Tensions rising over funding for Saugus teacher contract

SAUGUS-On a scale of one to 10, Superintendent Keith Manville said he’s at about 13 in terms of concern over whether Town Meeting will fund the Saugus Educators Association (SEA) contract.The Finance Committee not only declined to take a vote on a Town Meeting article asking to transfer $330,000 to fund the contracts, but also suggested it might be best to take the issue up after the new year.”So my dilemma is there is no money in my budget to pay for this and even if I could, I have no one to lay off,” he said. “I’ve already laid off 29 teachers.”Manville said he went into contract negotiations with the Saugus Educators Association and made it clear he had no money in his budget for raises. But he said the School Department “received reasonable assurances” that the money needed to pay for the raises would come through savings from the Group Insurance Commission.The GIC is the state’s insurance plan, which the town joined in October. In order for the town to join, it needed 70 percent of its employees to agree to the plan. The teachers make up 54 percent of the town’s employees and Manville, along with School Committee members and nearly all town officials, agree that settling the SEA’s contract and getting them to agree to join the GIC were unquestionably linked.”It’s my understanding that that should not be a surprise to anyone,” said School Committee member Frederick Doucette.Manville said he was told that as long as he brought the contract in under $350,000 and the teachers agreed to the GIC, the contract would be funded.Now that is questionable.Finance Committee Robert Paleschi said he is not necessarily advocating against funding the raises, but he wants meeting members to understand the big picture.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani, who sat in on the negotiations, argues that everyone knew the big picture before the contract was settled.The fact that the Essex Street Fire Station and the Public Library would run out of money before the end of the fiscal year has been discussed since last spring’s annual Town Meeting, as have the shortages in Public Safety.Manville said his only concern is that he is inexorably responsible for the SEA contract, whether Town Meeting agrees to fund it or not.Palleschi said all Manville really has to do is find the money within his budget to cover the contracts now, then essentially repay that money later. Manville said that would be fine if he had an iron clad guarantee that the town would in fact repay the money after the six-month review.Even if he had the promise however, Manville stopped short of saying he wouldn’t trust it.Over the last two years Town Meeting promised to level fund the School Department’s contract to the tune of $135,000 and fund four teachers for modular classrooms at $160,000, neither of which ever materialized. In fact the department’s budget has been cut by roughly $1.3 million over the last year.”I’m very worried about this, but I’m kind of at a wait and see place,” Manville said.