Welcome to the Freetown-Lakeville School District home page.  Throughout the course of this year we have provided updates as to the status of our budget process.  As we now approach the annual town meetings our goal will be to garner the support for our budgets for fiscal year 2009.

            Hundreds of hours are spent preparing budgets that identify the needs of the schools.  We are a school district that has been so fortunate to have the support of the towns.  We also know the difficulties all of us are facing with rising fuel and food costs.  These same increases are also impacting the schools.  We do not want to decrease our staff to pay our fuel bill nor limit the services our children deserve because of rising electricity costs.  To demonstrate the difficulty of maintaining a level funded budget for the regional school system we have cut over $1,000,000 from the proposed budget. 

            The struggle to fund the towns appropriately is a serious matter.  Education, public safety and other town services will be affected.  It is time to reexamine the methods in which towns raise revenue and how the unfunded federal and state mandates place an increasing burden on budgets that are spiraling out of control.  As we face larger class sizes, fewer textbooks and delayed building maintenance town services will also suffer.  In simple terms it is not a school issue it is a town issue.  All of us will be asked to do more with less and how will that affect the quality of services we have all come to enjoy and expect?

            As the superintendent of schools it is my responsibility to advocate for the best possible education for the children.  Our budgets are transparent and can be reviewed at any time.  The decreases we will face next year are real and the delivery of services will be altered.  Now is not the time to finger point but instead to work together toward a common goal of continuing to strive for excellence.  Please take the time to review the school district’s strategic plan—we can not waiver from the mission.

                                                  Keep the FLAME burning!

Stephen J. Furtado
Superintendent of Schools