Lincoln School Committee endorses preferred budget with $120,742 above guideline

LINCOLN -- December 4, 2014, Lincoln School Committee endorses $120,742 preferred budget ask and signals class-size review. The committee unanimously authorized Superintendent Becky McFall to present the Finance Committee on Dec. 10 with a preferred budget covering two phases of technology replacement, professional development restoration and library book funding to meet Association of Libraries standards. Administrator for Business and Finance Buck Creel closed the FY16 gap by shifting an additional $10,000 from the transportation revolving fund, restoring both peer-observation substitutes and B basketball coaching. Nick Cavino of McIntosh Lane presented a 115-signature letter asking the committee to fund a fourth-grade section for roughly $80,000 to avoid collapsing the cohort from four classes to three; members agreed to raise the question with FinCom while modeling fourth- and fifth-grade scenarios. Assistant Superintendent Patricia Kinsella's subgroup report showed two-thirds of African-American students at Hanscom and 45 percent at Lincoln scoring "warning" or "needs improvement" in math.