Peabody schools may up bus fees

PEABODY – Superintendent Milton Burnett presented a variety of suggested cutbacks Tuesday night in order to appease Mayor Michael Bonfanti’s $750,000 budget reduction request. And, if one of them is approved, residents will see an increase in bus transportation fees.After much thought and careful consideration of the 523 line items, Burnett recommended removing almost $650,000 from his original budget proposal of $60.2 million. He decided against creating a position for a Guidance Director at the cost of guidance counselors ($73,984), discontinuing the Connect-Ed notification system ($23,000), doing without eight technology paraprofessionals ($44,272), and level funding technology contractual services ($80,000), in addition to cutting back on other increases.”I’m not asking for the world,” he told School Committee members. “We did everything we could to maintain level services.”When he reached the $634,000 benchmark, that’s where he said things got tricky. Rather than decreasing funding for certain programs that are already in place and limiting the addition of newer, beneficial programs, Burnett suggested raising the transportation bus fees from $100 to $125, with a $250 family cap. Doing so, he argued, would bring in $50,000 to offset the budget increases. He would gamble the other $50,000 with Special Education out-of-district tuition, a move he feels confident about.Committee member Ed Charest expressed disagreement with the increase of bus fees and urged both Bonfanti and Burnett to look at other ways of reaching their limit. He even suggested that the Mayor compromise with the School Committee by lowering his reduction request.”We’ve been more than generous and fair,” said Bonfanti, adding that he almost came back to the Committee and asked for even larger cuts, but decided not to because he gave them his word.Bonfanti reminded School Committee members that although Peabody does charge students fees, only two of them are requested by the city: athletic and transportation fees. And, even still, said Bonfanti, the cost of their fees compared to other cities is much lower.”We’re very, very light on fees,” he said. Bonfanti believes its better to increase them slightly, rather than miss out on crucial programs in education.Burnett put the matter into a different light. He said that in order to save the money that would be brought in through fee increases, three educational professionals would have to be cut from the payroll. Laying off teachers is not what Peabody wants to find themselves doing.”Take a look at Beverly,” said Bonfanti, adding that their school system recently cut 61 positions. Salem, he said, cut 48. “We’re trying to prevent that.”Although the Committee hasn’t been the biggest fans of charging students fees, they respected Burnett’s suggestion and decided to look into it further. Burnett is expected to come to their next meeting on Tuesday, April 29, with an update.