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Superintendent presents Cost Center 5 budget: curriculum priorities, staffing and technology needs
Summary
Superintendent Sue Doris and Technology Director Peter Robinson outlined Cost Center 5 spending priorities: curriculum and instruction, summer school shifting from ESSER to the operating budget, student-support staffing, grant-funded positions and a largely steady technology budget with specific infrastructure and licensing needs.
Dr. Sue Doris, superintendent of Auburn Public Schools, and Peter Robinson, the district’s technology director, presented Cost Center 5 on March 12, 2025, covering curriculum and instruction, student-and-staff support services and the technology budget.
Doris said Cost Center 5 was proposed at $4,319,556, a 2.6 percent increase from the prior year, and includes the curriculum office, summer school, gifted-and-talented programming, nursing and health services, guidance and social work, library staff and the technology department. She said district priorities include raising the percentage of students meeting state standards, maintaining a roughly 95 percent graduation rate and implementing core literacy and math programs aligned with the committee’s goals.
Doris described staffing and program details: three literacy coaches and two math coaches will continue in the curriculum office; summer school programming — previously covered with ESSER funds — must be placed in the operating budget for FY26; and the district is applying for Title I to support elementary summer programs (application due March 21). She listed positions in student support: eight nursing positions (six registered nurses, one licensed practical nurse, one health assistant), four gifted-and-talented teachers, 11 guidance counselors (with distribution by school), roughly 2.3 social-worker positions and district library staffing (one librarian at Edward Little and eight library EdTech-3s across schools).
Doris noted federal grant-funded positions tied to Title I, Title II and other ESEA funds and said federal allocations are not yet final; she cautioned that while staff reductions were not anticipated in FY26, the district needs to monitor future grant stability.
Peter Robinson reviewed the technology inventory and ongoing costs. He said the district maintains about 3,500 iPads assigned 1:1 from kindergarten through 12th grade, roughly 500 Macs for staff, and classroom projectors and network infrastructure across buildings. The district has migrated several services to cloud hosting but still maintains some local servers (including historical data for ProFund and a locally hosted PowerSchool instance). Robinson described a need to upgrade parts of the CCTV system and to maintain licensing and support contracts. He described repair and replacement costs (some devices remain under AppleCare, others are not) and recurring costs for software subscriptions and network support contracts.
Robinson described the technology staff by name and role: he is supported by a network administrator (David Strome), two district technicians (Nathaniel Proctor and Austin Busquet), a software support specialist (Stephanie Weber), building EdTech staff (Tana Ramik at Edward Little and Dylan Gelber at Auburn Middle School) and an administrative assistant shared with curriculum (Sarah Macfarlane). He described the student tech team, which provides tier-1 help at Edward Little and assists with a district call line.
Committee discussion touched on guidance staffing at Auburn Middle School, a request to consider an additional math coach, and the district’s decision to move summer school into the general fund. Doris and staff said they would return with cost estimates for questions raised during the presentation.
Doris asked the committee to note upcoming grant timelines and the potential for Title I funds to cover some summer programming; the Title I application is due March 21 and award decisions typically arrive by May.
