Mt. Pleasant Schools Proposes Adding Staff Using No Fund Balance

Mount Pleasant School District voters will decide whether to approve a $74.5 million spending plan for 2023-24 that complies with the tax cap, adds 6.7 full-time equivalent staff members and uses no fund balance.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Peter Giarrizzo said he is feeling positive that his administration has addressed the needs of the district’s students while limiting increases to reasonable levels for taxpayers.

“We feel like we’ve done good work and made good gains in preserving program, building program strategically, but also we’re looking at the short-term finances of the district and keeping the levy at what we think is a reasonable amount,” Giarrizzo said. “When I look at what’s happening regionally, some of those numbers are quite a bit higher.”

For next year, the tax levy increase is at the allowable maximum of 1.92 percent, which translates to a 0.9 percent tax rate increase for the overwhelming portion of the district’s taxpayers that are Mount Pleasant residents. For someone in the town who lives in a $500,000 house, the school tax bill would increase by just over $78 next year.

However, adding to the program in key spots and refraining from using any fund balance for the first time in 11 years, places the district in a strong position, Giarrizzo noted.

Although the district received about a $3.5 million increase or close to 40 percent more, in state aid, it was nearly entirely eaten up by the 36.4 percent hike in transportation Giarrizzo said,

Despite all that, Giarrizzo said the district is bolstering programs to address needs, some of which were exacerbated by the pandemic. The primary-level literacy coach has been increased from .5 to a full-time position and will split time between Hawthorne and Columbus elementary schools.

At Westlake High School, each of the five core subjects will see a 0.2 bump up for students in the new Career Research Academy, a third academy that will be geared toward students who may be interested in pursuing a career in the trades. There is also an additional 0.2 coordinator for that program, which will be only for juniors and seniors.

“That will really engage those kids who are into the trades to have a place to really excel,” Giarrizzo said. “So their academic work is tied to their interests.”

Other increases at the high school will another 0.6 staff member for the increasingly popular American Sign Language course, which is offered as a third language choice along with Spanish and Italian.

An increase of two full-time equivalents at the middle school and 2.1 for special education, including an additional 0.6 psychologist, a Reading Wilson Level 2 instructor that can serve all grades and a 0.5 speech teacher at Hawthorne Elementary School.

With the additions there will be two psychologists at the high school, a social worker and a psychologist at the middle school, two psychologists at Hawthorne Elementary and a psychologist and guidance counselor at Columbus.

With additions of girls’ and boys’ junior varsity tennis and boys’ and boys’ modified basketball it could increase the number of students who play a sport.

“We’re looking to see how to get more kids in the program,” Giarrizzo said.

Next year the district will also fund a feasibility study that will evaluate its space needs, particularly in the at Hawthorne Elementary where if another section needed to be added, the district would need to find a way to carve out extra space.

The study will also look at other program enhancements, including whether it’s possible to add foreign language in the elementary schools.

And the community should get to see the first event on the new artificial turf field next month – the Westlake High School graduation – which pleases Giarrizzo.

“It’s going to happen on that field,” he said.

Voting on the budget will take place at the Westlake High School gym next Tuesday, May 16 from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.