February 14, 2012

Four Keene Schools on Lockdown This Morning

Keene High School, Keene Middle School, Jonathan Daniels and Symonds Schools were placed under lockdown this morning as Keene Police searched for an armed man allegedly carrying a shot gun in a wooded area in West Keene.

A short time after 10am, Superintendent William Gurney received confirmation from law enforcement that the suspect had been apprehended and was taken into police custody.  Lockdown status at the four school buildings has been lifted.

Presentation to the Finance Committee of the Keene Board of Education

Update on Proposed Budget Reductions for 2012 – 2013

Bill Gurney

February 7, 2012

 Introduction

The Keene Board of Education approved a recommendation made by the Finance Committee to reduce the proposed budget by $550,000. This decision was made when concerns were raised about lower revenue projections for next year.

Administrators met twice to identify areas of the budget for reduction and worked collaboratively to reach the Board’s budget target of $61,571,139.  Along with the outstanding work of our administrators, I would like to take this opportunity to In reaching the target, we examined staffing needs, supply requests and looked closely at new initiatives. No easy decisions can be found in our recommendations as these programs were already reviewed and supported during the initial phase of budget preparation last fall.

We began this project by requesting the Department of Education review the decision to eliminate Class Size Reduction funds from our Title II-A entitlement grant. Fortunately, our request was approved and included in the reductions are classroom teaching positions currently assigned to Jonathan Daniels School and Keene High School.

Also at Keene High School, 3.7 (FTE) teaching positions will be left vacant due to teachers accepting early retirement benefits.

Included in the reductions as well are funds ($85,000) for Gifted & Talented programming. As you may recall, this amount is funded in our current budget but has not been spent due to a lack of qualified, certified G&T teachers in our area.

You will note the reduction of $14,191 for elementary playground equipment.  No project has been identified for this funding and, with the anticipated building improvements to our elementary schools in the next few years, funds for playground upgrades may be included in future building bonds.

The sudden need to further reduce our proposed budget left us with many difficult decisions.  Even relatively minor reductions such as funding for the Harris Center Programs ($5,000) will eliminate a valued environmental and wildlife program that has enriched student learning since 1980.

However, we are also cognizant of the very difficult economic burden being place upon local taxpayers in Keene and other local communities.