I wanted to thank all of the townspeople who attended Annual Town Meeting (ATM) and who supported those articles that will have a huge impact on the children of Marshfield. The school's operating budget received a 3.95% increase, which is the largest increase in over 10 years. This will allow us to maintain our programs and staffing levels4, while providing us with some room to address needs identified in our Financial Plan.
In addition, the schools received $500,000 from the Capital Budget. $350,000 of this total will go towards school safety enhancements. This will include more cameras around the seven schools, along with card swipe access at each building and an increase of hand held radios for schools to have better communication with each other.
Moreover, the Capital Budget provided $150,000 to go towards reaching objectives set forth in the district's newly approved Technology Plan. This money will allow our technology team to start deploying interactive projectors in our K-8 classrooms, along with the purchase of Chromebooks/Ipads at the elementary and middle school level. In addition, we will also start replacing some of our teacher's desktop computers.
In other votes pertaining to the schools, the ATM supported an article that provided $200,000 from free cash to help supplement the district's Compensated Absences Reserve Fund. In addition, the CPC's $125,000 proposal to help fund a new playground at the Governor Winslow School was also supported by ATM. Once built, this will be a tremendous resource for the entire town of Marshfield.
ATM is a tremendous process by which the town can come together to identify and address its needs and I again want to thank all who helped support the funding sought for our school district. We will put those resources to good use.
The Superintendent's Corner- News and information related to the Marshfield Public Schools Jeffrey W. Granatino, Superintendent
