Acton-Boxborough Superintendent Recommends Teacher Cuts
January 12, 2010
After hundreds of hours of deliberation with staff, Superintendent Stephen Mills recently presented what he called a living, breathing thing: His recommendation for cuts in the proposed school budget, including multiple teacher layoffs.
At the joint Acton Public Schools and Acton-Boxborough Regional School Committee meeting Jan. 7, Mills detailed 16 faculty and staff members he expects to lay off, as well as hours he plans to reduce, for fiscal 2011 and presented impact statements for each decision. Citing rising health care costs and reduced state aid, cutting $1,281,777 from staff salaries and benefits is unavoidable, Mills said.
“It was clear to me that everyone across the board in the school system would be affected by these cuts, including the staff, the administration, the teachers, the students and their families,” Brigid Bieber, a regional School Committee member said in an e-mail after the meeting.
At the high school level, Mills recommended cu tting $81,076 from non-teaching positions and $468,477 from teaching positions. Among administrative support positions to be cut were a library assistant, detention coverage staff, English department leader support, with reductions in the hours of the studio manager, language lab assistant and after-school fitness center staff.
Teachers retiring from the high school that will be replaced with only part-time positions were a technology elective teacher, a math teacher and a social studies teacher. One retiring English teacher will not be replaced, eliminating five English class sections.
From the junior high school, Mills recommended eliminating half of a faculty team, including one teacher from each of four major departments, plus a Mandarin teacher and a quiet study teacher.
At the elementary level, the superintendent suggested replacing a retiring music teacher with an entry-level candidate and decreasing the hours of two tech specialists and various classroom assistants.
System-wide, the budget lists the elimination of a crossing guard, an information technology support position, and two curriculum specialists. The curriculum specialist positions will be a great loss, Mills said, impacting the collaboration and coordination of district-wide teaching framework and professional development.
“This, I ensure, will not be the final budget,” Mills said, anticipating ongoing discussion for the next several months. School Committee members planned a special budget meeting Saturday, Feb. 6 to go over the effect of each department’s cuts in detail.
He said the proposed cuts will have to happen unless the state offers more aid than the expected 10 percent decrease from last year. Until Gov. Deval Patrick delivers the House 1 draft budget at the end of January, nothing is certain.
“[The cuts] could ge t worse than that,” Mills said.
However, he said that the schools have no intention of suggesting a Proposition 2 1/2 override.
The outcome of the ongoing teacher contract negotiations could also affect the budget, Acton Public Schools Committee Chairman Xuan Kong said.
Members of the committee said they were not surprised by the magnitude of the proposed cuts, although they were cautious.
“I have four children at the region, so my family would feel the pain of these types of cuts personally,” Bieber said.
“There is only so much that can be done by nibbling around the edges,” committee member Jonathan Chinitz said.
Chinitz also requested input from residents.
“We need to hear from everyone what they think, what their priorities are, and for these people to offer constructive and creative suggestions as to how to solve this problem,” he said in an e-mail.
Summers retirement
In other news, Mills announced that Sharon Summers, the business manager for the school district, will retire in June 2010. Mills complimented Summers on her 10-year service as business manager to the schools, and said he hoped to empower the position even more going forward and encouraged the committee to begin the search for a replacement.