Notebook for May 14 School Committee Meeting

• $8,498 was transferred from the salary account for supplies.

• $76,000 was transferred from the special education salary to get AV supplies, computer supplies, books, periodicals, and other supplies.
• Curriculum director Jennifer O'Neill presented the School Committee with the latest bullying survey results. They revealed that in the elementary schools, 50 percent of students have never been bullied while about 29 percent were bullied more than once. When it came to reporting the incident, about 78 percent told a parent. At the middle school level, 54 percent said they have never been bullied at school while 20 percent said a few times and 7 percent said many times. About 27 percent told their friends while 13 percent chose to tell their parents. Only 7 percent told a school adult. At Norton High School 53 percent say they have never been bullied while only 9 percent said they were bullied many times. Eight percent reported it to a school adult while the majority told friends. At all schools, they said the majority of bullying happens in the hallways, the cafeteria and classroom. Tune in later for more on this story.
• At this time in the fiscal year 2012 budget, Barry Nectow, director of operations and finance at Norton Public Schools, said that $68,000 is unencumbered.

“Now, $68,000 happens to be about where we are with unspent or unencumbered tuition money,” Nectow said. “And I sort of think about a month and change to go in the year where we still encounter tuition surprised at this point.”

It is projected that that by June 30 the schools will have spent relatively close to the FY12 budget.

• For the fiscal year 2013 budget of $23,007,874 the School Committee voted to make supply cuts as they can’t afford to lose any more staff members. Had the town voted at Town Meeting to go with Town Manager Michael Yunits’ recommendation, they would have eliminated the literacy coach position.