Hingham's New School

In Hingham, the Annual Town Meeting marks the end of the long budget process, and budgets approved by the citizens on April 27th will become the financial plan for the year. This years budget process was a particularly challenging one for all Town Departments as our community wrestles with significant financial issues and with balancing fiscal prudence with the provision of needed programs and services.On March 9th, the School Committee approved unanimously a 2009-2010 operating budget of $35,469,391. That number was endorsed unanimously on March 10th by votes of the Selectmen and the Advisory Committe. The Capital Outlay Committee recommended a $50,000 allocation (of the $414,650 originally requested by the School Department), specifically for repairs to the middle school roof. Therefore, Town Meeting voters will be asked to consider, under Article 6, a recommended total appropriation for the schools of $35,519,391 (a figure that is $166,646 less than the total education budget for 08-09)The MSBA approved $10,370,000 in funding for the new elementary school based upon its affirmation of an elementary overcrowding problem in Hingham and the agencys approval of an educational program that included operation of four fully functioning elementary schools and space for a full day kindergarten option. Ultimately it would be the MSBA Board who would decide whether failure of the proposed override would compromise our funding agreement with them. However, the school department and the School Committee believe that enrollment figures speak for themselves, and that voter support for the additional school should be motivated more by the need to complete the project at hand than by the possible consequences of a negative vote.

The K-12 program has grown by more than 520 students in the last ten years. The mandated, integrated preschool program has more than doubled in that time. Current overcrowding was what motivated the enrollment studies and the development of a Facilities Master Plan. All of our current high school grade level groups have fewer than 300 students; all of our elementary grades number well more than 300 students, with the 2008-2009 kindergarten class at 343 students. Even with the slow down in real estate sales and development, and with no new students over the next couple of years, enrollment will grow annually as larger cohorts move through the system and smaller classes graduate. School capacity figures that are on original architectural drawings of 40 plus year-old buildings represent red flags for building safety concerns. They do not reflect educational needs in 2009 or MSBA guidelines for square footage per student.Education does matter in Hingham. The facts are clear and the figures support them. Public education, not private school, is the choice of most parents in this community. We all wish that the economic situation were better; but the students are here now, and our override requests that reality. The School Committee and the school department are committed to continued excellence in our public schools; and the community can be assured that available dollars have been, and will continue to be, well spent.




Dorothy Galo, PhD
Superintendent of Schools

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Hingham
• Schools

[dougsmurray]

I live in Southern CA, and negative comments on this awesome school are hard for me to understand. CA ranks 47th in public education and are in rapid decline. How nice your beautiful town is on the rise. Oh, and congratuations on the Commonwealth being consistantly ranked 1st or 2nd in education!

[02703ma]

Is this not the school that was to be named after the host? Maybe it was another school?

[bulldogclip101]

Poor Hingham, we are soon going to be drowning in taxes due to the override approved by the ignorant residents.