Superintendent Gary Burton presented his recommended budget to the School Committee on Thursday and to the public on Monday at a public forum, his last budget before he retires at the end of the school year.

Highlights include the lack of cuts, the full-day kindergarten pilot program, increased special education funding, and the lack of available funds for certain new positions.

The proposed funding request for the 2012 fiscal year, which totals $30,950,515, is a 2.52% increase over last year’s. Unlike last year’s austere budget, which saw “a serious round of forced reductions,” in the words of Superintendent Burton on Thursday, the new budget does not recommend any forced layoffs. Last year’s budget was once described by the superintendent as a “skillful dismantling of the school district” and was reduced by 1.7% from the prior year, the first cut since the early 1980s.

According to Superintendent Burton, the FY12 budget reflects continued economic constraints and declining student enrollment. Burton estimates that student enrollment will be 30 students fewer next year, down to 2,652 students.

While the budget would not require layoffs or a Proposition 2½ override tax increase, it “does not contain everything that Wayland’s educators might like,” the superintendent wrote in his budget message.

Budget details

“On balance, the FY12 school year should function much like the current school year,” Superintendent Burton wrote in his budget message. The budget maintains current class-size levels and student-to-staff ratios and preserves all programs.

Special Education would receive increased funding. Such funding would be paid for with offsets from circuit breaker reimbursement and would be budget neutral.

The budget also proposes no new or increased student fees and will eliminate concert ticket fees, which were introduced this year without much success. At the same time, budget offsets – fees, reimbursements from the state, and grants – are expected to increase by over 50% because of the SPED circuit breaker and fees for the full-day kindergarten pilot.

Full-day kindergarten has been one of many forward-looking initiatives discussed in the school district in recent years. The administration also “continue[s] to look into Chinese language instruction,” another initiative. School Committee chairman Louis Jurist expects such instruction to be an option two or three years in the future.

The budget assumes the new high school will be occupied by January 2012 and estimates the operating cost, though the true cost will not be known for some time, according to Burton. Moving-in will begin in October, though instruction will not begin in the new school until January.

Additionally, the budget assumes the availability of 75 parking spaces next year, down several dozen from this year. Parking this year was already severely reduced from prior years, and carpooling has become mandatory.

Burton also expects the recent three-year Wayland Teachers Association contract settlement to help promote positive staff morale.

What’s not in the budget

Superintendent Burton also presented nearly $830,000 worth of positions that he is not recommending in his budget but that are “highly desired.”

Of those positions, he presented a list of $268,672 worth of positions that he believes should be added by the School Committee for its recommended budget. These positions include: One health and wellness coordinator, .5 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) Response to Intervention instructor, .5 FTE English language learner instructor, 2.0 FTE worth of elementary school math teachers and coaches, one middle school lunch supervisor, and .3 FTE speech therapist.

Superintendent prepares for retirement

Superintendent Burton plans to retire at the end of the school year. In his budget message, he stated that, “it has been my pleasure to work in this community and advocate for Wayland’s children,” and noted the similarities between his first budget message 17 years ago and his final one.

“While it is undeniable that public schooling has changed over this time span, the expectations of Wayland residents that their children receive a superior education has not,” Burton wrote.