Saugus school board to meet on budget

SAUGUS – The School Committee will meet Thursday to take up what could be an exercise in futility – the budget.The school budget took a $1.3 million hit last year and it doesn’t look like much, if any, of that will be recouped this year.In addition, the town has yet to set a tax rate partly because the teachers’ contract has yet to be funded, forcing the town to borrow to remain operational.Superintendent Keith Manville said he expects the first draft of the budget to be a wish list with a recurring theme: “put it back, put it back, put it back.”Last year, Manville was forced to lay off 58 staffers and drop plans to purchase new textbooks and instructional supplies. He also shelved plans to update technology that, at the time, was two years out of date.The budget cut also resulted in an increase in athletic user fees and cut funding to all after school programs.Teachers giving an MCAS presentation last month gave Manville a preview of budget hearings to come when they slipped in a number of budget requests.Math Department Head Michael Hashem said he has been swapping out old books for new for a few years, but outdated books still make up about 50 percent of his textbooks.High School English teacher Jane Osgood and Science Department Head Frank Woods said they could use new books that were specifically aligned with the state frameworks.Belmonte Middle School Principal Charlie Naso has made the pains his school has felt due to budget cuts no secret. Many middle school classes are exceeding 30 students, books are outdated and classrooms stand empty because there are not enough teachers to fill them.Waybright Principal Glen McKay, speaking for all principals, also had a list of items the elementary schools need to increase their MCAS scores and he said the committee would surely be hearing more about it during budget deliberations.His list included restoring seven teaching positions and an elementary curriculum coordinator along with the reading teachers he lost last year.He would also like to see standardized testing restored, an MCAS coach hired and classroom sizes reduced at the Lynnhurst and Veterans School.On top of requests from the principals, the committee is also facing finding a replacement for the retiring Manville as well as Judy Masucci, director of pupil personnel.The committee will meet Thursday at the Roby School on Main Street at 6 p.m. to review the draft budgets and set a date for a public hearing on the final budget sometime in mid- to late-February.