Watertown Public Schools audit finds soaring special education costs

Watertown Public Schools need to decrease turnover in it’s Special Education leadership, decrease out of district expenditures, and foster better communication between the superintendent and town manager, according third party review released earlier this week.

RSM consulting presented its third party review of the general and special education budgets to the Town Council and School Committee Monday. The review included 29 recommendations outlined for the next three years. As part of the process RSM reviewed the School Department’s FY 2014 and 2015 operational budgets, reviewed other general and special education documents, and conducted more than 50 interviews with stakeholders including department staff and leadership and elected officials.

Craig Finley, consulting manager for RSM, said that one thing RSM found during the process was a strong level of confidence through the department in the schools leadership.

“The biggest thing we found here was the strong support of the schools, and that’s important,” Finley said. “In discussions, right down to the faculty level, [the] belief and understanding in Dr. Fitzgerald’s ability to lead the schools came through over and over again.”

Finley also said that it was also apparent throughout RSM’s time in Watertown that there was collaboration between faculty and staff, and that the schools adequately provided information to the town.

“As we went through this evaluating process one of the areas that we focused on is looking at opportunities for the town and the school to collaborate further, and opportunities to allow for sharing of resources between both entities,” Finley said.

Finley said RSM found that Watertown School suffered from “organizational ambiguity” and that further collaboration and shared resources between the schools and town was necessary. RSM also highlighted the need for better consistency of the school business manager and administrator of special education positions.

“When you look back at Watertown’s progress, in both cases those positions have been moved in and out on far too rapid of a basis,” Finley said. “To retain key staff members, especially in those positions, are critical to the success going forward for Watertown.”

The study noted per-pupil costs at the schools were elevated to the way the school budgets for professional development.

“It’s falsely inflating per pupil costs by noting money that’s in already in the account,” Finley said.

Finley also noted that the town manager and superintendent didn’t meet as much as they would have expected.

“We’ve had good conversations on both sides,” Finley said. “They’re both [willing] to make sure that there’s continued ongoing conversation between both parties to make sure that there’s a mutual understanding and collaboration in making the schools a successful place for students to come and learn everyday.”

source:http://watertown.wickedlocal.com/article/20160325/NEWS/160327089