D-S Public Schools Working With A Tight Budget

Dover-Sherborn School District superintendent Valerie Spriggs and Dover-Sherborn Regional School Committee vice-chair Clare Graham reported on teacher contract negotiations and the district’s operating budget at the Sherborn Advisory Committee meeting, on Wednesday.

“The operating budget is frugal for both towns,” Spriggs said.

She said they are maximizing programs with what they have without cutting anything. 

Graham said they could use a portion left over from the previous year’s budget, as a “free cash” expense fund to aid this year’s budget. However, the state has not yet advised the district as to how much money they can use. 

Regarding the teacher contracts, Graham said they had been meeting twice a week since last April with teacher representatives. They finished in November and Graham and Spriggs agreed the teachers should be congratulated for their hard work.

Graham said the teachers did not look at the negotiations as what they could get for themselves, but saw themselves as part of the community they teach in and wanted to know how the budget could work for them and the students. 

Spriggs did note, however, that the matrix that determines the teachers’ raises is outdated and needs to be restructured. She said that it was difficult to work around.

Spriggs said that their initial reaction was to “blow up” the matrix in order to restructure it, but “that would not have been feasible,” in the time they had. 

Sherborn selectmen George Pucci stopped by the meeting briefly and encouraged the district to form a committee that would examine the district’s matrix.