Schools cut 300K from FY2006 coffers
Published on March 16th, 2005
STONEHAM, MA - Reductions to the FY06 Stoneham School Department budget became official last week as the School Committee finally took the action it has been dreading for months.
Reacting to Town Administrator Ron Florino's directive to cut the school budget by $1.2 million, the School Committee voted in favor of several cuts, but did not come close to hitting Florino's number.
"Tonight we've cut the budget by a total of $303,691. Again, I want to emphasize we already cut the budget over $400,000 with our nonsalary cuts," School Committee Chairman Cheryl Walsh said of previous action to reduce the budget.
With those previous nonsalary cuts having already been made and supplies and staff at a bare bones level, the School Committee has been wrestling with this chore for weeks and has been looking to the Board of Selectmen and Finance Board for relief.
"We're trying to find $1.2 million in personnel cuts which just isn't there," School Superintendent Dr. Joseph Connelly. "I think we all agree that that expectation on the part of the Town Administrator is not doable, and we've tried to make that clear from the very beginning."
Even more hurtful cuts to the school system are still on the table, and if no guidance or cash winfalls come the schools' way within the next couple of weeks, they could very likely be enacted.
Those cuts include closing the Middle School, redistricting the elementary school population into three districts, squeezing 6th and 7th graders into the new Central School, building and ingratiating 8th graders into the high school plant and program.
"We hesitate moving forward with any of these other cuts because they're just too devastating to talk about," Walsh said. "We continue to work with the Selectmen, with the Town Administrator."
The School Committee has professed that it cannot make cuts totalling $1.2 million for FY06 since substantial cuts have already be made to the budget over the past two fiscal years. And the forecast for FY07, according to what the Finance Board has been telling the School Committee, is just as bleak with no substantial new revenue surfacing to smooth things over.
"I can't imagine if these things happen that Stoneham will be in a position in the next few years to give us back $2 million to restore these positions and reopen these schools," Connelly said. "If these things happen, I think (they're) gone for many, many years, if not forever."
With committee member Marc Grimaldi not in attendance, the committee voted 4-0 in favor of the budget adjustments and cuts which include:
*Elimination of three elementary school night janitors and one Middle School night janitor. This move realizes a savings of about $140,000, but is expected to result in hardship to various town and school organizations that utilize the school buildings at night. Without nighttime custodians, school buildings will close at 7 p.m. beginning in September 2005, and organizations, including the PTO's, will have to pay the custodial overtime charge for use of the buildings, at a rate of $75 for three hours. Cleanliness of school buildings is also expected to decline, and vandalism could very well be on the increase.
"These are large buildings. They are a $46 million investment in the community. You know that in a year or two, we will be criticized for not maintaining our schools," Connelly said.
*Raising school lunch cost from $2 to $2.75. The hefty increase will likely generate $150,000, according to Connelly, who said a drop in participation due to the larger fee has been factored in to that number. This additional revenue is expected to cover health insurance costs for 14 cafeteria workers.
In prior years, the School Committee has resisted raising this fee, Connelly said, and a 75 cent increase in one year would not normally be considered.
"But these are not normal times."
"Again, it's another fee passed on to the parents," Walsh said.
Assistant Superintendent Joseph Casey reminded the community that a free and reduced lunch program is in place in the Stoneham school system for families facing hardship and unable to afford school lunches. Applications for the program can be obtained through building principals' offices and all requests are confidential. Applications can be submitted at any time during the school year.
*The teacher salary account was reduced by about $33,000 when the School Committee approved eliminating a second elementary art teacher, a position previously cut then restored by Town Meeting last fall.
Coolidge Street resident Marisa Raczkowski said such dramatic reductions to art and music do have an effect on the overall education of students.
"Stoneham was producing a much more sophisticated child," she said of students who had access to the fine arts programs a couple of years ago.
*Elimination of a Robin Hood School class size aid saves over $9,000 in the budget.
*Adjustments to the health insurance line item were made as a result of laying off staff.
*Increases to the unemployment line item are realized with lay offs as well and the School Committee approved adjustments.
*A plan to renegotiate the school physician contract yielded good discussion with Dr. Marc Pifko who agreed to cut back his fee by $8,000. Pifko will continue to perform his duties for the school system with the exception of yearly student physicals for all students who have their own family doctor. Connelly said that Pifko agreed in principal with this action as well, since it is important for older children to develop relationships with their primary care physicians.
"It's to the kids' best interests. He recommended that very strongly," Connelly said, adding however, that "he'll gladly do any physicals needed," particularly if students do not have a family doctor.
*As agreed upon by the selectmen, field maintenance costs of $11,000 for school fields will be cut from the school budget and added to the DPW budget. That department will oversee that maintenance for FY06.
Raczkowski pleaded with the School Committee to take the idea of closing the Middle School building to reduce the budget gap off the table.
"I honestly don't believe that the 8th graders are ready to move into that high school system. We're pushing them to grow so much more quickly than I think that they mentally can develop."
"I'm hopeful that some of the things that are in process will put some money back into the budget...(but) I think it's pretty darn clear by the tenor of the meetings that we've been attending and the information that we've been provided so far that it's not going to come anywhere close to the $1.2 million that we're looking at."
Other cuts that could come to fruition if that $1.2 million reduction figure is mandated are cuts to the high school athletic program.
"I can't imagine Stoneham being the only high school in the state of Massachusetts, if not the entire country, that does not have athletics," Connelly said.
Tri-Board meetings with the Selectmen and Financy Board continue this week as the School Committee continues its search for budget relief. A public hearing on the school budget is expected within the next few weeks.
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