At last night’s School Committee meeting Superintendent Gormley, Assistant Superintendent Phelan, and Business Administrator Matt Gilles reviewed the the $1.5 million in cuts that would be made in services and school personnel for FY12 if a level service budget is necessary.
They were asked by the Warrant Committee to prepare both a level service and level funded budgets. A level service budget, one that would bring forward into next year all services currently offered this year would cost $34,957,391, an increase of $1,565,355 in FY12 from Fy11. A level funded budget keeps the budget at $34,496,433. If the schools need to live within that budget then there will be cuts totaling the $1.5 difference.
As outlined by the administration about half the amount, $782,000, would be in non-salary reductions. These primarily include savings from solar panel installations ($150K), texts, materials and supplies ($200K), and estimates of jobs carry-over ($200K) and retirements ($100K). In addition their are custodial and administrative staff reorgs, and increased fees and chargebacks.
The more problematic and difficult cuts regarded personnel. These cuts which total $777,889, would reduce the satff by 11.2 full time equivalent employess (FTEs). The Pierce would lose two teachers, one Math the other to be determined, the high school would lose a Spanish teacher and Science teacher, and the elementary schools would lose two shared reading teachers, one French and one English. Collicot / Cunningham would lose a Gr 5 teacher and 1.3 pre-school aides would be cut. Business Admin would also lose a position. The balance would be partial head counts (e.g. .2 Pierce latin teacher). Particular concern was voiced by school committee members of the loss of the high school science teacher as this would limit number of science courses a student could take. Students hopeing to major in a science in college will often take 4 science courses as colleges requrie that. That opportunity would be limited with this cut.
Gormley also characterized the loss of the two elementary reading teachers as “a big hit.” she also noted that going into this there were certain non-negotiables. No cuts were made that would risk NEASC accredidation. There were also positions that the administration protected due to state requirements. Regarding Special Education for example, Gormley said, “We cannot make cuts and meet our obligations.”
The administration and committee were in agreement on two points: these were very difficult decisions, and this is a draft budget. The Warrant Committee is taking a very conservative position absent hard numbers to work with. Glenn Pavlicek who once served as chairman of the Warrant Committee noted, “This is a fairly terrible list. . . but until the numbers come out, everybody is guessing.” He was referring to the final state budget numbers which are not going to be available until late December / early January.