School funding season officially kicked off today with an all-day meeting between school and town officials on the proposed 2012 budget.

In his opening remarks, Superintendent Dr. Barry Rabinovitch said Wareham’s main priority in constructing the budget for next year is closing an achievement gap local schools have been experiencing since 2005.

According to data presented by Rabinovitch, the town's students are falling 1%-3% below the state average in reading and language arts. In mathematics the chasm is larger, with Wareham falling 5%-10% behind other Massachusetts communities.

While the average scores in Wareham have been increasing over the last six years, they remain persistently below the also-rising average performance of the rest of the state.

Rabinovitch also presented information on how Wareham’s school spending stacks up against other Massachusetts communities. Wareham is spending about 13% less on average than most other towns and cities in the commonwealth, a difference that comes to about $2 million a year in school funding.

“Spending alone does not increase achievement,” Rabinovitch said, “but, when the gap in spending mirrors the gap in achievement, we can’t do the same things.”

He then spoke to some of the things Wareham is looking to do in the upcoming school year.  Some, such as extending math instruction through four years of high school and lab science to three, come as the result of new state regulations.  Others,  including a move to hire "interventionists" to act as a step between regular classroom instruction and full-blown special education programs, are moves to invest in early intervention and save money down the line.

Rabinovitch said his proposed budget reflects only those increases in spending that are “absolutely necessary” to cut the achievement gap.

However, even his limited proposed spending increases produce a budget request that is 8% higher than the district's 2011 budget: $28,651,681, up from $26, 523,752.

Some increases are the result of federal stimulus funds running out, others flow from a nearly 40% jump in costs for special education tuition and from rising salary costs under collective bargaining agreements.

While there are areas looking at cuts in the superintendent's preliminary budget —instruction assessment is slated for a nearly 20% cut, and the superintendent's budget is facing a 13% reduction — level service with limited expansion is projected to cost the town an additional $2,127,929 next fiscal year.

It is unlikely that the budget will be approved as currently written.

This month, the School Committee will work to refine the 2012 request.  There will be an official presentation to the committee on January 12, a public hearing on January 19, and a final School Committee vote on the budget on January 26.

After that, the budget still has to face Finance Committee scrutiny and a vote at the April Town Meeting.