March 23, 2022
Dear NPS Families,
Over the past two years, we have faced unprecedented challenges in our classrooms, our school buildings, and our community. I am grateful to our educators, staff, and administrators who have worked tirelessly to educate our students and to provide the social and emotional supports to guide them through this stressful and uncertain time.
Over the past several years and continuing through the pandemic, we have been able to expand and strengthen many academic and social-emotional initiatives. These efforts have included:
Expanding math and literacy interventions
Strengthening capacity to analyze and use data to inform educator practice
Expanding critical mental health support for students
Maintaining favorable class and team sizes at elementary, middle, and high school levels
Expanding electives and number of AP classes with a more diverse student enrollment
Expanding access to technology, both devices and software, at all levels, and providing training to educators to facilitate mastery of new applications and skills
Strengthening our longstanding commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion by the formation of a dedicated leadership team devoted to ensuring that both our professional development and our policies and practices are current, thoughtful, and dynamic
I am proud that we have continued to make so much progress on our system-wide goals over the past few years. However, the financial impact of the pandemic, combined with other pressing financial challenges, have created our current fiscal reality. While we have worked diligently to manage costs with minimal impact to students and staff over the past two years, we have now reached a point where we must make extraordinarily difficult choices.
We knew that our budget would be very tight this year as we did everything possible to maintain academic and social and emotional support for students while keeping our class sizes favorable. This approach was critical given the needs of our students and staff as they returned to in-person school full-time following a year of hybrid and remote schooling models. While we did consider budget reductions last year for this current school year, we decided to delay and instead manage our budget as tightly as possible given the anticipated needs of our students.
Unfortunately, a number of unanticipated costs have created even greater financial challenges over the course of this year, including:
Continued COVID costs
A higher than projected number of health plans utilized
A larger than expected decline in revenue from school building rentals
An increase in substitute costs
To address some of these challenges, we instituted a purchasing freeze in the middle of this year.
For the past several years, we have been able to use budget surplus from the previous year to balance the budget for the following year. This year, we do not have a budget surplus to balance next year’s budget. In addition, we must cover current operational and contractual costs, as well as address new and/or increased costs, including:
Increased health insurance costs
A more expensive transportation contract for buses and vans
Launching and expanding special education programs to meet growing student needs
As a result of the extraordinary challenges both this year and next, we have to close a budget gap of just under $4 million for the 2022-23 school year in order to meet our operating costs. The gap includes approximately $2.7 M in operating expenses and $1.3 M in special education program development and expansion. Our budget gap was initially $5.2 million and that number is now lower due to additional COVID reimbursement funding from the City.
With regard to our special education programs, we are firmly committed to expanding programs that allow more Newton students to stay in our district, learning with their friends, neighbors, and peers. We have expected this expansion over the past few years as we have observed the needs of our students. Launching new programs and expanding current programs allows us to provide the support our students need by hiring additional teachers and staff. Further, expanding our programming options allows us to recognize both short and long term savings, as we would otherwise need to fund tuition annually to outside placements to ensure our students receive appropriate and tailored educational support.
In preparing this budget, we have diligently explored all non-personnel options to reduce costs. However, because 88% of our budget is personnel and the remaining 12% is largely fixed, we now have no choice but to make extremely difficult personnel reductions to balance the budget. The heart of our district is our employees and making any reductions at all is exceptionally difficult.
In sum, we will reduce approximately 40 staff positions due to the budget gap and another 13 positions due to declining enrollment. We will also add approximately 10 positions to support the expansion and creation of new special education programs.
We are doing everything possible to limit the impact on the student and adult experiences in our schools. However, the magnitude of the reductions will have an impact on some of our staff who are already experiencing stress. We are also worried that some of the reductions will disproportionately impact some of our most vulnerable students.
The current proposed reductions include:
Elementary: Reduced elementary literacy intervention and coaching and math intervention support.
Middle School: Reduced middle school literacy and math support and school counseling. Reduced team teachers resulting in some larger class sizes and a small number of teachers instructing classes outside of their primary area of specialization.
High School: Increased class sizes in certain courses. Reduced school counseling and likely some elective classes.
Districtwide: Reduction in K-8 curriculum and instructional leadership in virtually every subject. Decrease in professional development and curriculum initiatives.
Given the financial resources available, our collective challenge in preparing this budget was to determine how to balance the preservation of the many positive initiatives, programs and services created over the last several years with our current fiscal reality. While this budget does reduce some programs and services, it also maintains critical mental health supports added over the past several years and keeps significant academic programs in place.
The Newton Public Schools have faced daunting financial challenges on several occasions in the past. Each time, the district had to make painful reductions in order to balance its budget. Thankfully, we as a community have a history of overcoming difficult financial circumstances and I am hopeful that it will be the case again. In the meantime, I have no doubt that our skilled and dedicated faculty and staff will continue to do everything possible to support both the academic and social and emotional needs of our students during this critical time.
Sincerely,
David Fleishman
The Newton Public Schools are undertaking a review and evaluation of all communications tools currently used by administrators, teachers, staff, departments, clubs, athletics, and others within NPS who communicate regularly with families and students.
The survey is designed to help us understand the following:
1. What is the best way to reach families?
2. What are the primary challenges for families in accessing information from NPS?
3. What are the primary ways in which NPS can improve school communications?
Please complete the survey below. It should take only 5 minutes to complete. Choose your preferred language in the upper right corner of the survey homepage.
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KCD2LKG
The survey will be open until Monday, March 28, 2022.
This information will be used by a team, led by Steven Rattendi (Director of Information Technology), Allison Levit (Director of English Language Learning), and Julie McDonough (Director of Communications), to improve communication practices in the district.
Thank you in advance for your feedback
If your child turns 5 years old before September 1, 2022, you are eligible to start kindergarten in the Newton Public Schools next fall! Registration is NOW OPEN! To help us plan for next year, we ask families to register as soon as possible.
To find out more about registration for kindergarten, please visit this webpage on the Newton Public School district website: www.newton.k12.ma.us/kindergarten
On March 3, 2022, NPS held an information session for kindergarten families new to NPS. Here is information from that session:
Please note that if your student is likely to participate in summer programs with the Newton Public Schools, the federal government has announced that free meals will end on June 30, 2022. This means that families will no longer be able to access free meal service through NPS.
However, if you believe your family may qualify for the free and reduced meal program, we encourage you to complete this application:
Free and Reduced Meal Service Application
Completing this application will ensure that if you are eligible, your student will continue to receive meals at a free or reduced cost.
At their meeting on Monday, December 6, 2021, the Newton School Committee approved the calendar for the 2022-23 school year. You can find it here:
Through the Creative Arts and Sciences Program (CAS), authors and illustrators are coming to all Newton Public Schools elementary and middle schools to engage students in the writing and illustrating process!
On April 12, everyone is invited to a meet-and-greet, book sale and signing at Cabot Elementary School between 3:15-5:30 PM. Authors and illustrators will be there to sign books and talk to students and their families.
Newtonville Books will have select books for sale at the event, or you can order ahead of time at https://www.newtonvillebooks.com/npsauthorfest (20% of proceeds will be used for future CAS events.)
CAS AuthorFest 2022 is made possible by a generous grant from the Newton Schools Foundation, with additional support from The Village Bank, the Harmony Foundation, and parent contributions to their PTO.
Masks are OPTIONAL in our K-12+ school buildings and the Education Center (administrative offices.) Masks are also optional on all NPS transportation (buses and vans.)
Please note, masks are still required in the following circumstances:
Individuals returning from COVID infection on days 6-10 (CDC requires 10 days of masking, regardless of vaccination status)
Individuals who are unvaccinated and returning from quarantine on days 6-10
In nursing/health offices
Newton Early Childhood Program (NECP)
Certain school environments (assemblies, field trips, music class) - please continue to send your student to school with a mask in the event it is needed.
- You can still opt-in to the at-home COVID rapid antigen testing program. Opt-in through your Aspen parent/guardian account: Aspen. Follow these instructions once you are logged in.
All testing information can be found on our website here: NPS COVID Testing Webpage.
It is critical that all families conduct the daily health assessment every day before your student comes to school. If your student is sick, please keep them at home. Be alert for the following symptoms:
Fever (100.0F or higher), chills, or shaking chills
Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
New loss of taste or smell
Muscle aches or body aches
Cough (not due to other known cause, such as chronic cough)
Sore throat, when in combination with other symptoms
Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea, when in combination with other symptoms
Headache, when in combination with other symptoms
Fatigue, when in combination with other symptoms
Nasal congestion or runny nose (not due to other known causes, such as allergies), when in combination with other symptoms