachusetts public school districts were named to the College Board's 2012 AP District Honor Roll for expanding access to Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum and maintaining or improving the percent of students scoring three or higher. "We're excited and very proud," superintendent of Mansfield Schools Brenda Hodges said. "We're always working to be able to increase opportunities for students at that level because they're so self-motivated, they challenge themselves and you just want to provide the curriculum that gives them the opportunity to do that." According to the College Board, more school districts from Massachusetts earned a spot on the honor roll than any other state in the nation. A total of 539 …
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Mansfield could lose federal funding if state requirements are not met concerning high needs students.
The Mansfield School Committee discussed on Tuesday the fiscal year 2013 budget season and the problems that unfounded state mandates put on the district. “In terms of the next year’s budget, we’re getting ready to begin,” Mansfield school’s director of finances Edward Vozzella said. “In the week after next, we’ll send out the budget templates and begin in earnst.” The unfunded mandates, superintendent Brenda Hodges said, focuses on high-needs groups of students. “Those are the students that need to be small [class size] numbers and are very staff intensive,” she said. “We’re going to need to take that into consideration.” She said that risking these student groups could cost the town and the district large amounts of funding. “The state …
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Mansfield looking to replace phone systems dating back to the 80s.
Mansfield town manager William Ross said that the phones in the Mansfield public schools have been temporarily fixed. For an $800 patch, the phone system, which is connected through computers to the school bell system, has been given a temporary reprieve. “We have systems in various places that are so old and antiquated that we’re keeping then together with chewing gum,” Ross said. “They have software dating back to the 80s.” Ross said that he and superintendent of schools Brenda Hodges are working together to find funding for what has been estimated as an $800,000 project. “This is the way that we can continue to work together on these things,” he said. “We’re meeting next week to get a quote for the whole system; municipal and schools. …
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Robinson elementary reading program making improvements in student scores well later in the academic career.
The Robinson Elementary School grade 2 literacy program is integral to future academic ventures, according to reading specialist Jennifer Fleischmann. The program prepares students for their first MCAS test in the next grade. “80 percent [of Mansfield second graders] should be reading,” she said. “We could never do that before, but since the new program was put in place four years ago we are above that.” Fleischman said that if a student does not become proficient in reading by grade 5, he or she would probably never learn to read at a standardized level and will most likely need extra help in the coming years. Fleischmann said that the grade progress on the literacy exam, in other words the progression of proficient readers in grade 2 …
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Accelerated Fiscal Year 2012 Prior Grant Distribution to Benefit the Bristol
and Norfolk Senate District
- GOVERNMENT
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Thursday, December 22, 2011
The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) will be processing the remainder of the Fiscal Year 2012 Prior Grant quarterly payments during the month of the December, 2011. The Mansfield school district will be receiving a total of a little under $1.7 million. The high school will get $712,357, Qualters will get $625,330, and the district will also receive $352,685 for a new elementary school campus. Over $200 million will be doled out across the Commonwealth with the aim of aiding cities, towns and regional school districts in addressing budgetary obstacles. Half the towns in Senator Jim Timilty’s Bristol and Norfolk district received funds from the FY2012 Prior Grants. “Education especially public education is the root of …
Friday, December 16, 2011
To supplement the Tri-Town Drug Awareness Partnership.
The Mansfield School Committee discussed on Tuesday a new initiative to reform their participation in the Tri-Town Drug and Alcohol Awareness Partnership high school program. "I've been to several of these meetings over the past two years," committee chair Michael Trowbridge said. "I think we could accomplish more with these monthly meetings with just a Mansfield group. We have enough on our plate trying to find stuff for [our students] to do, never mind the 3,000 kids from Norton and Foxborough." The program meets every month, and for the most part is run by students from Foxborough, Norton and Mansfield. The partnership's stated goal is "To reduce the incidence of underage drinking and substance abuse in the communities of Foxborough, …
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
School Committee keeps a level service budget after loss of federal funds.
The Mansfield School Committee voted 5-0 on Tuesday to approve the preliminary budget at $41.4 million. $40.9 of that budget is to keep level services. This means that they want to keep the same quality of service and number of teachers from the fiscal year 2012 budget. The current FY 2013 budget was $2.9 million higher than the previous year, and school district director of finance and operations Edward Vozzella said that is because of the loss of federal assistance from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund and jobs act has run out, and the committee all agreed that they want to keep the additional positions the next year. “[The loss of SFSF] winds up in salaries this year,” Vozzella said. “This is the real reason why we’re going up so …
The following is a summery from the Dec. 13 School Committee Meeting.
The Mansfield School Committee tentatively approved the fiscal year 2013 budget at $41,419,361, which is a $2.9 million increase over last year’s town-approved budget. The increase comes mainly from the loss of federal funding from the FY 2012 budget. The vote was unanimous to approve. The school committee also approved a motion 3-2, with Kiera O’Neil and Jim Perry voting against, to extend Superintendent Brenda Hodges contract by one year. The contract would have ended in 2013, but is now extended to 2014. Committee members also decided they would not allow use of the newly instituted Remote Participation policy in town committees at the moment. Chair Michael Trowbridge said that they might amend the policy in the future, but does not …
jackie
6:43 am on Monday, March 25, 2013
Wouldnt you think bullying in our schools takes presidence? more ›