School Committee member Dave Emhardt resigns

Less than ten months into his first full term, David Emhardt has announced his resignation from the School Committee, citing personal reasons.

Emhardt, a former Finance Committee chairman, is the third School Committee member to resign in the past 18 months. He was initially appointed to the committee to fill the remaining term of Jill Stevens, who resigned in July 2012. Emhardt served for eight months and then ran uncontested for a three-year term last April.

Emhardt expressed his appreciation to the committee for allowing him to serve and said that he may be willing to serve on the School Committee or another town board in the future.

The School Committee and Board of Selectmen are expected to move quickly to find a temporary replacement. Those interested in applying should send a letter of interest by January 30 to the superintendent’s office, 960 Washington St., Canton, MA 02021.

Whoever is appointed will serve for two months and may choose to run again in the April town election — either for the remaining two years left on Emhardt’s vacated term or for one of the two available three-year terms currently held by Reuki Schutt and John Bonnanzio.

In other news last week, the School Committee approved a preliminary FY15 operating budget that is approximately $1 million more than the target budget of $34.32 million recommended by Finance Director Jim Murgia.

The town’s Revenue Committee is expected to set an official budget figure within the next few weeks — after the governor sends his budget to the state legislature. The governor’s budget contains preliminary state aid figures for Canton.

In his budget for the next school year, School Superintendent Jeff Granatino submitted a figure of $35.33 million, which contains an additional $1 million for contractual obligations and roughly $350,000 for what Granatino called mandatory enhancements, including state-required staffing for special education and English Language Learners (ELL), computer software licensing, and more first grade teachers to alleviate class size concerns.

Granatino has also proposed $1.2 million in needs-based enhancements, which are discretionary. Granatino and school business manager Ken Leon found nearly $265,573 in unused funds from last year, which decreased the needs-based enhancement budget to a little more than $1 million.

Granatino’s recommendations would benefit each school and include the addition of part-time staff, increases for foreign languages, science/technology and wellness, instructional and library supplies, and audio visual materials.

Granatino said he understands that the budget he submitted to the School Committee is up for discussion and subject to be reduced once the Revenue Committee makes its final recommendations.

Bonnanzio asked that each individual school budget align with the priorities outlined by the principals in their School Improvement Plans.

In other news:

* Granatino announced that the search for a new permanent Kennedy Elementary School principal is nearing an end. He said there are two finalists for the position and he plans to make his final decision soon.

* Granatino said some Canton schools and some students will be taking the new PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) test in the spring. The PARCC test, which will replace the MCAS test in two years, better evaluates a student’s progress based on the new Common Core standards.

* Granatino said he was pleased to see that a reception was held to honor Marilyn Harris, who led the town’s Problem Solving program for 25 years and helped turn it into one of the most competitive programs in the state.

* Leon told the committee that utility bills are up 10 percent from last year.

* The committee gave permission to the CHS chapter of the Junior Statesmen of America to travel to the upcoming Winter Congress in Washington, D.C. The advisors are Schutt and Planning Board Chairman Jeremy Comeau.

* The School Committee will next meet on Thursday, January 30.

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Posted by Mike Berger on Jan 23 2014. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.