Sluggish economy puts schools at risk
Published on April 2nd, 2008
STONEHAM, MA - Stoneham High School again runs the risk of jeopardizing its accreditation if budget numbers don't soon improve. Teaching positions and athletics are once again in jeopardy
“We've been hearing almost daily from the state and federal government that the economy is worsening,” School Superintendent Les Olson said on Thursday. And with Stoneham continuing to lag behind many other communities in Massachusetts in terms of getting its fair share of state aid, the town remains on its own again this budget season to come up the appropriate amount of money needed to provide a quality education to all its students.
The latest school budget report on Thursday illustrated that a fiscal 2009 school budget that seeks to merely provide the level of service equivalent to the current year is still too expensive. Town Administrator David Ragucci, therefore, requested Olson to come up with two smaller budget figures, one that includes a trash fee for next year, and one that does not include such a fee.
Olson did so and summarized the numbers for the School Committee and public last Thursday as follows: without revenue from a trash fee next fiscal year, Stoneham schools will need to cut $1.5 million from the level service budget. This translates to another 11.6 teaching positions being cut on top of the teaching positions cut from each of the last several budget years. Five or six of these positions would come at the high school level, which impacts requirements for accreditation. In addition, 2 secretarial, 1.6 administrator and 1.5 perieducator positions will be eliminated, and once again, the high school athletic program will be on the chopping block.
“The impact of those staffing levels, I believe, would quite possibly result in probation or perhaps even loss of accreditation at the high school due to class sizes and loss of curricular offerings,” Olson said. “We're already on warning (status).”
If a trash fee is imposed, the cuts would be slightly less at $1 million, but another increase in athletic and extracurricular fees would be imposed, from $250 per sport to $300 per sport, with the family cap increasing from $1,000 to $1,2000.
“We are looking at 11.6 teachers and that is unthinkable after all the teachers we have lost in the past six years,” School Committee member Marie Christie said. “To eliminate another 11.6 is just outrageous.”
Christie also questioned the priority list of restorations should the town find additional money after the cuts are made.
“I don't think we should be thinking of restoring athletics while we're still cutting the necessary teachers at the high school and middle school...Our first responsibility is to teach the child.”
Committee member Shelley MacNeil agreed. “It's disgraceful to think that we could lose one more teacher given the number of cuts we've had to undergo over the past 5-10 years.”
Which positions to possibly cut is still being worked out. The School Committee's next meeting is scheduled for April 10 at which time a public hearing on the fiscal 2009 budget is planned.
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